Blackcurrant, a tart berry rich in anthocyanins and other nutrients, may be helpful in preventing bone loss in peri- and early post-menopausal women, according to a small clinical study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
 
Age-related bone loss is especially concerning for post-menopausal women, who tend to experience greater losses in bone density than men in their age group.
 
To see if prior animal studies, which showed that blackcurrant supplements ameliorated animal models of postmenopausal bone loss, the authors of the study wanted to see if results would translate to a human population. The team recruited 40 peri- and post-menopausal women between the ages of 45 and 60 who were administered either a placebo, or one or two capsules of blackcurrant per day for six months. Each capsule contained 392 mg of blackcurrant powder.
 
The researchers found that supplementation significantly prevented the loss of whole-body bone mineral density compared to placebo, with the group that took two capsules daily actually seeing increases in density after six months.
 
Gut and immune factors related to bone mineral density appeared to interact with blackcurrant supplementation. Supplements decreased levels of the proteins IL-1B and RANKL, which are associated with bone loss. The supplements also increased abundance of a bacteria in the gut microbiome called Ruminococcus 2, which may be involved in the beneficial mechanism of action.
 
“Altogether, the findings of this study suggest that six-month [blackcurrant treatment] might mitigate the risk of [postmenopausal osteoporosis] in peri- and early postmenopausal women through suppression of key osteoclastogenic cytokines and, potentially, through enhancing the gut microbial balance,” the authors concluded. “In the current study, we demonstrated that the bone-protective benefits of blackcurrant were mediated via suppression of osteoclastogenic cytokines, especially RANKL.”