In the agIng population, osteoporosis is an important public health problem worldwide due to its high morbidity and mortality. Also, metabolic syndrome (MS) is another very common medical problem of epidemic importance, and the number of patients with MS is rapidly increasing in industrialized countries.There have been many studies about the relationship between MS and bone metabolism, but their results are inconsistent. A population-based US study has shown that bone mineral density (BMD) of the femoral neck Association between bone mineral density and metabolic syndrome in pre-and postmenopausal women We measured BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck. MS was defined according to the American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) criteria. The prevalence of MS was 5.5% in the premenopausal group and 13.5% in the postmenopausal group. In the postmenopausal group, C-reactive protein (CRP) was significantly higher in subjects with MS than those without MS, but it was not in the premenopausal group. In the postmenopausal group, women with MS had a lower BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck before or after adjustment. In the premenopausal group, women with MS had a lower BMD at the lumbar spine, but not at the femoral neck. In stepwise linear regression analysis, predictive variables for BMD of the lumbar spine were systolic blood pressure in the premenopausal group and HDL-cholesterol and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in the postmenopausal group. The predictive variables for BMD of the femoral neck were DBP and waist circumference in the premenopausal group and CRP and DBP in the postmenopausal group. Inflammation might have a more important role in BMD than obesity in the postmenopausal women.Key words: Bone mineral density, Metabolic syndrome, Menopause increases with increasing components of MS [1]. On the other hand, men with MS had a lower BMD after adjustment for body mass index (BMI) in the Rancho Bernardo Study [2] and women with MS also have a lower BMD in a recent study [3]. A prospective study has also demonstrated that men with MS had a lower BMD at the hip, whole body and distal forearm [4]. MS is characterized by abdominal obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension and dyslipidemia [5]. MS is a cluster of conditions with detrimental effects on cardiovascular health and has a strong association with low grade inflammation [6]. Obesity or high BMI is known to be a protecting factor against excessive bone loss in aging [7][8][9][10]. However, inflammation is more severe in subjects with high insulin resistance than in those with low insulin resistance [11,12], even-

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Pumpkin seed oil (PSO) has been shown to block the action of 5-alpha reductase and to have antiandrogenic effects on rats. This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was designed to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of PSO for treatment of hair growth in male patients with mild to moderate androgenetic alopecia (AGA). 76 male patients with AGA received 400 mg of PSO per day or a placebo for 24 weeks. Change over time in scalp hair growth was evaluated by four outcomes: assessment of standardized clinical photographs by a blinded investigator; patient self-assessment scores; scalp hair thickness; and scalp hair counts. Reports of adverse events were collected throughout the study. After 24 weeks of treatment, self-rated improvement score and self-rated satisfaction scores in the PSO-treated group were higher than in the placebo group (P = 0.013, 0.003). The PSO-treated group had more hair after treatment than at baseline, compared to the placebo group (P < 0.001). Mean hair count increases of 40% were observed in PSO-treated men at 24 weeks, whereas increases of 10% were observed in placebo-treated men (P < 0.001). Adverse effects were not different in the two groups.

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Previous studies have reported that uterine leiomyoma (UL) may share pathogenic features with obesity and hypertension, which are components of metabolic syndrome (MetS). We examined the association between UL and MetS in premenopausal parous women.This 1:1 case–control study was conducted on 615 asymptomatic women with UL and 615 women without UL that were matched for age, reproductive history, and hormonal use, who underwent a comprehensive health examination. UL was diagnosed by a gynecologist based on transvaginal ultrasonography findings. Blood pressure (BP), body composition, fasting plasma glucose, lipid profiles, insulin, and HOMA-IR were checked.Median age of the 1230 study subjects was 44 (40–47) years and 7% had MetS. Women with UL had significantly higher waist circumferences and body fat, BP, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) than women without UL. Although nonsignificant, the prevalence of MetS was higher in the UL group than in the non-UL group (9.3% vs 5.7%). In addition, the prevalence of UL increased as the number of abnormal metabolic components increased and was higher than in women without UL. Conditional logistic regression analysis, after adjustment for confounding factors, showed that hyperglycemia was significantly associated with an increased risk of UL (odds ratio = 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.89).Prevalence of abnormal metabolic component was higher in premenopausal women with UL than in normal controls, regardless of age or reproductive history. Furthermore, the study suggests that UL may share pathogenic features with the components of MetS and that women with UL be considered eligible for the early screening of metabolic abnormalities.