Does Superior Bone Health Promote a Longer Lifespan?

Abstract

Introduction Public health achievements throughout the last century have resulted in a steady increase in life expectancy. An emergent subset has distinguished themselves, living well beyond the ninth decade by avoiding or delaying the onset of most age-related diseases, including bone diseases and fractures. In this study, we evaluated the bone health of the oldest community-dwelling individuals living in rural Arkansas. Methods 299 patients aged ≥90 years were retrospectively reviewed for recorded fractures within 12 years prior to the investigation period. Records were also examined for medications and test results pertinent to bone health, including thyroid stimulating hormone, vitamin D levels, hematocrit, hemoglobin, body mass index, and bone densitometric values. Results 68 patients (23%) had at least one fracture documented, and 15 had >1 fracture. 40% of patients with fractures had osteoporosis and 28% had osteopenia, respectively. 232 patients (78%) had no documented fractures, and of these, only 18% had osteoporosis and 16% had osteopenia. No significant clinical markers were found among the very old to explain the relatively low occurrence of fractures. Conclusions Patients over 90 years of age had an overall low prevalence of fractures and relative preservation of bone health, suggesting a preserved bone molecular profile in these individuals. Epigenetic factors and activity levels might also have favorably affected bone health. The low percentage of osteoporosis and fractures likely reduced the morbidity and mortality in this population, potentially contributing to their overall longevity.

Bone/Muscle Interaction as a Good Biomarker for Lifespan and Quality

“…Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 1 Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University "Fehmi Agani" in Gjakova, Kosovo 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, Alma Mater Europaea Campus College "Rezonanca", Prishtina, Kosovo…”

“…We have read with the outmost interest the recent publication by Dayer SR et al 1 entitled "Does Superior Bone Health Promote a Longer Lifespan?" which paves the path of a direct implication of bone health on longevity.…”

“…We have read with the outmost interest the recent publication by Dayer SR et al 1 entitled “Does Superior Bone Health Promote a Longer Lifespan?” which paves the path of a direct implication of bone health on longevity. This paper was then followed by an intriguing letter to the Editor by Nguyen VH 2 entitled “Superior Bone Health for Promoting Longer and Better Lives” which invoked for a wider understanding of such situation, requiring for life quality to be added to the mixture as another positive influence of superior bone health.…”

Superior Bone Health for Promoting Longer and Better Lives

“…Therefore, in addition to Dayer et al’s 1 findings on superior bone health and its impact on living longer lives, research is needed to further investigate superior bone health and its impact on living better lives. As we know that osteoporosis and fractures cause increased morbidity and mortality to reduce the quantity of life, more research should explore their effects on the quality of life.…”

“…The article: “Does Superior Bone Health Promote a Longer Lifespan?” by Dayer et al 1 led to the findings that a lower percentage of osteoporosis and fractures likely reduced morbidity and mortality in patients 90 years old and older, concluding that superior bone health results in living longer lifespans. Nonagenarians have far outlived the average lifespan by over a decade.…”