Bone Abstracts

Nutrition is a major modifiable factor that affects bone health. Dietary potassium may act as an alkaline source by neutralizing the acid load and reducing calcium loss from bone.

We aimed to evaluate the association between dietary potassium intake and bone mineral density (BMD) in the Korean population. We analyzed data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) A total of 3135 men aged >50 years and 4052 postmenopausal women were included. Lumbar spine, total hip, and femur neck BMD were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The daily food intake was assessed using a 24-h dietary recall.

When we divide the subjects into tertiles based on the intake of potassium intake, the higher potassium intake group in men had significantly higher BMD at the total hip (0.891±0.013, 0.907±0.013, 0.908±0.014 g/cm², P=0.004) and femur neck (0.720±0.013, 0.735±0.013, 0.741±0.013 g/cm², P=0.001), as compared to the other groups. Postmenopausal women in the higher potassium intake tertile group had significantly higher femur neck BMD as compared to those in the lower tertile groups (0.615±0.003, 0.619±0.002, 0.627±0.003 g/cm², P=0.034). In subgroup analysis according to dietary calcium intake, an association between dietary potassium intake and BMD was observed only in cases with low dietary calcium intake (<800 mg/day).

Dietary potassium intake was positively associated with BMD in men aged >50 years and postmenopausal women, indicating the beneficial effects of dietary potassium intake on bone health, particularly among those with low dietary calcium intake.