title: Zinc status of women with low bone mineral density who receive calcium supplements.
abstract: We evaluated whether a daily high-dose calcium supplement perturbs the zinc status in 23 postmenopausal women (mean age: 63 yr) with low bone mineral density. Plasma and erythrocyte zinc concentrations, plasma bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP) and 5'-nucleotidase activities, and urinary zinc and calcium excretion were determined first at the end of 4 wk of daily oral calcium (1200 mg) and were measured again at the end of the subsequent 4 wk of daily cosupplementation with calcium (1200 mg) and zinc (30 mg). Mean plasma and erythrocyte zinc concentrations after 4 wk of calcium alone were not significantly different from concentrations after cosupplementation of calcium and zinc. Mean plasma BSAP activities before cosupplementation with zinc was significantly higher than that after zinc (p < 0.02), whereas plasma 5'-nucleotidase activities were not affected by zinc supplementation. Urinary zinc excretion slightly, but significantly, increased after the supplementation of zinc (p < 0.05), whereas calcium excretion remained similar. Our data indicate that a 4-wk zinc supplementation did not significantly improve zinc status. Although limited by the small sample size and short study duration, our data suggest that a daily calcium dose of 1200 mg had no effect on the zinc status of our subjects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Debbie C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Strong
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kitchin
authors.forename: Kelley E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Disilvestro
authors.forename: Tsunenobu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamura
mesh_terms: D015720:5'-Nucleotidase / Q000097:blood; D000368:Aged; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000097:blood; D015519:Bone Density; D002118:Calcium / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D015032:Zinc / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine
chemical_list: D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase; D015720:5'-Nucleotidase; D015032:Zinc; D002118:Calcium