Doctors launch study to discover effects of alcohol on osteoporosis
FIFTEEN hundred identical twins will help doctors in London set up a unique study to discover the effects of alcohol on the bone-thinning disease of osteoporosis in women.
The team at St Thomas's Hospital believes the study will provide information on the hazards of alcohol, which will be of major public health importance in the prevention of osteoporosis.
More than three million people in the UK suffer from the disease, and 40 people die each day as a result of osteoporosis-related fractures.
The study has been made possible by a grant of £65,715 from the medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign.
The study will use 1,500 identical twins from around the country to establish the effects of moderate drinking on bone density and turnover in women.
It has already been established that excessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of osteoporosis in men. However, the effect of moderate drinking is unclear, and may actually be beneficial, as is the case with heart disease.
"What we want to do with this current study is to determine the effect of moderate drinking on bone strength and quality, using healthy identical twins, where one is a drinker and the other a non-drinker," explained Dr Tim Spector, consultant rheumatologist at St Thomas's Twins Research Unit. "Using twins is a novel way of exploring the effects of drinking that avoids confusion from other social and lifestyle effects."
From collating the results of a questionnaire to be completed by all 1,500 women, the team will uncover the most useful twins who have different drinking patterns. In the second stage of the study, the selected twins will be tested in detail for bone density at St Thomas's.
"The study will give us a clear idea of the effect of the good and bad effects of alcohol on bone density before and after the menopause, which will provide information on the safety and hazards of alcohol and help in the prevention of osteoporosis," added Dr Spector.
To help with this and other projects, the Twins Research Unit at St Thomas's is calling for more adult twin volunteers (identical or non-identical) on their phone hotline on 0990 770099.
