Magnesium-infused water may prevent hip fractures

Drinking magnesium-infused water may help to prevent hip fractures, according to a recent study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Magnesium and calcium are thought to be involved in the development of bone strength, prompting researchers to study different levels of magnesium and calcium in drinking water between different areas and compare this information with the corresponding incidence of hip fracture.

The research team made a list of hip fracture incidents and mapped out the various water utility companies in Norway. This way, they could see which water companies supplied which regions. The data came from three separate sources: the Trace Metals Project that investigated drinking water, the National Population Register with inhabitants in Norway from 1994 to 2000, and Norway's register of hip fractures.

Over the course of seven years, researchers followed about 700,000 men and women and registered about 5,500 and 13,600 hip fractures among men and women, respectively.

The results show that magnesium protects against hip fracture for both men and women, while calcium by itself showed no signs of prevention.

This relationship has never before been studied, and the results may be limited by such a specific component, the study's authors noted.

"The protective effect of magnesium was unsurprising but the correlation between calcium and magnesium in water and hip fracture was complex and somewhat unexpected," said Cecilie Dahl, a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in a statement. "Therefore more research is needed to get a more reliable result of the relationship between drinking water and hip fractures and to get a better picture of the biological mechanism in the body."

Hip fractures are a major public health problem, especially in Norway, where about 9,000 people annually experience a fracture. There are many risk factors too, such as smoking, height and weight, physical activity and diet, including vitamin D intake.