Beta blockers, one of the most commonly used types of cardiovascular drugs, taken by about 20 per cent of the population, have been found to cut a person's incidence of bone fracture by half. This new and welcome side effect was reported by Professor Tuan Nguyen from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and his Australian-based colleagues. “Indeed, we found that men and women who used beta-blockers had a 50 per cent lower risk of fracture than those not using beta blockers… We were very excited about the finding because, as you know, a lot of elderly people use beta blockers ... it’s a very significant public health issue,” he said.
For the study Prof Nguyen, along with PhD student Shuman Yang, analyzed data from the long-running Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology study which took in about 3,488 Australian older men and women (2203 women and 1285 men) and tracked their health for two decades. The results showed that people taking beta-blockers had a much reduced incidence of bone fracture, and the protective side-effect was found to be “comparable with the anti-osteoporosis medication”. The study appeared in the journal Bone.
Prof Nguyen revealed that this study was based upon the findings of a major study of Columbia University in the US a few years ago, which found mice treated with beta-blockers had increased bone mass. The reason for the connection he said is still unclear.
Prof Nguyen said, “Beta-blocker use was associated with increased bone density and beta-blocker users have a lower fracture risk ... (but how) this is the million dollar question…We think that the likely mechanism is mediated through the sympathetic nervous system (which controls the major organs and body’s stress mechanism).” This finding according to him may open new avenues in the treatment of degenerative skeletal conditions he said.
He added, “We estimate that in Australia, North America, Europe and Japan, where rising levels of obesity and high blood pressure have been treated with beta-blockers, (community-wide) fracture risk may have been reduced by as much as 29 per cent…I’ve spoken to cardiologists and they say they are starting to move away from beta blockers a little bit for newer medications…It is still a mainstay treatment, but if the cardiology field is moving away from beta-blockers we may pay the price in an increase in the fracture incidence in the general population.” This study may reinstate beta blockers he feels.
Melbourne University’s Professor Peter Ebeling, the medical director of Osteoporosis Australia added, “What we don't know is if giving people beta blockers will actually reduce their fractures in sort of a randomised control trial situation.” However he maintained, “….evidence that could be taken away from this association, in that if people are using less beta blockers there could be an increase in fractures. That’s certainly a possibility.”
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