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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 Aug;72(8):2471-2482.
doi: 10.1111/jgs.19007. Epub 2024 May 31.

Effects of walnut consumption for 2 years on older adults' bone health in the Walnuts and Healthy Aging (WAHA) trial

Carla Oliver-Pons  1   2 , Aleix Sala-Vila  3   4 , Montserrat Cofán  1   2 , Mercè Serra-Mir  1   2 , Irene Roth  1   2 , Cinta Valls-Pedret  1   2 , Mònica Domènech  1   2 , Emilio Ortega  1   2   4 , Sujatha Rajaram  5 , Joan Sabaté  5 , Emilio Ros  1   2   4 , Gemma Chiva-Blanch  1   2   4   6
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effects of walnut consumption for 2 years on older adults' bone health in the Walnuts and Healthy Aging (WAHA) trial

Carla Oliver-Pons et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Nutritional strategies to maintain bone health in aging individuals are of great interest. Given the beneficial nutrient composition of walnuts, rich in alpha-linolenic (the vegetable n-3 fatty acid) and polyphenols, their regular consumption might be a dietary option to reduce age-related bone loss. We determined whether daily walnut consumption improves bone mineral density (BMD) and circulating biomarkers of bone turnover.

Methods: The Walnuts and Healthy Aging study (WAHA) is a two-center, parallel, randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of a diet enriched with walnuts at ≈15% energy compared with a control diet for 2 years on age-related health outcomes in healthy men and women aged 63-79 years. Changes in BMD were a prespecified secondary outcome only at the Barcelona node of the trial, where 352 participants were randomized. Retention rate was 92.6%. Primary endpoints were 2-year changes in BMD at the spine and the nondominant femoral neck, determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Secondary endpoints were 2-year changes in bone turnover biomarkers (adrenocorticotropic hormone, Dickkopf WNT signaling pathway inhibitor-1, osteoprotegerin, osteocalcin, osteopontin, sclerostin, parathyroid hormone, and fibroblast growth factor-23), which were quantified in 211 randomly selected participants.

Results: The walnut diet versus the control diet had no effect on 2-year changes in BMD at the spine (0.15% vs. 0.35%, p = 0.632) and femoral neck (-0.90% vs. -0.70%, p = 0.653), or on bone turnover biomarkers. Results were similar in participants treated or not with bone resorption inhibitors or those with or without osteoporosis/osteopenia at inclusion.

Conclusions: Compared with the usual diet, a diet enriched with walnuts at 15% of energy for 2 years failed to improve BMD or circulating markers of bone metabolism in healthy older people.

Keywords: bone mineral density and turnover biomarkers; nutrition; randomized controlled trial; walnuts.

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References

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