Estrogen not an indicator of osteoporosis [study]

I cannot find an English-language link to this so here is my
summary/translation based on the Norwegian article at forskning.no
(<http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2007/juni/1181562821.79>):

For her doctoral thesis, Åshild Bjørnerem, at Tromsø University, studied
the connection between osteoporosis and level of estrogen. She found
that measuring estrogen levels cannot be used to identify men and women
with an increased risk of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a worldwide problem, and extremely high in Norway, for
reasons unknown. Bjørnerem studied the estrogen levels of women and men
living in Tromsø, noting age, weight, lifestyle, diseases and seasonal
changes. She also looked at estrogen's effect on bone density and risk
of fracture.

The data is based on measurements of sex hormones and bone density done
on a population of 3500 in 1994-95, and then bone density was measured
again in 2001. Any fractures among the 3500 between 1994 and 2005 were
also noted.

Sex hormones, especially estrogen, are important in bone formation and
regeneration, but just how much hormone is necessary is still unknown,
Bjørnerem said. She showed that estrogen levels in men don't sink with
age, but actually increase slowly, and that estrogen levels vary with
the seasons for both genders, and are highest in the spring.

Bjørnerem found that estrogen levels simply cannot predict the risk of
osteoporosis and fractures. She did find a weak connection between
estrogen and bone loss in both genders. She also found a similar
connection between the transport protein for sex hormones, SHBG (sex
hormone binding globulin), and bone loss in both genders.

Bjørnerem says the researchers found no connection between estrogen and
the risk of fracture, but did find one between SHBG and the risk of
fracture for both men and women.

However, closer analyses of the importance of SHBG in fracture risk
showed it was small.

Bjørnerem says that their conclusion was that measuring estrogen or SHBG
could not be used to identify women or men with an increased risk for
fracture.

--
Keera in Norway * Think big. Shrink to fit.
http://home.online.no/~kafox/