Study: KoACT Trumps Calcium, Vitamin D for Bone Strength

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif.—In a new randomized controlled trial (RCT) of post-menopausal women, a proprietary blend of collagen and calcium (KoACT®) was more effective than calcium and vitamin D in slowing down the leaching of calcium from bones and rebuilding new bone strength. (The Journal of Medicinal Food. Oct. 2014; online.)

Bahram H. Arjmandi, Ph.D., RDN, Margaret A. Sitton-named professor and chair of the department of nutrition, food and exercise sciences at Florida State University, conducted the research. Arjmandi is an internationally recognized expert in bone health and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and abstracts.

“This study is the first long-term clinical trial that directly compares the effects of calcium collagen-chelated product, KoACT, to that of calcium and vitamin D on postmenopausal women," he said. “We conclude that supplementation with KoACT may provide protection against bone loss and increased bone turnover for which supplementation of calcium and vitamin D alone could not achieve. Based on our three-month study findings presented last April at Experimental Biology 2014 and those of our recent twelve-month study, it can be suggested that KoACT improves bone health in terms of density and biomarkers of bone turnover."

“We know that a large percentage of post-menopausal women are not taking a nutritional supplement for bone health," said Jennifer Gu, AIDP’s vice president of research and development. “Those who do normally buy some form of calcium product. Our double-blind, placebo controlled clinical studies on KoACT demonstrate that calcium alone or calcium with Vitamin D is not the right answer anymore. Women need to stay up-to-date on the research in order to receive optimal bone health by taking the best product."

Thirty-nine women were randomly assigned to one of two groups: those taking 5 g of CC containing 500 mg of elemental calcium and 200 IU vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) or control (500 mg of calcium and 200 IU vitamin D) daily for twelve months. Total body, lumbar, and hip BMD were evaluated at baseline, six and twelve months using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Blood was collected at baseline, six and twelve months to assess levels of blood biomarkers of bone turnover. Intent-to-treat analysis was performed using repeated measures analysis of variance pairwise comparisons as well as multivariate analysis to assess time and group interactions.

The loss of whole body BMD in women taking CC was substantially lower than that of the control group at twelve months (CC: -1.23 percent vs. control: -3.75 percent; P =.044). The CC group had significantly reduced levels of sclerostin and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP5b) (P <.05), and higher bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP)/TRAP5b ratio (P <.05) than control at six months.

According previous research published in the Journal of Food and Nutritional Disorders, KoAct may reverse bone loss in osteopenic postmenopausal women.