Background: A growing body of investigations demonstrated the essence role of zinc on growing and maintaining bone tissue. The idea that zinc could enhance bone content and adjourn or prevent osteoporosis in men, has been experimented as a hypothesis.
Methods: Six hundred healthy men (age 20-69 yr) through Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS) which is a national project running in 5 provinces in Iran for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis was selected via a cluster random sampling and enrolled the study. Bone Mineral Density was measured by biphotonic absorptimetry DEXA for hip and lumbar spine. Zinc morning serum concentration was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. SPSS 11.5 was used for data analysis. Body Mass Index (BMI) has been calculated by Weight (kg)/Height (meter)² for each person.
Results: The mean age was 40.83±15.06 yr .Mean BMI was 24.79±3.94 kg/m2, overlay 27.3% were smoking, 12.5% had regular physical activities three times a week and 12.2% had a history of renal stone. Among them 30.1% had zinc depletion, 56.8% normal range and 13.1% had serum zinc excess. 57.1% of individuals over 40 yr with hip osteoporosis were zinc deficient whereas 22.1% of them with normal BMD had this deficiency (P<0.001).
Conclusion: It is concluded that zinc has a positive association with BMD in men over 40 yr and zinc deficiency is more common in osteoporotic individuals.