Reply to CM Ross

Northern Ireland Center for Food and Health
University of Ulster
Coleraine
United Kingdom
E-mail: c.mcgartland{at}qub.ac.uk

Liam J Murray and Gordon W Cran

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
Queen's University
Belfast
United Kingdom

J Maurice Savage and David C Watkins

Department of Child Health
Queen's University
Belfast
United Kingdom

Madeleine M Rooney

Rheumatology Department
Musgrave Park Hospital
Belfast
United Kingdom

Colin A Boreham

School of Applied Medical Sciences and Sports Studies
University of Ulster
Jordanstown
United Kingdom

Dear Sir:

In her response to our article "Fruit and vegetable consumption and bone mineral density: the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project," Ross raises an interesting issue for discussion. We agree that the flavonoid quercetin may inhibit osteoclasts and enhance bone mineral density.

Phytoestrogens comprise a variety of structurally diverse chemicals, with flavonoids as their largest group (1). In our discussion, we stated that phytoestrogens have been identified as being potentially important for bone health (2). Because we did not measure quercetin concentrations in our subjects, we did not specifically mention quercetin in our discussion. We thank Ross for her interest in our article and for highlighting the potential role of quercetin in bone health.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors had no conflicts of interest to report.

REFERENCES

1. Vaya J, Tamir S. The relation between the chemical structure of flavonoids and their estrogen-like activities. Curr Med Chem 2004;11:1333–43.
2. Tobe H, Muraki Y, Kitamura K, et al. Bone resorption inhibitors from hop extract. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 1997;61:158–9.