Links among Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, and Osteoporosis: Bone as a Target.

Obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and osteoporosis are serious diseases with an ever-increasing incidence that quite often coexist, especially in the elderly. Individuals with obesity and T2DM have impaired bone quality and an elevated risk of fragility fractures, despite higher and/or unchanged bone mineral density (BMD). The effect of obesity on fracture risk is site-specific, with reduced risk for several fractures (e.g., hip, pelvis, and wrist) and increased risk for others (e.g., humerus, ankle, upper leg, elbow, vertebrae, and rib). Patients with T2DM have a greater risk of hip, upper leg, foot, humerus, and total fractures. A chronic pro-inflammatory state, increased risk of falls, secondary complications, and pharmacotherapy can contribute to the pathophysiology of aforementioned fractures. Bisphosphonates and denosumab significantly reduced the risk of vertebral fractures in patients with both obesity and T2DM. Teriparatide significantly lowered non-vertebral fracture risk in T2DM subjects. It is important to recognize elevated fracture risk and osteoporosis in obese and T2DM patients, as they are currently considered low risk and tend to be underdiagnosed and undertreated. The implementation of better diagnostic tools, including trabecular bone score, lumbar spine BMD/body mass index (BMI) ratio, and microRNAs to predict bone fragility, could improve fracture prevention in this patient group.

Large pyroelectric energy conversion in lead scandium tantalate thin films.

Non-linear pyroelectric energy harvesting using ferroelectric thin films exhibits high energy conversion, primarily due to their large breakdown field compared to bulks. Here, we report the pyroelectric energy conversion potential of lead scandium tantalate, Pb(Sc1/2Ta1/2)O3 (PST) thin film fabricated on a c-sapphire substrate using chemical solution deposition. To enable the application of high electric field and to assess the pyroelectric energy conversion performance, interdigitated electrodes were deposited on the PST thin film. A maximum harvested energy density of 9.1 J cm-3 per cycle was deduced from polarization measurements in films undergoing an Olsen cycle between 0 °C and 150 °C when the electric field was varied between 50 and 1500 kV/cm. Furthermore, PST thin films can reach up to 27 % of Carnot efficiency for a temperature interval of 10 K between 30 °C and 40 °C. This study highlights the significance of PST thin films for electro-thermal energy harvesting and promising opportunities for enhancing the conversion efficiency and power density using thin films or thin film multi-layer capacitors in the future for thermal energy harvesting.

Mechanisms Involved in the Link between Depression, Antidepressant Treatment, and Associated Weight Change.

Major depressive disorder is a severe mood disorder associated with a marked decrease in quality of life and social functioning, accompanied by a risk of suicidal behavior. Therefore, seeking out and adhering to effective treatment is of great personal and society-wide importance. Weight changes associated with antidepressant therapy are often cited as the reason for treatment withdrawal and thus are an important topic of interest. There indeed exists a significant mechanistic overlap between depression, antidepressant treatment, and the regulation of appetite and body weight. The suggested pathomechanisms include the abnormal functioning of the homeostatic (mostly humoral) and hedonic (mostly dopaminergic) circuits of appetite regulation, as well as causing neuromorphological and neurophysiological changes underlying the development of depressive disorder. However, this issue is still extensively discussed. This review aims to summarize mechanisms linked to depression and antidepressant therapy in the context of weight change.

Effect of Acute Ketamine Treatment on Sympathetic Regulation Indexed by Electrodermal Activity in Adolescent Major Depression.

Ketamine is a potential rapid-onset antidepressant characterized by sympathomimetic effects. However, the question of ketamine's use in treating adolescents' major depressive disorder (MDD) is still discussed. Thus, we aimed to study the acute effect of ketamine infusion treatment on sympathetic regulation using electrodermal activity (EDA) in addition to an assessment of depressive symptomatology in MDD adolescents. Twenty hospitalized adolescent girls with MDD (average age: 15.0 ± 1.46 yrs.) were examined before and two hours after a single intravenous infusion of ketamine. EDA was continuously recorded for 6 min, and depressive symptoms were assessed before and two hours after ketamine administration. The evaluated parameters included skin conductance level (SCL), nonspecific electrodermal responses (NS-SCRs), MADRS (questions no. 1-10, total score), and CDI (items A-E, total score). EDA parameters showed no significant changes after the ketamine treatment, and depressive symptoms were significantly reduced after the ketamine infusion. The analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between index SCL and CDI-A, CDI-E, and the total CDI score and between index NS-SCRs and MADRS no. 4 before the ketamine treatment. In conclusion, ketamine improved depressive symptomatology without a significant effect on EDA, indicating its potential safety and efficiency as an acute antidepressant intervention in adolescent MDD.

Current knowledge of bone-derived factor osteocalcin: its role in the management and treatment of diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, osteopetrosis and inflammatory joint diseases.

Osteocalcin (OC) is the most abundant non-collagenous and osteoblast-secreted protein in bone. It consists of two forms such as carboxylated OC (cOC) and undercarboxylated OC (ucOC). While cOC promotes bone mineralization and increases bone strength, ucOC is regarded an endocrinologically active form that may have several functions in multiple end organs and tissues. Total OC (tOC) includes both of these forms (cOC and ucOC) and is considered a marker of bone turnover in clinical settings. Most of the data on OC is limited to preclinical studies and therefore may not accurately reflect the situation in clinical conditions. For the stated reason, the aim of this review was not only to summarize current knowledge of all forms of OC and characterize its role in diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, osteopetrosis, inflammatory joint diseases, but also to provide new interpretations of its involvement in the management and treatment of aforementioned diseases. In this context, special emphasis was placed on available clinical trials. Significantly lower levels of tOC and ucOC could be associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. On the contrary, tOC level does not seem to be a good indicator of high bone turnover status in postmenopausal osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The associations between several pharmacological drugs used to treat all disorders mentioned above and OC levels have also been provided. From this perspective, OC may serve as a medium through which certain medications can influence glucose metabolism, body weight, adiponectin secretion, and synovial inflammation.

Virtual fit and design improvements of a filtering half-mask for sub-adult wearers.

The recent pandemic has shown that protecting the general population from hazardous substances or pathogens can be a challenging and urgent task. The key element to adequate protection is appropriately sized, well-fitted and sufficiently distributed personal protective equipment (PPE). While these conditions are followed for adult PPE wearers, they are less considered when it comes to protecting subadults. In this study, the assessment of the fit and design improvements of a 3D-printed facial half mask for subadult wearers (4-18 years) is designed. The target population was represented by 1137 subadults, aged 4.06-18.94 years, for whom 3D face models were acquired. The half mask tested, which was originally provided in one subadult size, did not fit appropriately the target population. This finding prompted the creation of four size categories using the age-dependent distribution of the centroid size calculated from 7 facial landmarks. For each size category, a modified half-mask virtual design was created, including resizing and reshaping, and fit was evaluated visually and numerically using averaged and random 3D face representatives.Practitioner summary: The reason for this study was to describe procedures which led to design improvement of an existing half-mask and provide respiratory protection for subadults. To address this, fit was assessed using an innovative metric approach. Four sizes were then created based on centroid size, resulting in improved fit and design.Abbreviations: CH: cheilion landmark; CS: centroid size; EX: exocanthion landmark; GN: gnathion landmark; N: nasion landmark; PPE: personal protective equipment; PR: pronasale landmark; RPE: respiratory protective equipment.

3D human face dataset was used for modifying and validating protective equipment for subadultsTo ensure optimal protection for subadults, four size categories were proposed based on 3D face landmarks and centroid sizeModified half-mask design fit was validated virtually using a visual and numerical approach.

High cooling performance in a double-loop electrocaloric heat pump.

Cooling through solid-state electrocaloric materials is an attractive replacement for vapor compression. Despite recent efforts, devices that are potentially commercially competitive have not been developed. We present an electrocaloric cooler with a maximum temperature span of 20.9 kelvin and a maximum cooling power of 4.2 watts under the moderate applied electric field of 10 volts per micrometer without any observed breakdown. Moreover, the maximum coefficient of performance, even taking into account energy expended on fluid pumping, reaches 64% of Carnot's efficiency as long as energy is properly recovered. We believe that this demonstration shows electrocaloric cooling to be a very promising alternative to vapor compression cooling.

Effects of Vortioxetine on Sleep Architecture of Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.

The relationship between depression and insomnia is bidirectional and both conditions need to be treated adequately, especially in a vulnerable neurodevelopmental stage of adolescence. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of antidepressant treatment using vortioxetine (VOR) on the sleep architecture of depressed adolescents by using video-polysomnography (v-PSG), which has not been researched before. The v-PSG was performed on 30 adolescent in-patients (mean age of 15.0 years ± 1.5 SD, 21 girls) treated with VOR (dosage of 10/15/20 mg/day) administered orally once a day, before and after VOR treatment. The evaluated parameters were conventional sleep parameters, sleep fragmentation parameters, and selected spectral power indices. Symptoms of depression and insomnia before and after the treatment period were evaluated using valid and reliable questionnaires (the Children´s Depression Inventory and the Athens Insomnia Scale). Depressed adolescents showed higher REM latency and decreased REM sleep percentage after treatment than before the treatment period (p = 0.005, p = 0.009, respectively). Our study revealed REM suppression (increased REM latency and reduced REM sleep percentage), indicating altered sleep architecture as a potential result of VOR treatment, which seems to be dose-dependent.

Peripheral Inflammatory Markers in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder at Adolescent Age.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with immune dysregulation. We aimed to estimate the pro- and anti-inflammatory activity/balance in ASD and ADHD patients at a little-studied adolescent age with respect to sex. We evaluated 20 ASD patients (5 girls, average age: 12.4 ± 1.9 y), 20 ADHD patients (5 girls, average age: 13.4 ± 1.8 y), and 20 age- and gender-matched controls (average age: 13.2 ± 1.9 y). The evaluated parameters included (1) white blood cells (WBCs), neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, platelets, platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume, and derived ratios, as well as (2) cytokines-interferon-gamma, interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and derived profiles and ratios. ASD adolescents showed higher levels of WBC, monocytes, IL-1α, IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10, macrophages (M)1 profile, and anti-inflammatory profile than the controls, with ASD males showing higher monocytes, IL-6 and IL-10, anti-inflammatory profile, and a lower T-helper (Th)1/Th2+T-regulatory cell ratio than control males. The ADHD adolescents showed higher levels of PDW, IL-1ß and IL-6, TNF-α, M1 profile, proinflammatory profile, and pro-/anti-inflammatory ratio than the controls, with ADHD females showing a higher TNF-α and pro-/anti-inflammatory ratio than the control females and ADHD males showing higher levels of IL-1ß and IL-6, TNF-α, and M1 profile than the control males. Immune dysregulation appeared to be different for both neurodevelopmental disorders in adolescence.

Direct Electrocaloric Characterization of Ceramic Films.

Reliable and accurate characterization of the electrocaloric effect is necessary to understand the intrinsic properties of materials. To date, several methods are developed to directly measure the electrocaloric effect. However, each of them has some limitations, making them less suitable for characterizing ceramic films, which rely almost exclusively on less accurate indirect methods. Here, a new approach is proposed to address the process of rapid heat dissipation in ceramic films and to detect the electrically induced temperature change before it thermally bonds with the surrounding elements. By using a polymer substrate that slows heat dissipation to the substrate and fast infrared imaging, a substantial part of the adiabatic electrocaloric effect in Pb(Mg1/3 Nb2/3 )O3 -based ceramic films is captured. Infrared imaging provides a robust technique to reduce the ratio between the adiabatic and the measured electrocaloric temperature change in micrometer-sized ceramic films to a single-digit number, ≈3.5. The obtained results are validated with another direct thermometric method and compared with the results obtained with an indirect approach. Despite different measurement principles, the results obtained with the two direct methods agree well. The proposed approach is timely and can open a door to verify the predicted giant electrocaloric effects in ceramic films.

The Effects of Prolonged Treatment with Cemtirestat on Bone Parameters Reflecting Bone Quality in Non-Diabetic and Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats.

Cemtirestat, a bifunctional drug acting as an aldose reductase inhibitor with antioxidant ability, is considered a promising candidate for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy. Our study firstly examined the effects of prolonged cemtirestat treatment on bone parameters reflecting bone quality in non-diabetic rats and rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes. Experimental animals were assigned to four groups: non-diabetic rats, non-diabetic rats treated with cemtirestat, diabetic rats, and diabetic rats treated with cemtirestat. Higher levels of plasma glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, glycated hemoglobin, magnesium, reduced femoral weight and length, bone mineral density and content, parameters characterizing trabecular bone mass and microarchitecture, cortical microarchitecture and geometry, and bone mechanical properties were determined in STZ-induced diabetic versus non-diabetic rats. Treatment with cemtirestat did not affect all aforementioned parameters in non-diabetic animals, suggesting that this drug is safe. In diabetic rats, cemtirestat supplementation reduced plasma triglyceride levels, increased the Haversian canal area and slightly, but insignificantly, improved bone mineral content. Nevertheless, the insufficient effect of cemtirestat treatment on diabetic bone disease does not support its use in the therapy of this complication of type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Honey: A Promising Therapeutic Supplement for the Prevention and Management of Osteoporosis and Breast Cancer.

Osteoporosis and breast cancer are serious diseases that have become a significant socioeconomic burden. There are biochemical associations between the two disorders in terms of the amended function of estrogen, receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa beta ligand, oxidative stress, inflammation, and lipid accumulation. Honey as a functional food with high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties can contribute to the prevention of various diseases. Its health benefits are mainly related to the content of polyphenols. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge from in vitro, animal, and human studies on the use of honey as a potential therapeutic agent for osteoporosis and breast cancer. Preclinical studies have revealed a beneficial impact of honey on both bone health (microstructure, strength, oxidative stress) and breast tissue health (breast cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis, tumor growth rate, and volume). The limited number of clinical trials, especially in osteoporosis, indicates the need for further research to evaluate the potential benefits of honey in the treatment. Clinical studies related to breast cancer have revealed that honey is effective in increasing blood cell counts, interleukin-3 levels, and quality of life. In summary, honey may serve as a prospective therapeutic supplement for bone and breast tissue health.

The link between bone-derived factors osteocalcin, fibroblast growth factor 23, sclerostin, lipocalin 2 and tumor bone metastasis.

The skeleton is the third most common site of metastatic disease, which causes serious bone complications and short-term prognosis in cancer patients. Prostate and breast cancers are responsible for the majority of bone metastasis, resulting in osteolytic or osteoblastic lesions. The crosstalk between bone cells and their interactions with tumor cells are important in the development of lesions. Recently, both preclinical and clinical studies documented the clinical relevance of bone-derived factors, including osteocalcin (OC) and its undercarboxylated form (ucOC), fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), sclerostin (SCL), and lipocalin 2 (LCN2) as prognostic tumor biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in bone metastasis. Both OC and ucOC could be useful targets for the prevention of bone metastasis in breast cancer. Moreover, elevated OC level may be a metastatic marker of prostate cancer. FGF23 is particularly important for those forms of cancer that primarily affect bone and/or are characterized by bone metastasis. In other tumor entities, increased FGF23 level is enigmatic. SCL plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of both osteolytic and osteoblastic lesions, as its levels are high in metastatic breast and prostate cancers. Elevated expression levels of LCN2 have been found in aggressive subtypes of cancer. However, its role in anti-metastasis varies significantly between different cancer types. Anyway, all aforementioned bone-derived factors can be used as promising tumor biomarkers. As metastatic bone disease is generally not curable, targeting bone factors represents a new trend in the prevention of bone metastasis and patient care.

Study of Gallium-Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films Processed by Atomic Layer Deposition and RF Magnetron Sputtering for Transparent Antenna Applications.

Gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) films were fabricated using RF magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition (ALD). The latter ones demonstrate higher electrical conductivities (up to 2700 S cm-1) and enhanced charge mobilities (18 cm2 V-1 s-1). The morphological analysis reveals differences mostly due to the very different nature of the deposition processes. The film deposited via ALD shows an increased transmittance in the visible range and a very small one in the infrared range that leads to a figure of merit of 0.009 Ω-1 (10 times higher than for the films deposited via sputtering). A benchmarking is made with an RF sputtered indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) film used conventionally in the industry. Another comparison between ZnO, Al:ZnO (AZO), and Ga:ZnO (GZO) films fabricated by ALD is presented, and the evolution of physical properties with doping is evidenced. Finally, we processed GZO thin films on a glass substrate into patterned transparent patch antennas to demonstrate an application case of short-range communication by means of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol. The GZO transparent antennas' performances are compared to a reference ITO antenna on a glass substrate and a conventional copper antenna on FR4 PCB. The results highlight the possibility to use the transparent GZO antenna for reliable short-range communication and the achievability of an antenna entirely processed by ALD.

Long-Term Cola Intake Does Not Cause Evident Pathological Alterations in the Femoral Bone Microstructure: An Animal Study in Adult Mice.

Short-term animal experiments and association studies in humans have shown that cola intake may have a detrimental impact on bone mineral density (BMD); however, other bone parameters have not been investigated. This study examined the effects of long-term cola consumption on the femoral bone microstructure using adult mice (n = 32) as an animal model, which were divided into water and cola groups depending on whether they received water or cola along with a standard rodent diet for 6 months. Micro-computed tomography revealed that cola intake did not significantly affect all measured parameters characterizing trabecular bone mass and microarchitecture, as well as cortical microarchitecture and geometry in both sexes, although a slight deterioration of these parameters was noted. Cola consumption also resulted in a slightly, statistically insignificant worsening of bone mechanical properties. In contrast to female mice, males receiving cola had a lower area of primary osteons' vascular canals. Nevertheless, long-term cola intake did not cause evident pathological alterations in the femur of adult mice, possibly due to a balanced diet and no restriction of physical activity. Therefore, the adverse effects of cola consumption on BMD, the only bone parameter studied so far, may be caused by other risk and lifestyle factors.

Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms Affect Osteoporosis-Related Traits and Response to Antiresorptive Therapy.

The present study analyzed the effect of vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms (ApaI, TaqI, BsmI, FokI, and Cdx2) on bone mineral density (BMD), biochemical parameters and bone turnover markers, fracture prevalence, and response to three types of antiresorptive therapy (estrogen-progesterone, raloxifene, and ibandronate) in 356 postmenopausal women from Slovakia. Association analysis revealed a significant effect of BsmI polymorphism on lumbar spine BMD, serum osteocalcin (OC), and ß-CrossLaps levels. While ApaI and Cdx2 polymorphisms were associated with OC and alkaline phosphatase, TaqI polymorphism affected all turnover markers. ApaI, TaqI, and BsmI genotypes increased the risk of spinal, radial, or total fractures with odds ratios ranging from 2.03 to 3.17. Each of therapy types evaluated had a beneficial effect on all osteoporosis-related traits; however, the VDR gene affected only ibandronate and raloxifene treatment. ApaI/aa, TaqI/TT, and BsmI/bb genotypes showed a weaker or no response to ibandronate therapy in femoral and spinal BMD. The impact of aforementioned polymorphisms on turnover markers was also genotype dependent. On the contrary, only TaqI and BsmI polymorphisms influenced raloxifene therapy, even only in lumbar spine BMD. These results point to the potential of using the VDR gene in personalized pharmacotherapy of osteoporosis.

Roles of Gut Microbiome in Bone Homeostasis and Its Relationship with Bone-Related Diseases.

The extended microbial genome-the gut microbiome (GM)-plays a significant role in host health and disease. It is able to influence a number of physiological functions. During dysbiosis, GM is associated with the development of various chronic diseases with impaired bone quality. In general, GM is important for bone homeostasis and can affect it via several mechanisms. This review describes the roles of GM in bone homeostasis through influencing the immune and endocrine functions, short-chain fatty acids production, calcium absorption and the gut-brain axis. The relationship between GM composition and several bone-related diseases, specifically osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, obesity and bone cancer, is also highlighted and summarized. GM manipulation may become a future adjuvant therapy in the prevention of many chronic diseases. Therefore, the beneficial effects of probiotic therapy to improve the health status of individuals with aforementioned diseases are provided, but further studies are needed to clearly confirm its effectiveness. Recent evidence suggests that GM is responsible for direct and indirect effects on drug efficacy. Accordingly, various GM alterations and interactions related to the treatment of bone-related diseases are mentioned as well.

Large harvested energy with non-linear pyroelectric modules.

Coming up with sustainable sources of electricity is one of the grand challenges of this century. The research field of materials for energy harvesting stems from this motivation, including thermoelectrics1, photovoltaics2 and thermophotovoltaics3. Pyroelectric materials, converting temperature periodic variations in electricity, have been considered as sensors4 and energy harvesters5-7, although we lack materials and devices able to harvest in the joule range. Here we develop a macroscopic thermal energy harvester made of 42 g of lead scandium tantalate in the form of multilayer capacitors that produces 11.2 J of electricity per thermodynamic cycle. Each pyroelectric module can generate up to 4.43 J cm-3 of electric energy density per cycle. We also show that two of these modules weighing 0.3 g are sufficient to sustainably supply an autonomous energy harvester embedding microcontrollers and temperature sensors. Finally, we show that for a 10 K temperature span these multilayer capacitors can reach 40% of Carnot efficiency. These performances stem from (1) a ferroelectric phase transition enabling large efficiency, (2) low leakage current preventing losses and (3) high breakdown voltage. These macroscopic, scalable and highly efficient pyroelectric energy harvesters enable the reconsideration of the production of electricity from heat.

High Electrocaloric Effect in Lead Scandium Tantalate Thin Films with Interdigitated Electrodes.

Lead scandium tantalate, Pb(Sc,Ta)O3, is an excellent electrocaloric material showing large temperature variations, good efficiency, and a broad operating temperature window. In form of multilayer ceramic capacitors integrated into a cooling device, the device can generate a temperature difference larger than 13 K. Here, we investigate Pb(Sc,Ta)O3 in form of thin films prepared using the sol-gel chemical solution deposition method. We report the detailed fabrication process of high-quality films on various substrates such as c-sapphire and fused silica. The main originality of this research is the use of interdigitated top electrodes, enabling the application of very large electric fields in PST. We provide structural and electrical characterisation, as well as electrocaloric temperature variation, using the Maxwell relation approach. Films do not show a B-site ordering. The temperature variation from 7.2 to 15.7 K was measured on the Pb(Sc,Ta)O3 film on a c-sapphire substrate under the electric field of 1330 kV/cm between 14.5 °C and 50 °C. This temperature variation is the highest reported so far in Pb(Sc,Ta)O3 thin films. Moreover, stress seems to have an effect on the maximum permittivity temperature and thus electrocaloric temperature variation with temperature in Pb(Sc,Ta)O3 films. Tensile stress induced by fused silica shifts the "transition" of Pb(Sc,Ta)O3 to lower temperatures. This study shows the possibility for electrocaloric temperature variation tuning with stress conditions.

The Role of Macronutrients, Micronutrients and Flavonoid Polyphenols in the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is considered an age-related disorder of the skeletal system, characterized primarily by decreased bone mineral density (BMD), microstructural quality and an elevated risk of fragility fractures. This silent disease is increasingly becoming a global epidemic due to an aging population and longer life expectancy. It is known that nutrition and physical activity play an important role in skeletal health, both in achieving the highest BMD and in maintaining bone health. In this review, the role of macronutrients (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates), micronutrients (minerals-calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, as well as vitamins-D, C, K) and flavonoid polyphenols (quercetin, rutin, luteolin, kaempferol, naringin) which appear to be essential for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, are characterized. Moreover, the importance of various naturally available nutrients, whether in the diet or in food supplements, is emphasized. In addition to pharmacotherapy, the basis of osteoporosis prevention is a healthy diet rich mainly in fruits, vegetables, seafood and fish oil supplements, specific dairy products, containing a sufficient amount of all aforementioned nutritional substances along with regular physical activity. The effect of diet alone in this context may depend on an individual's genotype, gene-diet interactions or the composition and function of the gut microbiota.