Markers of Bone Health and Impact of Whey Protein Supplementation in Army Initial Entry Training Soldiers: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study

• Published in: Nutrients 2020-07, Vol.12 (8), p.2225
• Main Authors: Sefton, JoEllen M, Lyons, Kaitlin D, Beck, Darren T, Haun, Cody T, Romero, Matthew A, Mumford, Petey W, Roberson, Paul A, Young, Kaelin C, Roberts, Michael D, McAdam, Jeremy S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; biomarker; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Body fat; Bone and Bones - drug effects; Bone Density; Bone growth; bone injury; Bone mass; Bone Resorption; Bone turnover; Calciferol; Calcium; Calcium - blood; Carbohydrates; Collagen; Dietary Carbohydrates - administration & dosage; Dietary Supplements; Double-Blind Method; Double-blind studies; Good Manufacturing Practice; Health risks; Humans; injury prevention; Male; Metabolism; Military; Military Personnel; Military training; Minority & ethnic groups; musculoskeletal injury; Osteogenesis; Osteogenesis - drug effects; Physical Conditioning, Human - physiology; Proteins; stress fracture; Vitamin D; Vitamin D - blood; Whey; Whey protein; Whey Proteins - administration & dosage; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu12082225

Training civilians to be soldiers is a challenging task often resulting in musculoskeletal injuries, especially bone stress injuries. This study evaluated bone health biomarkers (P1NP/CTX) and whey protein or carbohydrate supplementations before and after Army initial entry training (IET). Ninety male IET soldiers participated in this placebo-controlled, double-blind study assessing carbohydrate and whey protein supplementations. Age and fat mass predicted bone formation when controlling for ethnicity, explaining 44% ( < 0.01) of bone formation variations. Age was the only significant predictor of bone resorption ( = 0.02) when controlling for run, fat, and ethnicity, and these factors together explained 32% of the variance in bone resorption during week one ( < 0.01). Vitamin D increased across training ( < 0.01). There was no group by time interaction for supplementation and bone formation ( = 0.75), resorption ( = 0.73), Vitamin D ( = 0.36), or calcium ( = 0.64), indicating no influence of a supplementation on bone biomarkers across training. Age, fitness, fat mass, and ethnicity were important predictors of bone metabolism. The bone resorption/formation ratio suggests IET soldiers are at risk of stress injuries. Male IET soldiers are mildly to moderately deficient in vitamin D and slightly deficient in calcium throughout training. Whey protein or carbohydrate supplementations did not affect the markers of bone metabolism.