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REVIEW article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1508695
This article is part of the Research Topic Ketogenic Metabolic Therapies in Prevention & Treatment of Non-communicable Diseases View all 6 articles

Ketogenic Diet and β-hydroxybutyrate in Osteoporosis: Current Progress and Controversy

Provisionally accepted
Changfang Luo Changfang Luo Zhuojun Dai Zhuojun Dai Wanhong He Wanhong He Yanqiu He Yanqiu He Ping Yang Ping Yang Mengting Huang Mengting Huang Junle Li Junle Li Yong Xu Yong Xu Wei Huang Wei Huang *
  • The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Diet has been proven to have significant impacts on the pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis. This review attempts to elucidate the current progress and controversy surrounding the ketogenic diet (KD) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in osteoporosis and offers a novel perspective on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. The ketogenic diet has been broadly used in the treatment of epilepsy, diabetes, obesity, and certain neoplasms by triggering ketone bodies, mainly BHB. However, in most osteoporosis-related clinical and preclinical studies, the ketogenic diet has demonstrated the detrimental effects of inhibiting bone accumulation and damaging bone microarchitecture. In contrast, BHB is thought to ameliorate osteoporosis by promoting osteoblastogenesis and inhibiting osteoclastogenesis. The main purpose of this review is to summarize the current research progress and hope that more basic and clinical experiments will focus on the similarities and differences between ketogenic diet (KD) and BHB in osteoporosis.

    Keywords: Ketogenic Diet, β-hydroxybutyrate, Osteoporosis, osteoblast, osteoclast

    Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Dai, He, He, Yang, Huang, Li, Xu and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wei Huang, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.