Researchers have found that a certain type of drugs used to cure heart diseases and hypertension can lower the risk of an osteoporosis fracture by about half.

In Australia, osteoporosis is one of the most widespread disease affecting one in three women and one in five men over the age of 50. Health experts claim that bones at this age become fragile and brittle and they face a higher risk of fractures.

The introduction of beta blockers about 40 years ago revolutionized the treatment of heart problems, hypertension and anxiety. The drugs essentially lower the effect of stress hormones, including adrenaline.

However the recent studies at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research say they also increase bone density. The institute's Professor Tuan Nguyen states that he and a colleague found that beta blockers might aid those suffering from osteoporosis after observing a decline in fracture incidents since their introduction.

The finding was tested after researchers at Columbia University, saw that mice treated with beta blockers had increased bone mass. Professor Nguyen and a colleague set out to test if humans responded the same manner or not.

He said, "That discovery was on a connection between the brain and bone, that's a very exciting one. After all, we now know that the brain plays an important role in the regulation of bone mass."

Osteoporosis Australia's medical director, Professor Peter Ebeling, has commended the discovery but says further tests need to be done to finally recommend the drug.

"What we don't know is if giving people beta blockers will actually reduce their fractures in sort of a randomised control trial situation," he said.

Their findings have been released online in the journal Bone.