Calcium

There's a "calcium crisis" among teen-agers, according to health and nutrition experts. Nearly nine out of 10 girls and seven of 10 boys get too little calcium. The National Academy of Sciences recommends 1,300 milligrams of calcium daily for teens -- the equivalent of four 8-ounce glasses of milk. It's needed because 15 percent of adult height and half of all bone mass are added during the teen years. Blame soda for adolescents' calcium deficit: As teens have double or tripled their soda intake in the past two decades, their milk consumption has fallen by 40 percent.

Calcium supplements have no effect on weight, study says People who eat more dairy products have lower weights and seem to lose weight more easily, several observational studies published in recent years have suggested. But new research - perhaps the best study to date on the issue - found that calcium supplements have no effect on weight. The study involved 340 obese or overweight adults, most of whom were women. They were assigned to take either 1,500 milligrams of calcium or a placebo with meals for two years.

Two months after a huge clinical trial concluded that calcium supplements don't do much to protect older women from bone fractures, a new study has found just the opposite. Or so it would appear. The paper released this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine said older women who consistently took calcium for five years had significantly fewer broken bones than those who did not. But in February, the Women's Health Initiative - a large government-sponsored study - reported that calcium supplements had little effect.

Kutztown Folk Festival Where:: Kutztown Fairgrounds, 225 N. White Oak St., Kutztown, Pa. When: : Saturday through July 5, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. What: : The 60-year-old festival celebrates the rich Dutch heritage of Pennsylvania with events including a roof-thatching demonstration, barn-raising for kids, folk entertainment and the largest collection of antique electric cars in America. The festival also features more than 2,500 traditional quilts, handmade by local quilters, along with a quilt auction.

Teen-age girls who increase their calcium consumption can drastically reduce their chances of suffering from the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis later in life, experts reported yesterday.In a new study by Pennsylvania researchers, girls who took calcium supplements starting at age 12 or 14 increased their bone mass by 4 percent by age 16, compared to those who did not take the supplements.If the higher bone mass persists after the girls reach skeletal maturity -- about age 21 -- these teens could reduce their risk of future osteoporosis-related bone fractures by almost 50 percent, said lead researcher Tom Lloyd, director of the Young Women's Health Study at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey.

Looks like candy. Chews like candy.But it's not candy.Move over Tums, here come "calcium chews."Mead Johnson's Viactiv and Nature Made's CalBurst -- supplements that can be munched like saltwater taffy -- are the latest products aimed at helping you meet your daily dietary requirement of calcium.They're convenient, that's certain. But it's not a good idea to substitute them for natural calcium sources such as broccoli, spinach and milk, says a report from the American Dietetic Association.

Using supplements to increase calcium intake during pre-teen years may build higher bone density and prevent osteoporosis later in life.Osteoporosis is a disorder -- affecting mostly older women -- that makes bones susceptible to fractures from little or no stress. Areas such as the wrists, hips and spine are especially vulnerable.Osteoporosis occurs when bone mass and density -- the overall amount of bone and its amount per unit volume -- are progressively reduced. This is generally associated with a decrease in the amount of calcium stored in the bone.

Calcium supplementation reduced bone loss in post-menopausal women, a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated.But before you rush to the pharmacy to restock your pill supply, read on.Significant outcomes of the study were:*Adequate calcium intake did retard bone loss in some women who were six or more years past menopause.*Only women with very low calcium intakes were helped by supplementation.The current Recommended Dietary Allowance for calcium for women over 25 years old is 800 mg per day.Women in this study were divided into two groups.

Q: Tests done during an annual check up showed that my blood calcium level was too high. My doctor has told me that the results of further tests indicate that I have hyperparathyroidism and need an operation. I feel perfectly well and am therefore hesitant to undergo surgery. Could you explain the causes and effects of hyperparathyroidism and why surgery is necessary?A: Hyperparathyroidism, one of many causes of a high blood calcium (hypercalcemia), is usually diagnosed by blood tests demonstrating elevated levels of both calcium and parathyroid hormone in the blood.

Mom said it was good for you. Doctors tell us to get more of it. But most people don't get close to the recommended intake of calcium.Teen-age girls are at greatest risk. At a time when they are growing rapidly and should be building the bones that will carry them through adulthood, most are drinking diet sodas instead of milk.A recent report from the National Institutes of Health revealed that half of American adults don't get adequate calcium. It's likely the shortfall is even greater for adolescents, especially given the new recommendation that they get 1,200 to 1,500 mg of calcium daily.

About 10 percent of Americans may at some point develop kidney stones, says Brian R. Matlaga, director of stone disease at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Kidney stones, which are hard masses of crystals that form within the urinary tract, can cause extreme pain as they pass out of the body, infection and, in some cases, can block the ureter. What are kidney stones? Everyone's urine contains some crystals, but a stone occurs when these crystals bind together and aggregate until they achieve a size at which [the mass formed]

On the X-ray image they printed out for me, trouble is a pink triangular speck, labeled LAD. The pink spot represents a calcium buildup - hardened plaque. And the LAD tag means the plaque lies in my "left anterior descending" coronary artery - the one cardiologists call "the widow maker." A blockage in the LAD tends to kill you. No one has said definitively that's what killed NBC newsman Tim Russert last week at the age of 58. But it wouldn't be a bad bet. Russert died after a heart attack in his Washington office.

Sports Study suggests high mound a factor in pitchers' injuries As baseball season begins, pitchers will stand atop regulation-height, 10-inch mounds to wind up. Then they'll stride, cock their arms, accelerate, decelerate and follow through to release a ball that can reach speeds of 100 mph. Now, a motion analysis study of 20 elite pitchers from the major leagues and NCAA Division I-A college teams suggests that a 10-inch mound, also standard for...

New research gives women another good reason to get plenty of bone-strengthening calcium and vitamin D: The nutrients may reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. A team of Harvard researchers reported this week that premenopausal women who get more calcium and vitamin D -- either from food or supplements -- are less likely to get breast cancer. Only about 20 percent of breast cancer cases occur in women younger than 50, but is often more aggressive. Mammograms, X-rays intended to find breast cancer earlier, are less accurate for women in their 40s and generally are not recommended for those younger than 40. Though postmenopausal women can take medication to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer, nothing is available for their premenopausal sisters.

DUBNA, Russia -- The small, pleasant city of Dubna on the bank of the Volga River is known as Naukograd, or Science City, and for good reason: It lends its name to element 105 of the periodic table, dubnium, and is home to the research institute where the five newest elements were discovered. Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, collaborating with a team of American researchers at a laboratory in California, are pushing the boundaries of the tangible world and adding tantalizing tidbits to the understanding of the origin of life's chemical building blocks and how they behave.

Why is Merck spending so much money advertising Fosamax Plus D? Could it be that the company is worried people will quit this osteoporosis drug after learning that the benefits persist even after stopping use? I recently read that acid-suppressing drugs such as Nexium and Prilosec may be linked to hip fractures. Drugs such as Fosamax can cause symptoms of heartburn, for which people would take acid suppressors. Could this create a vicious cycle? Two articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Dec.

Now that we've launched into the new weight-loss year, a new word of warning appears. You may need to increase your calcium while losing weight.Obese women lost 2 to 3 percent of their bone density while losing weight, even though they were consuming 800 milligrams of calcium (the current RDA) per day, according to a report by Environmental Nutrition newsletter.Because the research was done only on obese women, we do not know whether bone loss happens when thinner women lose weight. But it's likely.

Like so many of my women colleagues and friends, I seem to get just a tiny bit shorter every year. The villain in this is clearly osteoporosis. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, more than 50 percent of all women over 45 have osteoporosis of the spine. Virtually all women over 80 have at least some osteoporosis. With women now living to an average age of 79 years, most of us can anticipate osteoporosis as one problem of aging.This can become particularly alarming when one considers that the most common cause of fractures for women over 80 is weakened and brittle bone caused by osteoporosis.

Older people who take heartburn drugs such as Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid and Protonix for long periods have a significantly increased risk of hip fractures, possibly because the drugs block calcium absorption, Pennsylvania researchers reported today. The drugs, which block production of acid in the stomach, are among the most widely used in the United States, with combined annual sales of more than $10 billion. "The perception is that the drugs are completely safe, and doctors dispense them without thinking too much about the risks and the benefits," said Dr. Yu-Xiao Yang of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who led the study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.