Calcium

The latest in a series of studies revealing unexpected benefits from vitamin D has shown that a calcium and vitamin D-rich diet may reduce the risk of premenstrual syndrome. Researchers queried about 3,000 women from 1991 to 1999 as part of the Harvard's Nurses' Health Study to determine how much calcium and vitamin D women ingested through their diet and supplements. Researchers did not measure how much vitamin D participants got from sunlight. None of the women in the study had experienced PMS when the study began.

I bought an oak hydrangea. Is it acid loving? I have sandy soil. Unlike their blue mophead cousins, oakleaf hydrangeas prefer a neutral pH, anywhere from 6.1-8.5. They are very shade tolerant, however they flower best in full sun. In their native habitat, they grow in sandy soil. Because sandy soil does not retain water well, you may need to water it during dry periods. As the fruit on my Early Girl tomato plant has grown, it's rotting on the bottom of the fruit (opposite the stem). I've heard that this might be something called "blossom end rot."

Milk: Does it do the body good? The answer, according to a paper published in this month's Pediatrics journal, is no - at least if you are talking about bone growth in children. Reviewing 58 published studies on the relationship between calcium intake and bone health, researchers associated with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine - an animal rights group based in Washington, D.C. - asked whether there was any scientific evidence to justify federal recommendations on calcium intake and whether dairy products are the best sources of calcium for kids.

Using eerie blue lights and modern formulas for ancient seawater, Justin Ries has re-created the oceans of 120 million years ago in 10 gallon tanks in an East Baltimore lab. The graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University is trying to figure out why prehistoric generations of coral reefs died off for 85 million years -- and then bounced back. The water in Ries' tanks looks no different from what flows out of most faucets, but its appearance is deceiving. That's because Ries has replicated the chemistry of the ancient seas by adjusting the amounts of magnesium and calcium -- two key ingredients for life.

The Food and Drug Administration is under scrutiny after losing track of the medical files of at least 92 Naval Academy midshipmen enrolled in a study of nutrient bars and calcium supplements. The FDA also kept poor records of the $496,704 it spent on the trial, according to an audit released yesterday by the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services. The study of how nutrient bars and calcium supplements affect bone mass ended inconclusively three years ago because too few midshipmen were participating, officials said.

People who drank about two 8-ounce glasses of milk a day had a 15 percent reduction in risk of getting colorectal cancer, according to a study that seems to redeem the benefits of a much maligned beverage. The new analysis from researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston comes as science continues to search for foods that may play a role in health and disease. Milk, in recent years, has been implicated as a trigger of other forms of cancer.

A friend swears by coral calcium that she orders through the mail. She says it cures her aches and pains. What makes coral calcium different from the inexpensive calcium I buy in the grocery story? Coral calcium comes from dead coral from the seabed, while the inexpensive calcium you buy might come from oyster shells or limestone deposits. Some marketers are promoting coral calcium as a cure-all for many chronic and serious conditions. The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission are beginning to clamp down on unsubstantiated claims.

I have read that Prilosec will be going over-the-counter in the fall. Is this true, and if so, when is the expected date? Will it be prescription strength or a reduced version? Also, what about cost? Is there a generic available? For years, Prilosec was the most popular prescription drug for heartburn and acid reflux. The Food and Drug Administration has now approved Prilosec for over-the-counter sale at a dose of 20 milligrams. This is one of the doses available by prescription. Doctors can prescribe pills of either 10, 20 or 40 milligrams.

It's a disease that has come to be known as "the silent thief" because it robs individuals of their bone strength without showing any symptoms. It's also known as "a women's disease." But osteoporosis, a condition that causes bones to thin, weaken and break easily, affects women and men -- nearly half of all people over the age of 75. Experts are urging more men to bone up on some hard facts -- one in eight men over age 50 will have an osteoporotic fracture of some kind in his lifetime.

Q. Whenever I read about calcium, only women's needs are addressed. Little comment is made about whether men should be concerned about lack of calcium as they age, though they drink much less milk. My husband thinks that if he takes calcium supplements, he might get kidney stones. Is there any truth to this? A. Although men are less susceptible to osteoporosis than women, they are not immune. Adequate calcium intake is just as important for men. Your husband is correct that calcium pills might increase the risk of kidney stones, but calcium from food actually seems to protect against this painful condition.