Women who get most of their daily calcium from food have healthier bones than women whose calcium comes mainly from supplemental tablets, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Surprisingly, this is true even though the supplement takers have higher average calcium intake.
Adequate calcium is important to prevent osteoporosis, which affects an estimated 8 million American women and 2 million American men. Another 34 million Americans have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis. Calcium consumption can help maintain bone density by preventing the body from stealing the calcium it needs from the bones.
The researchers' conclusions about calcium intake, published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, came from a study of 183 postmenopausal women. The researchers asked the women to meticulously detail their diet and their calcium supplement intake for a week. "We assumed that this sample represented each woman's typical diet," says senior author Reina Armamento-Villareal, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases and a bone specialist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "In addition to analyzing the volunteers' daily calcium intake, we tested bone mineral density and urinary concentrations of estrogen metabolites."
The researchers found that the women could be divided into three groups: one group, called the "supplement group," got at least 70 percent of their daily calcium from tablets or pills; another, the "diet group," got at least 70 percent of their calcium from dairy products and other foods; and a third, the "diet plus supplement group," consisted of those whose calcium-source percentages fell somewhere in between these ranges.
U.S.-funded aerial spraying of coca plantations in Colombia near the Ecuador border has severely damaged the DNA of local residents, a new study has found.
Blood samples from 24 Ecuadorians living within three kilometres of the northern border had 600 to 800 percent more damage to their chromosomes than people living 80 km away, found scientists from the Pontificia Catholic University in Quito, Ecuador.
BBCTue, 19 Jun 2007 13:49 UTC
Drinking coffee protects against an eyelid spasm that can lead to blindness, a study suggests.
Italian researchers looked at the coffee drinking and smoking habits of 166 people with blepharospasm.
Sufferers have uncontrollable twitching of the eyelid which, in extreme cases, stops them being able to see.
One or two cups of coffee a day seemed to reduce the risk of the condition, the team reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Nidhi Sharma
AHNTue, 19 Jun 2007 13:46 UTC
A study by the National Health and Social Life Survey shows that there has been a recent drop in the rate of U.S. circumcision rate. A large number of American parents are refusing circumcision, in which the foreskin is removed from the penis.
The circumcision rate peaked at nearly 90 percent in the early 1960s but began dropping in the '70s. According to the most recent year for which government figures available in 2004, about 57 percent of all male newborns delivered in hospitals were circumcised. In some states, the rate is well below 50 percent.
Many experts have attributed this sudden change in circumcision to the immigration patterns. The Western states with large populations from Asian and Latin American countries that have the most decline.
AP quotes Katharine Barrett, an anthropology lecturer at Stanford University as saying, "The rates of drug-free labor and breast-feeding all rose during the 1980s, while the initial declines in male circumcision rates began during the 1980s as well."
Alicia Rebensdorf,
AlternetTue, 19 Jun 2007 11:20 UTC
As recent legislation shows, drug companies and their direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns need diligent monitoring -- especially when it looks like they need it the least.
Pascal Fletcher
ReutersTue, 19 Jun 2007 09:25 UTC
DAKAR - Brush your teeth every day, dentists say. In Africa, that can mean keeping your toothbrush in your mouth all day long.
LAURAN NEERGAARD
APTue, 19 Jun 2007 02:57 UTC
Tiny motion sensors are attached to the walls, doorways and even the refrigerator of Elaine Bloomquist's home, tracking the seemingly healthy 86-year-old's daily activity.
It's like spying in the name of science - with her permission - to see if round-the-clock tracking of elderly people's movements can provide early clues of impending
Alzheimer's disease.
British scientists are developing a vaccine to give lifelong protection against all strains of flu.
It would deal with everything from a winter virus to a bird flu outbreak.
Current flu jabs are out of date within a year because the virus mutates so often.
The new FLU-v vaccine is also easier to make than traditional jabs, so it could be stockpiled against a global pandemic.
A gene responsible for the single most common cause of hearing loss among white adults, otosclerosis, has been identified for the first time, a scientist told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Nice, France. Ms Melissa Thys, from the Department of Medical Genetics, University of Antwerp, Belgium, said that this finding may be a step towards new treatments for otosclerosis, which affects approximately 1 in 250 people.
Otosclerosis is a multifactorial disease, caused by an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The outcome is a progressive hearing loss as the growing bone in the middle ear interrupts the sound waves passing to the inner ear. While the causative factors remain unknown, now one of the genetic components has been identified, Ms Thys told the conference.
"The gene in which the variant is located points to a pathway that contributes to the disease. This may be a lead for better forms of treatment in the future; currently the best option is an operation. However, there is often an additional component of hearing loss which can't be restored by surgery. As the gene involved is a growth factor, and the disease manifests itself by the abnormal growth of bone in the middle ear, it may have a large potential for therapy", she said. Improved understanding may also lead to prevention strategies.
BBCMon, 18 Jun 2007 13:58 UTC
A twin brother can reduce his female twin's chances of having children, say scientists at Sheffield University.
Women were 25% less likely to have children if their twin was male, the study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded.
Although other factors could play a part - the women were less likely to marry - the team blamed exposure in the womb to the male hormone testosterone.
Experts have agreed testosterone might potentially damage female fertility.
They said animal work supported this.
But they said more work was needed to look at human mechanisms.
Comment: Yes, the business of selling gadgets and treating the symptoms is huge.
Another article from last year showed a study that found that a different diet could be the solution.