Calcium supplementation seems to make breaks less likely

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 10, 2007

AS PEOPLE age and their bones weaken, fractures become more common. Does taking calcium and vitamin D supplements help reduce fracture risk?

A study analyzed data from 17 studies, involving 52,625 people older than 50 (average age, 68) who had been randomly assigned to take calcium, usually combined with vitamin D, or a placebo daily. During an average of 31/2 years, 6,543 people sustained a hip or vertebral fracture. Those who took calcium alone or combined with vitamin D were 12 percent less likely to have broken a bone than were people who took the placebo; those who took the supplements most consistently, however, had 24 percent fewer breaks. Risk was less when the daily dose of calcium was 1,200 milligrams or more and the vitamin D dose was 800 international units or more.

Older people are affected. Although fractures can be caused by accidents, falls or sports injuries, they more often are the result of weakened bones among people older than 50.

The vast majority of participants were women. The study did not evaluate whether exercise, which is thought to enhance bone health, affected the findings.

Learn more about fractures at http://www.niams.nih.gov/bone (search for "once"). Learn about calcium and vitamin D at http:// dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets.

-- Washington Post

Quit it

Quitting smoking lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke quickly, but the risk of lung cancer goes down very slowly. A new study might help explain why.

The report, published in the online journal BMC Genomics, compared genes in the lung tissue of eight current smokers, 12 former smokers and four people who never had smoked. The researchers found that smoking changes the activity of certain genes. In ex- smokers, some of those changes reverse to normal, but others don't. The irreversible changes might permanently increase the risk of lung cancer , the authors say.

Coauthor Dr. Stephen Lam , chairman of the British Columbia Cancer Agency's lung tumor group in Vancouver, says the study was prompted by he and his associates seeing lung cancer in patients who had stopped smoking 10 to 15 years earlier. "Something was perpetuating the damage," he says.

One gene that did not return to its normal state was a tumor- suppressing gene that helps prevent cancer from forming. As a result, "when the cells become abnormal, the body is less capable of controlling them," Lam says. Genes controlling inflammation were also permanently impaired, possibly adding to the cancer risk. "The best thing is to never start."

-- Associated Press

Ovarian intelligence

Estrogen is thought to protect the brain from declines in memory and thinking ability. Might removal of the ovaries, which secrete the hormone, impair a woman's cognitive abilities?

A study involved 2,961 women; about half of them had had one or both ovaries removed for reasons unrelated to cancer, such as endometriosis or ovarian cysts. During the next 25 to 30 years, 248 of the women developed dementia. Those who'd had an ovariectomy before menopause, regardless of the reason, were about 11/2 times more likely to have dementia than were women who did not have the surgery. The younger the women were when their ovaries were removed, the more likely they were to have developed dementia.

Determinations of dementia were based on testing during interviews and were not confirmed independently by physicians' diagnoses.

Learn more about ovary removal at http://www.mayoclinic.com (search for "oophorectomy") and at http://www.clevelandclinic.org/ health (search for "hysterectomy").

-- Washington Post

Better than nothing

To stay fit, experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week -- an amount that many people can't seem to fit into their schedules. Might less exercise still be beneficial?

A study randomly assigned 106 sedentary adults, most in their late 40s, to walk briskly for 30 minutes five days a week; to do this three days a week; or to maintain their current activity level. Walkers could do 30 minutes at once or in shorter bouts of at least 10 minutes each. Participants were asked not to change their diet. After three months, blood pressure levels had fallen about the same amount in both groups of walkers, and both had lost about an inch of girth at the waist and hip. Overall fitness was judged to have improved about 15 percent for the three-day and 11 percent for the five-day walkers. Those who didn't walk recorded no changes.

Just three of every 10 adults in the United States get the recommended amount of physical activity.

Walking was not monitored; rather, participants used pedometers to track time and distance walked.

Learn more about the benefits of exercise at http:// www.mayoclinic.com (search for "7 benefits") and http:// www.fitness.gov/fitness.htm.

-- Washington Post

All about caffeine

Take a look at the long lines at Starbucks: Caffeine is the world's most popular drug. Americans consume an average 200 milligrams of the stuff per day, the equivalent of about two cups of coffee, four cups of tea or four cans of cola.