Filed under Women's, Bone Health
By Staff Reporter
23/09/2005 - Calcium supplements may not increase the bone mineral density in young women after a certain threshold level, according to a new study from
Creighton
University.
In the United States, the recommended daily intake of calcium for women aged between 18 and 50 years is 1000mg. Calcium, together with vitamin D which is understood to help absorption, is crucial for maintaining strong bones and helping to prevent the brittle bone disease osteoporosis in later life.
The World Health Organisation regards osteoporosis as an important health concern, since one in three women and one in seven men will experience a fracture due to osteoporosis at some point after the age of 50.
In
Europe, osteoporosis causes around 1.1 million fractures each year. The Creighton researchers sought to test the hypothesis that increasing calcium intake in post-adolescent women increases skeletal consolidation. They recruited 152 healthy young women aged between 20 and 25 years, who had a body mass index of between 19.5 and 25.5. Food diaries kept for seven days ascertained that all the participants had a low dietary intake of calcium, of between 424 and 786 mg/d. They were randomly assigned to two groups: one took 500mg of calcium carbonate supplements three times a day, and the other took a placebo. Both groups also took a daily multivitamin. Their bone density was measured every six months. All of the 121 participants who remained in the study after 12 months.
Filed under Anti-Aging, Digestion
By Jess Halliday
08/08/2006 - Elderly people could ward off digestive problems with probiotics, said scientists at a briefing yesterday that may raise awareness of the benefits amongst this sector of the population and help direct marketing of consumer products.
The comments were made by Professor Glenn Gibson of the University of Reading at a briefing at the Science Media Centre, at which Dr Sandra McFarlene of Dundee University also presented on ulcerative colitis.
Dr McFarlane explained that people over 60 years old have around 1000-fold less of the so-called friendly bacteria in their guts. The balance is thus more heavily weighted towards ‘unfriendly’ bacteria, which may make them more susceptible to gastrointestinal infections and bowel conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.
What is more, the publicity Prof Gibson and Dr McFarlane’s comments have received in mainstream media may make more elderly people aware of probiotics benefits.
A review of the scientific literature on the subject by Professor Jeremy Hamilton-Miller of the Royal Free and Univ. College Medical School was published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal in 2004 (doi:10.1136/pgmj.2003.015339 Vol. 80, pp. 447-451).
“Review of the literature suggests that three problems common in the elderly, namely, undernutrition, constipation, and the decline in efficiency of the immune system leading to reduced capacity to resist infection, may all be beneficially affected by appropriate probiotic organisms,” he wrote.
He stressed that one single probiotic is not suitable for every use. It is necessary to study strains from a variety of sources to identify one with specific beneficial properties, such as boosting elderly peoples’ immune systems.
Filed under Digestion
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Filed under Anti-Aging, Digestion, Liver Health & Detox
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