Calcium
supplements cause heart problems in women?
Monday April 25, 2011 09:10:12 AM,
IANS
|
 |
Sydney:
There is growing evidence that calcium supplements increase the
risk of heart attacks among older women, say researchers.
Calcium supplements are often prescribed to older (postmenopausal)
women to maintain bone health. High blood calcium levels are
linked to calcification (hardening) of the arteries, which may
also help to explain these results.
Though the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, a seven-year
trial of over 36,000 women, found no cardiovascular effect of
taking combined calcium and vitamin D supplements, but a team led
by Prof Ian Reid at the University of Auckland, re-analysed the
WHI results to evaluate the effects of calcium supplements, with
or without vitamin D, on the risk of cardiovascular events, the
British Medical Journal reports, citing an Auckland varsity
statement.
Reid's team analysed data from 16,718 women who were not taking
personal calcium supplements at the start of the trial and found
that those allocated to combined calcium and vitamin D supplements
were at an increased risk of cardiovascular events, especially
heart attack.
Conversely, in women who were taking personal calcium supplements
at the start of the trial, combined calcium and vitamin D
supplements did not alter their usual cardiovascular risk.
The authors suspect that the abrupt change in blood calcium levels
after taking a supplement causes the adverse effect, rather than
it being related to the total amount of calcium consumed.
Further analyses -- adding data from 13 other trials, involving
29,000 people altogether -- also found consistent increases in the
risk of heart attack and stroke associated with taking calcium
supplements, with or without vitamin D.
These analyses led the study authors to conclude that these data
justify a reassessment of the use of calcium supplements in older
people.
|
Home |
Top of the Page |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top
Stories |
Make next
Five Year Plan panchayat-friendly, PM urged
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Sunday told by an official that
the current Five Year Plan was not panchayat-friendly and demanded
»
Plea to
increase welfare budget, scholarships for Muslims in 12th Plan
Next five
year plan to aim at double-digit growth: Ashwani Kumar |
|
Most
Read |
Hindu Spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba dies
Spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba who
has thousands of followers in India and abroad died Sunday of
cardiac and respiratory failure »
Sathya
Sai Baba: A village boy who became demi god
|
Kashmir
interlocutors deny proposing pre-1953 status
Distancing themselves from reports
that they were proposing reversing the clock to the pre-1953
semi-sovereign days, the three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir
said Sunday they had prepared
»
Hope in
Kashmir as interlocutors begin mission
|
|
News Pick |
Disused
railway lines between India, Bangladesh to be restored
India and Bangladesh have agreed to restore railway links in a bid
to enhance people-to-people contact and boost bilateral trade and
investments.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma met Bangladesh
»
|
Corruption, Jan Lokpal Bill and the Rule of Law
Corruption has become a major of
issue of concern for a good number of Indians in last few years.
The major scandals of recent past has shaken the ordinary people.
But are we, as citizens, serious to confront this menance once
» |
Sai
Baba's death leaves question mark on Rs.40,000 crore empire
The death of of the Hindu spiritual
leader, Sathya Sai Baba has left a question mark on the future of
the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT), estimated to have assets
worth Rs.40,000 crore ($9 billion). As Baba, who was chairperson
»
|
Ludhiana
to London: India-made stoles for royal wedding
Nearly 4,000 soft wool stoles have been shipped
for the eagerly awaited wedding of Prince William and Kate
Middleton in London this Friday, courtesy a Ludhiana manufacturer.
And the royal couple is also expected to take its pick.
»
|
Two
decades on, varsity topper to get gold medal
An
engineering graduate who topped his course in 1992 is likely to
get his gold medal now, with the Punjab and Haryana high court
directing Panjab University here to honour him.
Rubinderjit Singh Brar, a civil engineering graduate
» |
|
Picture of the Day |
 |
A free
blood testing camp at “Bharat Nirman Lok Mahiti Abhiyan”, at
Shahada, District Nandurbar, Maharashtra on April 22, 2011. |
|
|
|