Calcium is an essential mineral found in foods and dietary supplements. Its best-known benefit is building and maintaining strong bones, and slowing bone loss. But it plays a critical role in heart health, nerve transmission, and muscle contraction.
Which calcium supplements are the best, most effective, and budget-friendly?
A new review published by ConsumerLab.com — a leading provider of consumer information and independent evaluations of products that affect health and nutrition — aims to answer those questions by ranking the best available supplements on the market.
All 27 products contained the listed amount of calcium. But one product was not approved because it did not contain the listed amount of magnesium and also was contaminated with lead. A second product – labeled as “fast dissolving” – was not approved because it did not dissolve quickly enough.
The other 25 products all had consistently high quality.
Prices varied widely, ranging from 4-80 cents for a 500 mg dose of calcium.
Based on the organization’s research findings, the review’s authors identified a Top Pick for each of nine categories. To be a Top Pick, a supplement had to pass ConsumerLab’s tests of quality, provide calcium at a reasonable price, contain a reasonable dose, and offer a convenient formulation.
The nine Top Picks are:
Overall Top Pick. GNC Calcium Citrate, which provides 500 mg of calcium per two-caplet serving at a cost of 9 cents. This supplement is also the Top Pick in the “Calcium Only” category.
Calcium and Vitamin D. Bayer Citracal Petites, which provide 400 mg of calcium and 500 IU of vitamin D per two-capsule serving for 11 cents.
Children’s Calcium and Vitamin D. L’il Critters Calcium and D3, which provides 200 mg of calcium and 220 IU of vitamin D in two gummies for 10 cents.
Calcium and Magnesium. Finest Nutrition (Walgreens) Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc, which provides 999 mg of calcium and 399 mg of magnesium in three tablets for 17 cents.
Calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin K. Viactiv Calcium Plus D, which provides 500 mg of calcium, 500 IU of vitamin D, and 40 mcg of vitamin K in one soft-chew pill for 10 cents.
Calcium, Vitamin D and Magnesium. Kirkland Signature (Costco) Calcium Citrate Magnesium and Zinc, which provides 500 mg of calcium, 800 IU of vitamin D, and 80 mg of magnesium in two tablets for 5 cents.
Children’s Products Containing Calcium, Vitamin D and Magnesium. ChildLife Liquid Calcium With Magnesium – Natural Flavor, which provides 252 mg of calcium, 100 IU of vitamin D, and 115 mg of magnesium per tablespoon for 34 cents.
Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin K and Magnesium. Jarrow Formulas Bone-Up, which provides 1,000 mg of calcium, 1,000 IU of vitamin D, and 350 mg of magnesium in three capsules for 47 cents. (Note: Because this supplement may contain unnecessarily high amounts of calcium and vitamin D, the report’s authors recommend taking a two-capsule dose instead.)
Most adults need 1,000-1,200 mg of calcium per day, from all sources. These include food, supplements, and an often overlooked source: calcium-containing antacids.
Because you may already be getting that amount from food alone, supplementation may be unnecessary. Rich dietary sources of calcium include dairy products, beans, and green-leafy vegetables. For example, just one cup of milk or yogurt provides a whopping 300-400 mg of calcium.
If you’re not getting the recommended amount of calcium from your diet, supplements can help. Multiple studies show that 1,000-2,000 mg per day of calcium (usually as calcium citrate) in combination with 400-800 IU per of vitamin D can slow bone loss in postmenopausal women. Research shows that supplementation may be especially useful in in postmenopausal women who have been prescribed hormonal therapy after undergoing a hysterectomy.
The official tolerable upper limits for calcium are 2,500 mg per day for children ages 1-8, 3,000 mg for those ages 8-18, which falls to 2,000 mg for those over 50. But much lower amounts, usually from supplements, have been associated with risks for adults.
It’s rare to get toxic amounts of calcium from food alone. In fact, a high dietary intake of calcium is associated with many good effects. But excess calcium from supplements is associated with a wide range of ill effects.
“Be careful!” the authors write. “Calcium from supplements may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease if you get too much from supplements [over 1,000 mg per day] or if you already get enough calcium from your diet.”
A high calcium intake from supplements also may increase the risk of:
Prostate cancer.
Kidney stones.
Dementia.
Calcium supplements also may impair the absorption of thyroid hormone and antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone class.
If you take calcium supplements, the researchers offer these tips.
Since your body can’t absorb more than 500 mg of calcium at a time, it’s best to take only a few hundred milligrams at a time, and no more than 1,000 mg total per day.
If your supplement includes vitamin D and/or vitamin K, taking it with the meal that includes the most fats and oils may enhance absorption.
Avoid taking calcium supplements and other mineral supplements together because the calcium may reduce their absorption.
It’s time to bring out the outdoor grill, clean it up, and start preparing memorable meals this weekend. But experts warn that grilling can be dangerous to your health if you don’t take some basic precautions.
“I love how food tastes when it’s prepared on a grill,” says renowned chef Gerard Viverito, an associate professor in culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.
“It’s so much fun to create a meal outdoors with family and friends nearby. But while outdoor cooking is an American tradition, common mistakes, such as marinating with the wrong oil, and improper preparation and storing of food, can lead to disaster.”
Gerard, a well-known radio and television figure whose culinary emphasis is using nutritional ingredients to gain healthful results, tells Newsmax Health the key to a happy, and healthy holiday meal, involves careful planning. Here are his tips:
Before you grill:
Thaw meat in the refrigerator. Defrosting food on the counter encourages the growth of disease causing pathogens such as listeria and salmonella.
Thaw proteins completely before grilling. “That’s the best way to ensure your food cooks evenly,” says Gerard. “Use a meat thermometer in the thicket part to ensure doneness.” Healthy internal temperatures are: poultry, 180 degrees; burgers, 160 degrees; pork 160 degrees; and steaks, 145 for medium rare and 160 degrees for medium.
If you are marinating, avoid using olive oil which can break down at high temperatures into dangerous carcinogens. Gerard prefers using Malaysian sustainable palm oil that can stand up to high heat.
Wash your hands thoroughly before transferring food to the grill.
Cooking with charcoal or propane:
To avoid inhaling smoke and help prevent accidental fire, position the grill away from your house, and out from under eaves and tree branches. Each year, home grilling is responsible for thousands of home fires and burns that require hospital care.
Start with a clean grill. A buildup of extra grease and fat can cause a flash fire, in addition to contaminating your food with potential carcinogens.
Only use charcoal starter fluid with a charcoal grill. Stay safe by never adding flammable fluid once a fire has started. And if your grill does catch fire, the safest way to extinguish the flame is to close the top of the grill and turn off the gas.
Keep meat and vegetables separate on a grill. You want to keep meat drippings from falling on your vegetables. “That’s because vegetables don’t cook long enough to destroy any bacteria present in the drippings,” says Gerard.
Serving your food:
Always transfer cooked food onto a clean latter. Don’t use the same plate that you just used for the raw food.
Keep food hot until it’s served. Move it off the fire but keep it on the warm grill or use a hot plate. Hot Logic hotlogicmini.com/collections/buy-now, a Michigan-based company, produces a series of low-cost covered hot plates and mini ovens that can keep food warm until it’s ready to be eaten. “Very hot food and very cold food is the safest, but since most people like to eat foods somewhere in the middle, this can be a problem,” says Gerard. “We call it the temperature danger zone where bacteria multiply exponentially.”
Throw away any burned or charred portions before eating. The char and soot may contain dangerous chemicals or carcinogens.
Keep flies away from food. Use food covers to keep insects from sharing your meal and spreading germs.
Treat leftovers with care:
Refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible to reduce the risk of food spoilage and poisoning.
Discard food that’s been sitting out for two hours or more. “I go crazy when I see people eating potato salad made with mayonnaise that’s been left outside for hours,” says Dr. Kevin Rodgers, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. “Don’t take a chance if food safety is questionable. Food poisoning can cause serious dehydration through vomiting and diarrhea.”
Don’t eat unwashed fruits or veggies. “It’s also important to wash all produce, like those tasty tomatoes you are serving over the burgers or the salad greens,” warns Gerard. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that salad greens caused 8,838 cases of food borne illness between 1998 and 2008, so always be diligent in washing lettuce, escarole, spinach, cabbage, kale and arugula before serving.”
“Grilling is fun and delicious,” says Gerard. “With a few precautions, you can keep food-borne pathogens, fires, and exposure to carcinogens from spoiling one of best warm weather pastimes.”
Eating more fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of peripheral artery disease, according to a study of more than 3.6 million individuals in the U.S.
“We hope that studies like this can be an important reminder of the role we as consumers have on heart disease and stroke,” Dr. Jeffrey S. Berger from New York University School of Medicine told Reuters Health. “We often remember to take our medication, yet studies like this should remind us to eat our fruits and veggies every day. Moreover, we should continue reminding our young generation of this importance now before disease develops.”
Past research has linked fruit and vegetable consumption to a lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, but there has been little research into the effects of fruits and vegetables on arteries in the legs and arms, Berger’s team writes in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.
Peripheral artery disease, or PAD, usually arises as a narrowing of arteries to the legs that causes cramping, pain or tiredness in the muscles while walking or climbing stairs. It affects at least 8 to 12 million Americans.
Risk for PAD increases with age, and with a history of smoking, diabetes or high blood pressure.
To investigate whether fruit and vegetable consumption influences risk for PAD, Berger’s team analyzed dietary data on 3,696,778 men and women with an average age of about 65, around 234,000 of whom had PAD.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture/U.S. Health and Human Services Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend at least two servings of fruit and at least three servings of vegetables each day, but only 29 percent of participants in the study said they ate even three servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
Nearly half said they consumed at least three servings of fruit and vegetables on fewer than half the days of the week.
Older white women were most likely to consume fruits and vegetables regularly, and younger black men were least likely to eat at least three servings daily.
Fruit and vegetable consumption also varied by region, with those living in the Pacific states reporting the most regular consumption and those living in the South Central states reporting the least regular consumption.
After adjusting for age, sex, race and other risk factors, the more fruits and vegetables the participants ate, the lower their likelihood of having PAD.
When researchers divided participants according to their smoking status, they found the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and PAD was strongest among current smokers, less significant among former smokers and not significant among people who never smoked.
“Unfortunately, fruit and vegetable intake is quite low across the entire United States,” Berger said by email.
“Something as simple as eating fruits and vegetables could have a major impact on the prevalence of a life-altering disease, such as peripheral artery disease,” he said.
“Watch what you eat,” Berger advised. “And pay careful attention to eat fruits and vegetables every single day.”
“Increasing fruit and vegetable intake is important and can have far reaching health benefits,” said Dr. Michelle L. Redmond from University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, who wasn’t involved in the study.
To get people to up their intake of greens, she said by email, “First, one must take into consideration factors that influence behaviors such as access and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables (how do you change or lessen certain barriers to fruit/vegetable intake). Then design interventions or campaigns that are tailored to specific audiences to motivate and increase fruit/vegetable consumption. Finally, there is also a need to increase nutrition literacy.”
Getting people to eat more fruits and vegetables is a challenge in other countries, too, noted Dr. Miguel A. Martinez-Gonzalez from University of Navarra Medical School in Spain, who wasn’t involved in the study. He acknowledged the special importance of fruit and vegetable consumption for smokers but, he told Reuters Health, “This advice should be given to everybody.”
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It�s not just you: Many people are turned off by the thought of exercise because they think it has to be intense or time-consuming. But the findings of a new study published in the journal BMC Public Health suggests that people could learn to enjoy being active simply by tweaking those beliefs and expectations.
So says the study�s lead author Michelle Segar, director of the University of Michigan�s Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center, who�s spent years researching what motivates people to get and stay physically fit. (She�s also author of No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness.) Too often, she says, people begin exercise programs to lose weight, and quit when they don�t shed pounds right away.
In her new study, she and her colleagues asked 40 women about what really makes them feel happy and successful. Then they analyzed how their views about working out either fostered or undermined those feelings. The diverse group of women were all between ages 22 and 49.
All of the women�whether they were regular exercisers or not�turned out to want the same things out of life: to have meaningful connections with others, to feel relaxed and free of pressure during their leisure time and to accomplish the goals they�d set for themselves, whether in their personal lives, their careers or simply their daily to-do lists.
The big difference, the researchers found, was that women who were inactive viewed exercise as counterproductive to those things. In order for exercise to be valid, they thought, it had to be seriously heart-pumping and sweat-inducing�the complete opposite of the �relaxing� feeling they wanted from their free time.
They also felt that following an exercise program took up too much time and put too much pressure on them, and that it was too difficult to commit to a schedule and meet expectations, leaving them feeling like failures.
But women in the study who were regularly active didn�t share these views. For them, exercise went hand-in-hand with their desires for social connectivity, relaxing leisure time and feeling accomplished.
That shift in mindset has to happen for women who aren�t currently active, says Segar. �These women feel alienated by exercise, or feel that they�ve failed when they tried it in the past,� she says. �They have a very narrow definition of what exercise should look like.�
Segar says that definition comes from decades of messaging from fitness companies and older scientific research that suggesting that high-intensity activity is the only way for exercise to be worthwhile. �That�s no longer true,� she says. �The new recommendations for physical activity really open the door for people to pretty much do anything that works for them.�
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that for �substantial health benefits,� adults should get 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking. It�s true that additional benefits can be gained from more (or more intense) exercise, but Segar says this is a good starting point for many Americans who currently lead sedentary lives.
Instead of thinking about exercise as an alternative to enjoying free time or socializing with friends, she recommends framing it as a way to make those things happen. �Women need to give themselves permission to use physical activity as a way to relax�to get together with friends or loved ones and take a leisurely stroll, simply because being active and outdoors boosts their mood and makes them feel good.�
While walking is an easy way to squeeze in more movement throughout the day, she also encourages people to get creative. �If you liked biking as a kid, rent a bike and see if it still feels good,� she says. �Play tag with your kids, take a dance class or even just climb the stairs a few extra times while you�re doing chores around the house.�
Most importantly, Segar says, people need to know that any physical activity is better than no physical activity. �You don�t have to do 30 minutes at a time, you don�t have to sweat and you don�t have to hate whatever it is you�re doing,� she says. �You just have to choose to move when you see opportunities.�
New research has found yet another way that the current levels of air pollution is impacting our health, this time by disrupting our sleep.
Presented at the ATS (American Thoracic Society) 2017 International Conference, the findings suggest that high levels of air pollution not only affect heart health, breathing, and lung function, as found in previous studies, but also sleep quality.
For the new research the team analyzed data from 1,863 participants with an average age 68, who were taking part in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and both of MESA’s Sleep and Air Pollution studies.
The study looked at the effects of two of the most common air pollutants — NO2, a traffic-related pollutant gas, and PM2.5, or fine-particle pollution — and estimated exposure to air pollution at each participant’s home both one year and five years into the study.
Participants wore a wrist device for a seven-day period to measure their sleep and activity, and calculate “sleep efficiency” — a measure of the percentage of time in bed spent asleep vs. awake.
After finding that 25 percent of participants had a sleep efficiency of 88 percent or less, the team decided to look at whether exposure to pollution was impacting the sleep of this low efficiency group.
The group was divided into four according to levels of pollution, with the team comparing those who experienced the highest levels of pollution with those who experienced the lowest levels.
After taking into account various factors including age, body mass, obstructive sleep apnea, race/ethnicity, income and smoking status, the results showed that those exposed to the highest levels of NO2 over five years had an almost 60 percent increased chance of having low sleep efficiency compared to those with the lowest NO2 levels.
Those exposed to the highest levels of small particulates (PM2.5) had a nearly 50 percent increased chance of having low sleep efficiency.
Lead author Martha E. Billings, commented that, “We thought an effect was likely given that air pollution causes upper airway irritation, swelling and congestion, and may also affect the central nervous system and brain areas that control breathing patterns and sleep.”
However, she also added that further research is needed in order to look at an association between sleep and other air pollutants not included in this study, as well as how pollutants may disrupt sleep patterns. Another possibility is that it is traffic noise rather than pollutants that is contributing to poor sleep quality.
“There may be acute sleep effects to short-term exposure to high pollution levels as well, but we lacked the data to study that link,” added Dr. Billings.
From depression and daytime sleepiness to difficulty concentrating, new Australian research suggests that women are more sensitive than men to the effects of sleep disorders in their daily lives.
Researchers at the SleepGP clinic in Coolangatta, Australia, set out to investigate how men and women may be affected differently by sleep disorders in their day-to-day lives.
Scientists studied 744 patients, who received sleep-related healthcare from seven private general practices in Australia between 2013 and 2015. They were assessed via several sleep-related tests, including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and other questionnaires.
The scientists found that women were more likely to have sleep disorders associated with daytime sleepiness (49% compared to 36.9 % for men). Women were also more likely to report an increased burden of symptoms linked to sleepiness.
The study found that women were more likely to feel excessively tired or depressed, have difficulty concentrating or remembering things, and have more trouble sleeping at night.
In addition, male snoring was more likely than female snoring to force bed partners to sleep in different rooms.
The study results are published in the May 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
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