Could too much calcium be bad for your heart?

NEW YORK - In a new analysis from the National Institutes of Health, men who took calcium tablets were more likely to die of heart disease over more than a decade than those who didn't get extra calcium in supplement form.

"The effect of supplemental or dietary calcium on heart disease has always been a bit of an unanswered story," said Howard Sesso, a preventive medicine researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"It could be that when you take supplements, maybe you're taking doses that far exceed what you need," he added. But it's still unclear how that might raise cardiovascular risks.

The new findings are based on a study of close to 400,000 middle-aged Americans initiated in 1995 to 1996.

Study volunteers answered questions about their lifestyle, general health and diet, including use of supplements. Researchers then tracked how many of them died, and from what causes, over the next 12 years.

About half of men and more than two-thirds of women said they took calcium supplements or multivitamins containing calcium at the outset.

During the study period, almost 12,000 people - or about 3% - died of cardiovascular disease.

Qian Xiao from the National Cancer Institute and her colleagues found men who took 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day or more were 20% more likely to die of heart-related causes than those who passed on calcium supplements. That was after the researchers took into account men's age, race and weight, as well as other measures of diet and lifestyle.

However, there was no link between calcium supplements and heart disease deaths in women. And calcium from food and beverages wasn't tied to heart problems in men or women, the research team wrote Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

It's possible that calcium build-up in the arteries and veins may affect cardiovascular risks in some people, Xiao wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

No cause-effect link

But Sesso, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health he wasn't sure why, biologically, calcium supplements would be linked to a higher risk of heart problems in men but not women.

The findings don't prove a cause-and-effect link between the supplements and heart problems. It's possible there were certain differences between men who did or didn't take extra calcium that the research team couldn't measure.

"Although we observed an increased risk of death from heart disease in men who reported taking supplements containing calcium, we cannot say for sure that it was a result of using those supplements," Xiao said.

According to Sesso, the study won't change the fact that calcium supplements are typically recommended for reasons not related to heart disease - such as to prevent fracture risk in older adults who don't get enough calcium through food.

Eating a balanced diet and keeping a healthy weight are as or more important than any supplement when it comes to cardiovascular health, Sesso said.

"If you have a good diet in the first place, a supplement might not be adding all that much," he said.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

NFL players union funds $100M Harvard study on injury

BOSTON - The union that represents U.S. professional football players has given Harvard University a $100 million grant for a study of the range of health problems, from brain damage to heart conditions, that affect current and former players.

Researchers with Harvard Medical School plan to spend a decade studying hundreds of former players who are members of the National Football League Players Association, university officials said on Tuesday. The aim is to develop strategies to limit the long-term damage that players suffer from years of hits on the field.

The recent suicides of a spate of former NFL players, including 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau, have raised concerns about the toll that blows to the head take on the brains of current and former players.

Scientists have found that years of steady, small hits can lead to a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which at its start can cause victims to have a hard time concentrating on small tasks and eventually can lead to aggression and dementia.

The worries are not limited to the pros, who are part of a $9 billion U.S. industry. Parents of players, from peewee leagues to college, have raised concerns about the game and leagues have changed rules to limit hits to the head.

Those concerns reach all the way to the White House.

"I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football," President Barack Obama said in an interview with the New Republic magazine published on Sunday, a week before the Super Bowl championship will be played in New Orleans.

Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier said the research would aim to address health concerns at all levels of play.

"Millions of kids and college athletes play football, formally and informally," Flier said in a statement on the school's website. "We cannot afford to ignore the health risks associated with this sport."

Harvard researchers plan to identify a group of at least 1,000 retired NFL players from around the country and focus their study on 100 healthy and 100 unhealthy former players.

The NFL lauded the move.

"We look forward to learning more about the Harvard study and hope that it will play an important role in advancing medical science," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

The league faces lawsuits from more than 2,000 former players who say NFL management concealed information about the risk of chronic brain injury to players. It has begun to change the rules of the game to lower the risks, including sharply penalizing the most dangerous helmet-on-helmet hits.

Seau's family sued the NFL this month, saying brain damage he suffered during his 20 years in the league led to his suicide. A study by independent researchers found that Seau, 43, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy - the same debilitating brain disease diagnosed in at least two other former NFL players who committed suicide.

The NFL has said the findings about Seau's brain underscored "the recognized need for additional research to accelerate a fuller understanding of CTE." League teams have donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health for research.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Dan Grebler)

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Orange vegetables may reduce breast cancer

U.S. researchers found women with the highest levels of carotenoids -- found in produce -- in their blood had the lowest risk of breast cancer.

A. Heather Eliassen of the Channing Division of Network Medicine, the Department of Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, conducted an analysis of eight studies involving 80 percent of the world's published prospective data on plasma or serum carotenoids and breast cancer.

The analysis included 3,055 case subjects and 3,956 matched control subjects.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found in more than 3,000 case subjects, there were statistically significantly inverse associations between circulating levels of individual and total carotenoids and breast cancer risk, with a stronger finding in estrogen receptor-breast cancers -- breast cancers that grow in response to the hormone estrogen.

"The inverse associations we observed among ER-negative tumors highlight carotenoids as one of the first modifiable risk factors for this poor prognosis tumor type," the study authors wrote in the study.

Some evidence has shown that carotenoids inhibit the growth of ER-positive breast cancers as well, it's possible that its effect is hidden by hormone related associations which overpower other risk factors. Still, the researchers said: "A diet high in carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables offers many health benefits, including a possible reduced risk of breast cancer."

The website the World's Healthiest Foods said foods that contain carotenoids include:

-- The orange-colored fruits and vegetables such as carrots, apricots, mangoes, squash, papaya, and sweet potatoes contain significant amounts of beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin.

-- Green vegetables, especially spinach, kale and collard greens, also contain beta-carotene, and are the best sources of lutein.

-- Lycopene is found in tomatoes, guava, and pink grapefruit.

-- Salmon, shellfish, milk and egg yolks also provide carotenoids.

source: upi.com