PERSONAL HEALTH : Calcium May Be a Girl’s Best Friend
Adding a modest calcium supplement to the diets of adolescent girls can significantly help build bone and protect them from future ravages of osteoporosis, the brittle-bone disorder that develops in an estimated 25 million Americans, a study has found.
According to an 18-month study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, 354 milligrams of calcium citrate malate--about the amount of calcium found in one cup of skim milk--added to the daily diet of girls ages 12 to 14 boosted the rate of bone-building by 20%.
Continuing bone growth at this rate for as little as four years, said Tom Lloyd, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study, could result in a 50% reduction in the risk of osteoporosis in later life.
The trouble, Lloyd said, is that most American girls consume only 70% of the recommended dietary allowance (1,200 milligrams) for calcium, and “in teen-age years, that figure drops to 60%.”
Half of the 94 participants in the study took pills containing 354 milligrams a day of calcium citrate malate. The other half took placebo pills containing no calcium.
