Candy-Coated Calcium Chews
They call it “the delicious little chew.”
Following the trend of turning medicine into candy to boost its appeal, some pharmaceutical folks took the chalkiness out of bone-fortifying calcium by packing it into bite-sized milk chocolate or mochaccino-flavored sweets.
Viactiv Soft Calcium Chews, available in 12- or 60-count packs, are being targeted to women worried about osteoporosis, or those who have heard that calcium helps PMS. The chews have the consistency of soft caramels crossed with Starburst candies; are sweet, thanks to corn syrup and sugar; and have none of the tongue-coating sensation of chewable calcium tablets.
Billed as “active nutrition for women” by Mead Johnson Nutritionals, a chew provides 500 milligrams of calcium--half the daily requirement for most adults and a third of what post-menopausal women should consume. It’s fortified with 100 units of vitamin D--a quarter of what you need to aid calcium absorption--and half your day’s requirement of vitamin K.
At 20 calories and half a gram of fat, Viactiv won’t bust your diet, either.
Homeopathic Human Growth Hormone
Homeopathy is cashing in on the human growth hormone craze with an “age-defying restorative” formula promising to help you “get more out of life!”
Liddell Laboratories of Moraga, Calif., has rolled out Vital HGH, an under-the-tongue spray containing “homeopathic potencies of human growth hormone and other glandular extracts to relieve some of the symptoms accompanying aging or a rundown condition caused by overwork, stress and tension of today’s fast-paced life.”
Homeopathy, for you readers needing a refresher course, uses highly diluted extracts of various substances to encourage the body to heal itself. Vital HGH contains diluted human growth hormone, along with pituitary gland and liver extracts.
Doctor-prescribed human growth hormone, FDA-approved for people who are short in stature, is injected daily by youth-seekers who pony up thousands of dollars to improve muscle tone, memory and sex drive. Long-term side effects haven’t been established.
Promoters say the over-the-counter spray provides HGH benefits at low cost.
Michael Borkin, a former president of the California State Naturopathic Medical Assn., says Mexican studies found the spray raised blood levels of a particular growth factor, but would like to see research in this country. Despite promotional claims, he predicted that “the only observable reaction [users] are going to see is an increase of energy.”
Fax a Good Wish to Friends in Hospital
Want to send a get-well card but not sure you can depend on delivery? Well, join the ‘90s.
A group of Southland hospitals has a way for well-wishers to send greetings to patients with the push of a button.
Friends and relatives may log on to the Adventist Health/Southern California home page (https://www.AdventistHealthSoCal.com), click on “Create-a-Card” and choose a plain e-mail message or one with a design like a smiling sun created with typed characters.
Hit “send,” and the computer card is automatically relayed to a fax machine. Hospital personnel deliver it during designated hours.
“If a patient’s friend in Europe wants to send him a get-well wish, he could be recovered and back at home before it gets to him. But e-mail is instantaneous,” said Larry Davidson, the home page’s Web master.
The e-mail cards can reach patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, L.A.’s White Memorial Medical Center and Simi Valley Hospital.
Since the March 1998 start-up, nearly 500 e-mails have been sent; one patient received 72 in just three days.