Word: calcium
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...heard this story before? Does the phrase "water pill" ring a bell? Three years ago another big NIH study showed that a cheap, old-fashioned diuretic (a.k.a. water pill) worked better for most folks with high blood pressure than did costly, cutting-edge medications. (These included a calcium-channel blocker and an ACE inhibitor). Then there's the sad lesson of Vioxx and its ilk. That category of painkillers captured a $5 billion-a-year market on the celebrated promise that they were safer than older, cheaper analgesics like Tylenol or Advil. In this case, as the nation learned when...
...dilute solution of ammonium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, a fungicide and gelling agent in water -- has been used for cleaning stone. But on stone it is left for between one and 24 hours and is strengthened by the disodium salt of EDTA, a substance that aids in the removal of calcium compounds; on the Sistine frescoes it is used in a weak solution, in varying applications lasting at most three minutes. It is an efficient solvent but a bland reagent. The fear that the cleaning has taken off any of Michelangelo's a secco passages seems unfounded. According to Colalucci, these...
Ever since the 1700s, when doctors discovered bony material in heart vessels, physicians have known that some blood-vessel cells can morph into bony tissue. Now we know that excess cholesterol tends to trigger this process in the arteries that feed the heart. Calcium can then build up in the vessels and stiffen them, laying the foundation for heart disease. Getting one's calcium score is as simple as getting a quick injection of a contrast agent in the arm and a zap from an ultrafast X ray, either by electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) or by multidetector CT. Studies...
...that doesn't mean everyone with a high calcium score is headed for a heart attack. For one thing, as we age, we tend to build up more plaque, and therefore more fat and calcium, in our arteries. Thus higher calcium numbers in young people are a more significant indicator of potential problems than they would be in the elderly. It also turns out that even two people of the same age with the same calcium scores don't necessarily have the same heart-disease risk. Like cholesterol, coronary calcium is only one of many risk factors that determine...
...should get their hearts scanned for a calcium score, and who should be worried if the number is high? So far, studies show that scans are best at predicting heart problems in those with several risk factors: high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, a family history of heart disease. "The question for these people is, How aggressive should their treatment be?" says Dr. Matthew Budoff, a cardiologist at UCLA. "Do we put them on a statin for the rest of their lives or tell them to just watch their diet? Knowing how much calcium they have could help inform this decision...