Word: calcium
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...least that's the idea. Cardiac CT is not foolproof. Unlike catheterization, it doesn't yet produce clear enough pictures of some of the smaller arteries of the heart. And any arterial plaques that contain calcium deposits, which typically appear in older people, show up like white blobs, so that the blockage could be partial or total (see box). Then there's the issue of radiation. A typical cardiac CT scan exposes a patient to 50 to 80 times the amount of radiation in a series of full-mouth dental X rays. Researchers hope to figure out ways to decrease...
...early warning that a heart attack might be around the corner. Then came c-reactive protein. And now that doctors can get a better look at what's inside your heart arteries, they are taking a new interest in something they have always known was present in problem vessels: calcium. Hospitals, clinics and even gyms are touting quick and easy scans that can measure the amount of calcium in your coronary arteries in minutes. But while calcium scores can be helpful, doctors caution that using them to predict who is at risk of heart disease isn't always straightforward...
Every schoolchild knows that milk is a natural source of the calcium needed to build strong bones and healthy teeth. Now grownups may also have a good reason to drink (fat-free) milk. A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that calcium may help protect adults from cancer of the large intestine, a sometimes fatal disease that has afflicted some 138,000 Americans this year--including President Reagan, who had surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his colon last July...
...study, conducted by Dr. Martin Lipkin and Harold Newmark at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, ten people with typical Western-style high-fat diets and family histories of colon cancer were given 1.2 grams, 1½ times the recommended daily allowance, of calcium, which acts to neutralize bile acids. After only two to three months, tests of their colon linings showed that the number of fast-growing cells associated with cancer had significantly decreased. More study is needed, but at least one expert has already urged adults to drink a quart of fat-free milk...
...DEFENSE IN THE DAIRY CASE A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D can stave off the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. Women in the study fared best when they got four daily servings of low-fat or skim milk. Is that too much milk? Try fortified orange juice or such low-fat dairy foods as yogurt and cheese...