Calcium pills alone will not prevent bone loss

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 8

Calcium pills alone will not prevent bone loss

NZPA-AP San Francisco Calcium pills alone will not prevent bone loss in women shortly after menopause, but they can reduce the side effects of treatment with estrogen by allowing lower doses of the hormone, researchers reported recently. The first study to assess the effect over time of calcium supplements on spongy bone in the spine also suggests it is important for menopausal women to consider early treatment to prevent, rapid bone loss and osteoporosis, the researchers said.

Although other studies have questioned the value of calcium supplements given alone, theK researchers at the Ugjver-

sity of California-San Francisco and the San Francisco Kaiser Permanente Medical Centre said their study is conclusive.

"Our research is the nail in the coffin, said Dr Harry Genant, a professor of radiology, medicine and orthosurgery at the university. “Calcium simply isn’t an adequate alternative to estrogen to prevent postmenopausal bone loss, but it apparently does allow a woman to gain the same protection from a much lower estrogen dose.” The two-year study, published in the annals of internal medicine, was led by Dr Bruce Ettinger, clinical professor of medicine and radiology at the university and an endo-

crinologist at Kaiser.

The team noted that although calcium pills alone failed to prevent rapid bone loss soon after menopause, it is unknown whether they could help prevent such bone loss much later. The researchers also said that high calcium intake may be useful in women with - calcium malabsorption, a disorder that develops most frequently after age 60. Osteoporosis, a loss of bone strength that afflicts some 15 - 20 million Americans, may beccome so severe that spinal bones crumble from the stress of the body’s wejght. The disease is m£®[ common in postmenopausal women.

The female hormone estrogen plays an important role in maintaining calcium in the skeleton, Genant said, and estrogen levels drop rapidly after women stop menstruating. He said loss of mineral in the spongy bone of the spine, now considered the most sensitive site for assessing bone density, is about 5 per cent a year — faster than that in peripheral bones such as those in ; the wrist, which previously- have been used to monitor bone loss. “This means it is even more important than we thought for menopausal women to consider treatment early, not after five or 10 years, when the damage may already tee doneF he said. T