WOMEN NEED CALCIUM AND VITAMIN A FOR STRONG BONES AFTER
MENOPAUSE
Recent research shows that women who are at least five years past menopause receive great benefit from maintaining their intake of calcium. Researchers point out that just getting the RDA of calcium—800 to 1,200 milligrams— significantly reduces the the risk of bone loss.
After menopause, a woman’s protection against most bone loss—her natural hormones—ends and bone loss accelerates. If the woman’s diet is low in calcium the likelihood of bone loss increases even further. According to a study at the Human Nutrition Research Center of Aging at Tufts University in Boston, older women who get less than 400 milligrams of calcium a day get the greatest benefit by increasing calcium intake. The postmenopausal women who were consuming 400 to 650 milligrams of calcium a d9y did not benefit from the increase.
The study also showed that calcium carbonate did not seem to help women with low calcium intakes, but calcium citrate malate—available only in calcium fortified juices—did.
A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition
Research Center on Aging, in Boston suggests that the process of maintaining healthy bones requires plenty of vitamin D as well as calcium. Researchers say it is especially important for postmenopausal women who live in colder climates. Apparently, women in cold climates tend to suffer bone loss in the winter because they don’t get enough sunlight, which helps the body to produce vitamin D.
Women who were involved in the study, and who were getting the RDA for calcium and took 400 I Us of vitamin D each day (twice the RDA for women) suffered less bone loss in winter than a group of women taking only calcium and serving as the control group for the study.
The results of the study led the researchers to recommend that postmenopausal women eat adequate amounts of vitamin D-fortified foods including skim milk and other low-fat dairy products. Some women may even want to consider taking a multivitamin tablet containing the RDA for vitamin D, but should do so only under a doctor’s supervision.
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