Calcium Supplements: Do They Help or Harm?

Calcium supplements: do they help or harm?

Menopause. 2013 Jul 22;
Manson JE, Bassuk SS

Current recommendations for calcium intake call for 1,000 mg per day for women ages 19-50 and 1,200 mg per day for women over age 50 to ensure bone health. Given recent concerns that calcium supplements may raise risk for cardiovascular disease and kidney stones, women should aim to meet this recommendation primarily by eating a calcium-rich diet and taking calcium supplements only if needed to reach the RDA goal (often only ?500 mg per day in supplements is required). HubMed – eating

Associations between retrospective versus ecological momentary assessment measures of emotion and eating disorder symptoms in anorexia nervosa.

J Psychiatr Res. 2013 Jul 20;
Lavender JM, De Young KP, Anestis MD, Wonderlich SA, Crosby RD, Engel SG, Mitchell JE, Crow SJ, Peterson CB, Le Grange D

This study examined the unique associations between eating disorder symptoms and two emotion-related constructs (affective lability and anxiousness) assessed via distinct methodologies in anorexia nervosa (AN). Women (N = 116) with full or subthreshold AN completed baseline emotion and eating disorder assessments, followed by two weeks of ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Hierarchical regressions were used to examine unique contributions of baseline and EMA measures of affective lability and anxiousness in accounting for variance in baseline eating disorder symptoms and EMA dietary restriction, controlling for age, body mass index, depression, and AN diagnostic subtype. Only EMA affective lability was uniquely associated with baseline eating disorder symptoms and EMA dietary restriction. Anxiousness was uniquely associated with baseline eating disorder symptoms regardless of assessment method; neither of the anxiousness measures was uniquely associated with EMA dietary restriction. Affective lability and anxiousness account for variance in global eating disorder symptomatology; AN treatments targeting these emotion-related constructs may prove useful. HubMed – eating

Egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden.

Atherosclerosis. 2013 Aug; 229(2): 381-4
Chagas P, Caramori P, Galdino TP, Barcellos Cda S, Gomes I, Schwanke CH

To verify the association between egg consumption and coronary atherosclerotic burden.Observational study.Cardiac catheterization laboratory.Adult patients referred for coronary angiography.Socio-demographic data (age, education level, and occupation), cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, systemic hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and family history of coronary artery disease), and egg-eating habits were assessed using a research questionnaire. Egg consumption was divided into three categories: less than one egg a week; one egg a week; and more than one egg a week. Coronary atherosclerotic burden was assessed by a blinded interventional cardiologist using the Friesinger Score (FS) obtained from the coronary angiography. This score varies from 0 to 15 and evaluated each of the three main coronary arteries separately. For this analysis, the FS was divided into three categories: 0-4, 5-9, and 10-15.The study sample was composed of 382 adult patients; 241 patients (63.3%) were male. The average age was 60.3 ± 10.8 years (range 23-89 years). The egg-eating category was inversely associated with dyslipidemia (p < 0.05) but not with the other cardiovascular risk factors. A significant association was found between egg consumption and FS (p < 0.05), showing that patients who ate more than one egg a week had a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden. By multivariate analysis, the atherosclerotic burden was independently associated with sex, age, hypertension and egg consumption.In this observational study of patients undergoing coronary angiography, the consumption of more than one egg per week was associated with a lower coronary atherosclerotic burden. HubMed – eating

Risk factors for sporadic infection with Salmonella Infantis: a matched case-control study.

Epidemiol Infect. 2013 Jul 23; 1-6
Bassal R, Reisfeld A, Nissan I, Agmon V, Taran D, Schemberg B, Cohen D, Shohat T

SUMMARY This matched case-control study investigated the risk factors for sporadic Salmonella Infantis infection in 263 affected children and 263 age-, gender- and neighbourhood-matched controls. Information about exposure to potential risk factors was obtained via telephone interview and evaluated by conditional logistic regression analysis. Age groups ?1 year (n = 77) and >1 year (n = 186) were analysed separately. Of those aged ?1 year, breastfeeding was a significant protective factor against infection [matched odds ratio (mOR) 0·24, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·10-0·59, P < 0·01]. In the older group, consumption of eggs (mOR 1·87, 95% CI 1·00-3·49, P = 0·05) was a significant risk factor and thawing chicken in water (mOR 2·55, 95% CI 0·94-6·91, P = 0·07) was borderline risk factor, while consumption of carrots (mOR 0·46, 95% CI 0·26-0·83, P < 0·01), drinking tap water (mOR 0·44, 95% CI 0·22-0·85, P = 0·02), religious lifestyle (mOR 0·40, 95% CI 0·21-0·74, P < 0·01) and having a high number of children in the household (mOR 0·72, 95% CI 0·58-0·88, P < 0·01) were significant protective factors. Consumers should avoid eating undercooked eggs and food handlers should be educated regarding proper handling and cooking of eggs. Breastfeeding should be strongly encouraged by public health authorities. The public must be educated on stringent hygiene practices, especially proper cooking of eggs to reduce infection rates. HubMed – eating

MEDTALK EP32 – EATING DISORDERS
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