Healthy Life For us

March 26, 2015 A calculation error may have skewed the vitamin D recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS),  Institute of Medicine (IOM). They are far too low, by a factor of ten, say researchers at UC San Diego and Creighton University. Researchers submitted a letter of challenge, published in the journal Nutrients,   which confirmed a calculation error that was also noted by other investigators using a data set from a different population. Dr. Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H., adjunct professor at UC San Diego’s Department of Family Medicine and Public Health said his group confirmed findings published by Dr. Paul Veugelers from the University of Alberta School of Public Health, which were reported last October in the same journal. “Both these studies suggest that the IOM underestimated the requirement substantially,” said Garland. “The error has broad implications for public health regarding disease prevention and achieving the stated goal of ensuring that the who...

From Susan Brown, PhD Answering the question “how big is the bang from osteoporosis drugs?” can be quite challenging. One reason is that the statistical calculations are complex and highly manipulated making them difficult to understand. Another is that the subjects included in the drug studies are generally highly-selected and may not represent “real-world” populations. Recently scientists took an important step to help us separate hype from reality in regard to the benefits of bone drugs. Researchers asked if “real-world” patients taking bone drugs received the same fracture-reduction benefits seen in the clinical trials. After analysis of hundreds of studies, they found that highly compliant, “real world” patients on osteoporosis drugs experienced a 21% reduction in all clinical fractures. This compares to the 24% overall clinical fracture reduction experienced by subjects in osteoporosis drug clinical trials. What a different messages than we often hear  — such as how bone drug...