TUESDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- The calcium tablets taken by millions of postmenopausal women to reduce their risk of osteoporosis may be contributing to an increase in heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

The findings might mean doctors shouldn't prescribe the supplement so freely.

"There are data from other recent studies showing an upward trend in heart attacks with calcium use, so we think this is likely to be a real finding," said study senior author Dr. Ian Reid, of the faculty of medical and health sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. "It is likely that this is primarily a problem for elderly women, because they are more likely than younger subjects to have prevalent coronary heart disease. Therefore, it seems wise to advise against calcium supplementation in those over the age of 70 years and in those known to have coronary heart disease."

"This is the most upsetting study. Osteoporosis is a major issue that we're trying to deal with as we get older, and we've been talking about calcium supplementation to prevent osteoporosis," added Dr. Susan Steinbaum, director of Women and Heart Disease at the Heart and Vascular Institute at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "There's a huge group of women trying to stay healthy [by taking calcium], and now we're being told that, in fact, this is something that can hurt you... It's very, very frustrating."

Steinbaum added, however, that while the results can't be ignored, the study may not be large enough to justify taking women off calcium supplements just yet. "Preventive medicine is not something that can be standardized per person," she said. "It needs to be individualized."

The pharmaceutical industry does not necessarily agree with these points.

In a statement, Pamela Mason, a nutritionist and spokeswoman for the Health Supplements Information Service, which is funded by several pharmaceutical companies, said, "Calcium is an essential mineral, vital for bone health and nerve and muscle function. The results of this study certainly do not suggest that people should lower their calcium intakes below the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount). Indeed, because of the importance of calcium, it remains imperative for people to achieve the RDA."

Still another expert weighed in on the study's importance.

"This suggests very weakly that these other effects of calcium supplementation need to be paid attention to. It's a very good study in that sense," said Dr. Bernard Roos, director of geriatrics research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Miami VA. "The effect they're reporting is very small. I don't believe that it should change people's behavior. I believe the conclusion that they drew is fair: This should just alert you to the possibility that it's a potentially detrimental effect."

Roos also pointed out that healthy postmenopausal women, such as those participating in this analysis, would not be expected to be taking calcium anyway. "Healthy postmenopausal women, by definition, don't have osteoporosis, so if you don't have osteoporosis, why are you so worried about taking anything if you're healthy?" he said.

Prior evidence had indicated that calcium supplementation might protect against vascular disease, because it increases the ratio of HDL or "good" cholesterol to LDL or "bad" cholesterol by almost 20 percent. There is also evidence that calcium reduces blood pressure (albeit only briefly). And people who live in areas with calcium-rich water seem to have a lower risk of cardiovascular problems.

But the overall evidence, especially in older women, is inconsistent, stated the study authors.

And any negative heart effect would have to be taken seriously given that postmenopausal women have a higher incidence of vascular disease anyway.

This analysis looked at 1,471 postmenopausal women with a mean age of 74 who had previously participated in a study looking at the effects of calcium on bone density and fracture rates. The findings were expected to be published online Jan. 16 in the BMJ.

All women had been randomly assigned to receive either calcium or a placebo.

Women in the calcium group had slightly more than twice the risk of having a heart attack compared with women taking the placebo.

Women taking calcium had a 47 percent higher risk of having any one of three "events" (heart attack, stroke or sudden death) than women in the placebo group.

The authors then took the unusual step of checking hospital admissions and reviewing death certificates to find any previously unreported events.

When these were added to the mix, the relative risk of having a heart attack or one of the composite events decreased somewhat, though women taking calcium were still at a higher risk. Now women taking calcium had a 49 percent greater risk of having a heart attack and a 21 percent higher risk of having one of the three composite events.

The findings seem odd in light of calcium's beneficial effect on cholesterol. Yet the supplement has also been found to elevate blood calcium levels, which could speed up calcification of the blood vessels. Previous research has found that calcium build-up in the arteries can foreshadow coronary artery disease.

"There is a point here that is even more subtle, which is that lipids are not the only factors that are giving you cardiac risk," Roos said.

The picture is even further complicated by the fact that calcium is often taking in conjunction with a class of drugs known as bisphosphonates. Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert regarding the possibility of severe and sometimes even incapacitating bone, joint and/or muscle pain in patients taking these drugs.

What's a woman to do? Probably nothing right just yet, although physicians might start weighing the risks of calcium supplementation more carefully.

Having the equivalent of four servings of dairy products "seems sensible in these subjects," Reid said. "There is no reason, on the basis of [this study], to be advising reduced calcium intakes in children, adolescents, or young and middle-aged adults."

More information

Visit the National Osteoporosis Foundation   for more on calcium and bone health.

MONDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity and depression often go hand-in-hand in middle-aged women, a new U.S. study found.

The research collected information on the height, weight, dietary and exercise habits, and body image of 4,641 women, ages 40 to 65, enrolled in a health plan. The women also completed a questionnaire used to measure depression symptoms.

Women with clinical depression were more than twice as likely to be obese (a body mass index of 30 or more), and obese women were more than twice as likely to be depressed, the study found.

It also found that women with BMIs of 30 or higher exercised the least, had the poorest body image, and consumed 20 percent more calories than women with lower BMIs.

The link between obesity and depression remained intact even when the researchers factored in marital status, education, tobacco use and antidepressant use.

The study was published in the January/February issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

It's likely that depression and obesity fuel one another, said lead author Dr. Gregory Simon, a psychiatrist and researcher at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle.

"When people gain weight, they're more likely to become depressed, and when they get depressed, they have more trouble losing weight," he said in a prepared statement.

The stigma of being overweight can damage self-esteem and efforts to lose weight.

"It's not that these women are clueless. It's that they're hopeless," said Simon, who suggested that if obese women focus on rebuilding their self esteem, it may help them lose weight.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about women and depression  .

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Women with irritable bowel syndrome anticipate and react to pain differently than women without IBS, a new study suggests.

The University of California, Los Angeles researchers found that women with IBS can't effectively switch off a pain modulation mechanism in the brain, which makes them more sensitive to abdominal pain. The finding may help improve understanding of IBS and lead to new treatments for the disorder, which affects about 10 percent to 15 percent of the U.S. population, the researchers said.

There is no cure for IBS, which causes abdominal discomfort, along with diarrhea and/or constipation. Current treatments for IBS only lessen symptoms.

The study, published in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Neuroscience, included 14 women with IBS and 12 women without the disorder. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the women's brain activity while they anticipated and experienced mild abdominal pain.

During anticipation of pain, women without IBS decreased activity in brain areas involved with pain and emotional arousal. But the women with IBS weren't able to reduce activity in these areas.

"The abdominal hypersensitivity that is a hallmark of IBS may represent an inability to downregulate pain and emotional arousal circuits," lead author Steven Berman, a senior research scientist at UCLA, said in a prepared statement. "IBS patients may have an inability to inhibit the competing tendency to upregulate emotional arousal in order to escape pain faster."

Both groups of women showed increased activity in pain arousal areas when they were subject to pain, but those with IBS showed greater increases in several brain areas.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about IBS.

SUNDAY, Jan. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Breast-feeding is considered a great way for a mother to form a close bond with her infant. And now there's evidence to suggest it may also help kids be more resilient to stress.

Researchers in Sweden and the United Kingdom examined data on almost 9,000 children born in Great Britain in 1970. Relevant information was collected at birth and again at ages 5 and 10 from parents, teachers, health-care workers and midwives.

Teachers were asked to rate the kids' anxiety levels on a zero-to-50 scale at age 10. And parents were asked about major life events -- including divorce or separation -- that occurred when their children were between 5 and 10 years old.

Not surprisingly, children whose parents had divorced or separated were more likely to have high anxiety. But what the researchers found striking was the difference in stress levels between breast-fed and bottle-fed kids. Breast-fed children were significantly less anxious than kids who hadn't nursed at their mother's breast.

Lead author Scott Montgomery, an associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, said the research team was interested in examining whether there are any specific early-life exposures that make children better able to cope with stress later in life. The study attempted to replicate animal studies that showed close physical contact between a mother and her offspring may have a positive impact on the development of the offspring's stress response, he said.

"The best marker of maternal physical contact in the first month of life that we could find among the research information at our disposal was breast-feeding," Montgomery said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that healthy women exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months of life and continue breast-feeding "for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child."

Breast-feeding offers many health and development benefits for baby, says the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. Kids get the right balance of nutrients to support optimal growth, fatty acids to promote brain development and protection against many childhood illnesses. And there are important emotional and physical benefits for moms as well.

"There is no question that breast-feeding is better for the health of mothers and children," said Nicole Else-Quest, an assistant professor of psychology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, "but it is less clear how breast-feeding affects the mother-child relationship." Breast-feeding may help to establish an early bond, she added, but "it is only one of many ways to do so."

As for why there might be differences in stress between breast-fed and bottle-fed kids, Else-Quest said it is difficult to speculate "given that many factors influence the decisions to breast-feed in the first place."

The research team considered factors that might affect a child's reaction to stress and ability to cope, such as maternal depression, parental education levels, social class, and smoking habits. Even after accounting for those factors, breast-fed children were less anxious than their peers. In addition, bottle-fed children whose parents divorced were more anxious than breast-fed kids.

Yet the study findings don't prove that breast-feeding itself reduces anxiety. It may be a mark of close, early physical contact, the researchers noted.

"A child without such regular contact may perceive greater danger reacting to stress -- indicating a potentially dangerous situation -- with a more reactive and less well-controlled stress response," Montgomery said.

It's also possible, he added, that mothers who breast-fed simply have a better relationship with their child.

"The parent-child relationship influences the child's health and development in many ways," Montgomery said. "A good relationship with parents is important, and this relationship begins in infancy, so good early contact with the child is important."

The study findings were published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

More information

The National Institute of Child Health & Human Development has the latest research on breast-feeding.