Calcium in Human Health

About this book

This comprehensive review of the state of our knowledge concerning calcium not only demonstrates its importance to human health, but also defines its many complex roles. The authors summarize the latest basic scientific information on the cellular and metabolic functions of calcium, explaining the leading techniques for accurately measuring its bioavailability, absorption, and kinetics, and showing that calcium deficiency is a major problem while calcium excess a rare one. They also examine the complex regulation of calcium absorption, distribution, and excretion, as well as the multiple interactions of diet/lifestyle, and physical activity in calcium homeostasis. Their discussion of the specific roles of calcium in a variety of clinical disorders-osteoporosis, oral health, obesity, reproductive disorders, and the metabolic syndrome-provides new insights and raises new questions. The complex changes in calcium and phosphate regulation that occur in renal disease and the potential role of calcium in hypertension and vascular disease are also addressed.

Written for: Nutritionists, dieticians, physicians, health educators, food scientists, public health specialists, pharmacologists, and physiologists

Contents

Series Editor Introduction ........................................................................................... vii
Foreword ....................................................................................................................... xi
Preface ........................................................................................................................ xiii
Contributors............................................................................................................... xvii

1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
Connie M. Weaver and Robert P. Heaney

I CALCIUM FUNCTIONS

2 Bone as the Calcium Nutrient Reserve ............................................ 7
Robert P. Heaney

3 Cellular Functions and Fluxes of Calcium .................................... 13
Emmanuel M. Awumey and Richard D. Bukoski

II TECHNIQUES FOR STUDYING CALCIUM METABOLISM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO DISEASE

4 Nutritional Epidemiology: Dietary Assessment Methods.............. 39
Carol J. Boushey

5 Clinical Approaches for Studying Calcium Metabolism and Its Relationship to Disease ................... 65
Connie M. Weaver

6 Kinetic Studies ................................................................................ 83
Meryl E. Wastney, Yongdong Zhao, and Connie M. Weaver

III CALCIUM CONSUMPTION, REQUIREMENTS, AND BIOAVAILABILITY

7 Requirements for What Endpoint? ................................................. 97
Robert P. Heaney and Connie M. Weaver

8 Dietary Calcium: Recommendations and Intakes Around the World.................. 105
Anne C. Looker

9 Food Sources, Supplements, and Bioavailability ........................ 129
Connie M. Weaver and Robert P. Heaney

IV CALCIUM HOMEOSTASIS

10 The Calcium Economy ................................................................. 145
Robert P. Heaney

11 Molecular Regulation of Calcium Metabolism ........................... 163
James C. Fleet

12 Influence of Total Diet on Calcium Homeostasis ....................... 191
Zamzam K. (Fariba) Roughead

13 Influence of Lifestyle Choices on Calcium Homeostasis: Smoking, Alcohol, and Hormone Therapies ........ 209
D. Lee Alekel, and Oksana Matvienko

14 Influence of Physical Activity on Calcium and Bone ................. 227
Matthew Vukovich and Bonny Specker

15 The Case for a Calcium Appetite in Humans .............................. 247
Michael G. Tordoff

V CALCIUM THROUGH DEVELOPMENT

16 Infancy and Childhood ................................................................. 269
Steven A. Abrams and Keli M. Hawthorne

17 Pre-Puberty and Adolescence....................................................... 281
Connie M. Weaver

18 Calcium in Pregnancy and Lactation ........................................... 297
Heidi J. Kalkwarf

VI CALCIUM AND DISEASE

19 Calcium in Systemic Human Health ............................................ 313
Robert P. Heaney

20 Calcium and Oral Health .............................................................. 319
Elizabeth A. Krall

21 Dietary Calcium and Obesity ....................................................... 327
Dorothy Teegarden

22 Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Reproduction ........................... 341
Susan Thys-Jacobs

23 Premenstrual Syndrome ............................................................... 357
Susan Thys-Jacobs

24 Calcium Throughout the Life Cycle: The Later Years ................ 371
Bess Dawson-Hughes

25 Calcium, Vitamin D, and Cancer ................................................. 387
Peter R. Holt

26 Dietary Calcium and the Metabolic Syndrome ........................... 401
Dorothy Teegarden

27 Calcium and Phosphate Control in Patients With Renal Disease ............................. 411
David A. McCarron and Robert P. Heaney

28 Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease .................................. 421
David A. McCarron

Appendices ................................................................................................................. 433
Index ........................................................................................................................... 443

From the reviews:

"This volume, part of the Series Nutrition and Health, reviews in 28 chapters divided into 6 sections, the latest scientific information on the cellular and metabolic functions and need of calcium. … Each chapter has references … . A well organized, easy readable text of great actual interest." (Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews, Vol. 4 (2), 2006-2007)