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Health News and Research"Calcium Crisis" Affects American Youth
NATIONAL
INSTITUTES OF HEALTH Only 13.5
percent of girls and 36.3 percent of boys age 12 to 19 in the
United States get the recommended daily amount (RDA) of
calcium,
placing them at serious risk for osteoporosis and other bone
diseases, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Because nearly 90 percent of adult bone mass is
established by the end of this age range, the nation's youth
stand in the midst of a calcium crisis.
"Osteoporosis is a pediatric disease with geriatric
consequences," said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD),
sponsor of the Milk Matters calcium education campaign.
"Preventing this and other bone diseases begins in childhood.
With low calcium intake levels during these important bone
growth periods, today's children and teens are certain to face a
serious public health problem in the future."
The health
risks related to low calcium intake are not just years away,
explained Dr. Alexander. Children are drinking more soft drinks
and more non-citrus drinks than they used to; meanwhile, milk
consumption has dropped. The number of fractures among children
and young adults has increased, probably due to lower intakes of
calcium. Pediatricians are also seeing the re-emergence of
rickets, a bone disease that results from low levels of vitamin
D. Rickets became almost nonexistent after vitamin D was added
to milk in the 1950s, but is now appearing at greater rates
around the country.
But the
major effects of this crisis are yet to come.
"As these
children get older, this calcium crisis will become more serious
as the population starts to show its highest rate of
osteoporosis and other bone health problems in our nation's
history," Dr. Alexander said. "But we need to remember that this
is a preventable and correctable public health problem."
Getting
children to pay attention to their calcium needs is a challenge
for scientists and educators, he adds. For this reason, the
NICHD has expanded its Milk Matters campaign and Web site to
speak directly to children and their parents about calcium.
Previously, the NICHD developed educational materials that are
used primarily by educators, nurses, and physicians to convey
the importance of adequate calcium consumption among children
and teens. Now, NICHD has expanded its Web site to give children
and their parents more direct access to the information and will
be adding games and other interactive content specifically for
kids.
The
Institute's Milk Matters campaign stresses low-fat or fat-free
milk as the preferred source of dietary calcium because:
The NICHD bases its recommendations on the 1994 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conference on Optimal Calcium Intake, and on additional guidance from the 2000 NIH Consensus Development Conference on Osteoporosis Prevention, Diagnosis, and Therapy. "If you don't drink milk, it's important to get calcium from other sources, like other dairy products, green leafy vegetables, foods with added calcium and calcium supplements," explained Dr. Alexander.
Key concepts: Calcium, children, osteoporosis |
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