May is National Osteoporosis Awareness month. Osteoporosis, a serious bone-thinning disorder, makes bones fragile and prone to fracture. It has no symptoms and may progress painlessly until a bone breaks. Women are four times more likely than men to develop osteoporosis.

Academy Award winning actress Sally Field ate well, exercised and maintained a physically active lifestyle. But these factors weren’t enough to protect her from osteoporosis and just shy of her 60th birthday, Sally was diagnosed with osteoporosis.

Since that time, she has been treated with medication that slows bone loss, increased her calcium and Vitamin D intake and been followed closely by her doctor. Today, Sally Field is well on her way back to good bone health and recently spoke before members of Congress about the importance of raising awareness about osteoporosis.

“Osteoporosis and low bone mass is a national health issue, threatening more than 44 million Americans age 50 and older,” Field said. But once detected, the disease is treatable and even reversible. A BMD, or bone mineral density test, can detect the thinning of bone that occurs with osteoporosis.

The actress has begun her own campaign sponsored by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline called Rally with Sally for Bone HealthSM. On the Rally with Sally website, women are encouraged to protect their bone health by pledging to:

* Get adequate calcium and vitamin D
* Take their osteoporosis medication as directed
* Exercise to build strength
* Visit their doctors regularly

For more information on osteoporosis and Sally’s campaign:

Rally With Sally For Bone Health

National Osteoporosis Foundation

Postmenopausal women are urged to increase dietary calcium to prevent bone loss and Vitamin D has been shown to be protective against some cancers. But together they may have one additional health benefit. New research has shown that taking calcium in conjunction with Vitamin D supplements may slow or prevent weight gain in postmenopausal women.

During and after menopause, women face a number of new health concerns, not the least of which is bone loss. But the tendency towards weight gain is equally distressing.

The greatest benefit was to women whose calcium was low initially. By increasing their calcium and Vitamin D intakes, they were 11 percent less likely to gain weight than their counterparts who did not consume the recommended amounts of calcium.

More information on the study can be found at Medical News Today.

This time of year you are likely to see white-berried sprigs hanging in a lot of doorways, beckoning those who need an excuse to “kiss under the mistletoe”. The ancient Druids used misteltoe for medicinal purposes and now there’s discussion about mistletoe as an anti-cancer treatment.

Over at WebMD, there’s an article about the use of mistletoe as an anti-cancer treatment which cites a report in the BMJ by British doctors. The report doesn’t support its use for this purpose, stating that the studies on mistletoe have been “methodologically weak”.

The National Cancer Institute has an information page regarding mistletoe extracts and their possible use in cancer treatment. In laboratory tests, mistletoe extract killed cancer cells and some studies indicates it supports the immune system. It may also decrease the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

In Europe mistletoe extract has been used for many years to treat everything from epilepsy to menopause symptoms as well as a cancer treatment, most notably in Germany. But mistletoe is not approved for sale or use for any medical condition in the US.

After age 45 the battle is on against the spreading middle of middle age. Women tend to gain weight in the years between the mid-40s and mid-50s and have a harder time losing excess weight. But it seems as if something that women in that age group may already be doing to prevent osteoporosis may also help keep extra pounds off.

A study found that women taking calcium supplements gained less weight than women who did not supplement their calcium intake. Although researchers say it is too soon to count calcium as a prescription for weight control, there are plenty of good reasons for post-menopausal women to take calcium supplements and now there may be one more benefit to add to calcium’s list.

Read about the study at WebMD