Boniva's Big Oops: Osteoporosis Advice Not Sound

In a recent TV commercial for the osteoporosis drug Boniva, actress Sally Field tells us to boost bone health by eating more calcium-rich spinach.  But experts say that may be some very wrong advice. Here's what you  need to know.

By Colette Bouchez

You can hardly miss the commercials featuring award winning actress Sally Field. The product is Boniva, the once-monthly  bone enhancing  prescription drug for osteoporosis, a bone thinning disorder that affects mostly women over age 50.

But what many of you may miss – or worse still pay attention to – is the big “oops” in the commercial.

And that "oops"  is Ms. Field telling us we can also  boost our bone health by eating high calcium foods such as “cheese and spinach”.   So where’s the goof?  It’s in the spinach.
While spinach does indeed contain substantial calcium - which is good for your bones - it also contains a potent natural chemical known as "oxalic acid" .  And that interferes with calcium absorption big time!

According to the Harvard Health Letter,   “ A cup of frozen spinach contains almost as much calcium as a cup of milk, but only a tenth as much is absorbed because of the oxalic acid.”

And a number of studies seem to prove this out.  In data published in the journal Nutrition Research  as far back as 1987,  researchers  showed that when comparing calcium absorption from women eating cheese vs women eating spinach, those who ate the spinach absorbed far less of this important nutrient.

In fact, according to what is considered the gold standard of medical  nutritional information - The 50th Anniversary Edition of the text book Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease (Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins),  the authors write that “ The most potent inhibitor of calcium absorption is oxalic acid, found in high concentration in spinach, rhubarb, and to a lesser extent sweet potatoes and dried beans.”

The authors go on to write that calcium absorption from spinach is only 5% compared to compared to 27% from milk .

The other calcium inhibitor is phytic acid, which can be found in things like wheat bran cereal or dried beans.

So what does this all mean?  It means that if you are relying on foods like spinach to get your calcium you're going to come up dangerously short.

Spinach Is Good – But Not For Your Bones

Spinach is, in fact, a wonderful vegetable, loaded to the brim with folic acid, one of the single most important nutrients for women.  It also contains other B vitamins and  vitamin C and it’s a great source of fiber.  So certainly, it’s important to include spinach in your diet. And personally I love it!

But that  said, if you’re eating it for bone health – as Boniva suggests – you’re not only going to come up dangerously short, you’re probably going to need a lot more of their bone enhancing drug in order to compensate for the calcium you're not getting by eating spinach!  

Now of course  I’m not saying that Boniva intentionally wants you to be low on calcium in order to sell you more of their bone enhancing medicine.   And I certainly am savvy enough to know that the commercial in question which pushes spinach as a good source of calcium  was likely written by an advertising copy writer  and not a physician or even a staffer at Genentech,  the makers of Boniva .  

But, while  the Boniva  website does  list spinach as a “ minor”  nutritional source of calcium ...  it also places it in the same rank with broccoli and kale,  both of which are way higher in calcium and don’t contain oxalic acid.  What’s that about?

Perhaps of even greater concern is that if the powers that be at a major pharmaceutical company can’t even take the time to watch their own commercial – and spot the misinformation – it just begs the question, what else are they overlooking, in their research, in their test results, in the production of their medications?

It could be they are spending so much time and energy on giving us the perfect drug that they have no time to watch daytime TV.   I hope that's the case.  But I don't know. 

What I do know is that Sally Fields is an awesome actress with a powerful voice. But right now, thanks to Boniva,  she’s giving us women some wrong and some potentially harmful health  information .  And that’s not good for us – or good for Sally.

They say you can’t believe everything you read about your health on the  Internet.  Apparently the same is true about you hear on TV.  Maybe we should  just spend a little more time reading books. Or how about  listening to our doctors...what you think? 

For the latest health, beauty and style commentary  for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary - It's Free! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com  for money saving beauty and style tips!

 Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2010 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.  The publishers and producers of this blog may or may not directly or indirectly benefit from any products or services that appear in or on this blog.

Eat, Pray, Love ....SHOP ???

For women over 40 the mantra of Eat, Pray, Love might represent the guts to shed your inhibitions and start life again.  Or not ....

By Colette Bouchez

DESPITE Oprah Winfrey’s endorsements, despite the fact that a zillion women bought into the premise, despite author Elizabeth Gilbert telling us ad nauseum that  Eat,Pray, Love was just a simple little story chronicling the inner struggles we all share … for me, almost from page one,  it seemed  nothing more than a well written temper tantrum of a  spoiled, selfish, over indulged, immature little whiner,  with a self absorbed axe to grind and a publishing deal on which to grind it.
  
I’m sorry I know I am probably in the minority with this feeling.   But I can’t help it.

And part of  the reason I can’t help it is that  the whole time  Ms. Gilbert was referring to herself as this sort of mixed up, confused, soul-searching not to mention BROKE soul,   I kept thinking to myself well yeah …but where I come from,  BROKE means you don’t have bus fare to  visit your sister in Altoona , let alone snag plane fare and hotel bills for a trip half way round the world.  And once you get there have the money to do pretty much anything you want. 

And Okay, I Get It – financial destitution IS all relative. I mean there’s Park Avenue and then there’s Park Row.

Still,  by anyone’s definition, being jobless, homeless and fundless and still somehow find the funds to  to  fly to Italy, stuff your face with  every delicacy on the menu and generally party your little butt off, and  when you’re done take off for India and then Bali to do pretty much  the same thing for months on end -   all the while wearing  a ton of new clothes which somehow you were able to snap out of your confused brain fog long enough to have purchased …well  I don’t know about you, but in my book that doesn’t exactly  spell BROKE , CONFUSED   or exemplify the need for soul searching.

What it does do, however, is bring to mind another poor, lost confused soul that took us all on a similar joy ride to inner peace . His name was James Frey and the book was A Million Little Pieces. Need I say more?


So that was my first impression of Eat, Pray, Love:  I wasn’t buying it.  In fact  I so wasn’t buying it I was pretty sure that anyone who decided to dig deep enough might even find that a book contract was actually place BEFORE this so-called soul-searching journey began – or at the very least a few emails confirming publishing interest.  And  I’m  not saying there was mind you, but seeing how she was, after all a travel writer with lots of publishing industry contacts,  I ‘m just saying I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was one. That is how contrived this whole story seemed to me.

But let us now fast forward a couple years to August 2010 – and Eat, Pray, Love THE MOVIE  is here. And before I say another word let me say that I adore Julia Roberts.  I would watch Julia Roberts  read the Yellow Pages because she is that good. And if anyone could make me believe that the  mantra of Eat, Pray, Love was real and meaningful,  it would be Julia Roberts. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen for me. Not only did the movie NOT change my mind about the concept of Eat, Pray, Love,  it confirmed my original feelings in a way even  I did not expect :    Somehow seeing it all up there in breathtaking cinematic glory, the spoiled, the indulgence, the ME ME ME and the  premeditation of it all seemed even bigger AND MORE PREMEDITATED and more ME ME ME  than before.

Now don’t get me wrong here ….Julia Roberts was fantastic in this movie. Warm, engaging and funny and fun to watch too. And the movie was great in terms of the cinematography, the directing, the scenery …. you WILL fall in love with Bali and Italy , and the trip to India – though short as it was -  never looked more enticing. And you will want to go there.

But after the travelogue is done,   the truth remains:  No matter how Sony Pictures dresses it up,  Eat Pray Love it is still nothing more than a trite,  contrived tale   of a  spoiled, over indulged prima donna with a flair  for the dramatic and clearly enough cunning to not only find her “inner peace”,  but  in the process use her newly minted soul searching skills to  ferret out  a top drawer book contract, a movie deal and now, a tchotchke  contract with the Home Shopping Network.

Yes,  wrapping up my original conviction about the true meaning  of EPL,  last week the Home Shopping Network  began  “Eating,  Praying and Loving”  via a collection of Elizabeth Gilbert-endorsed   movie-promoting paraphernalia: Rings, bracelets, and other spiritual  tchotchke with the words  “Eat, Pray, Love” inscribed.    As if we needed one more public relations reminder to do so.

And it was selling up a storm.

Who knew finding inner peace could be so lucrative?

See the movie if you like … Julia Roberts is delightful and beautiful and fun to watch.  Just don’t expect it to change your life in any kind of meaningful way.  In the end, Eat, Pray, Love is an entertaining fantasy designed to sell books, movies, junque jewelry and fabulous spa trips  to Bali which hopefully you can one day afford to take.    But really, that’s about it.

For the latest health, beauty and style advice for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary - It's Free! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com for money saving beauty and style tips!
 
Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2010 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

New Benefits to HRT - And Some New Cautions

Research shows a new benefit to using HRT - but it's still not right for every woman. Here's what you need to know ...

By Colette Bouchez

If you’re  still on the fence about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or considering it now for hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, there is some interesting news to consider.

New research suggests that HRT  as well as the use of oral contraceptives -  may help protect against the formation and rupture of brain aneurysms in women. 

In a first-of-its-kind study by experts from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Dr. Michael Chen and colleagues determined that the use of hormonal contraceptives, as well as the use of HRT appeared to have a neuroprotective effect that ultimately reduced the risk of brain aneurysms in  post menopausal women – a group that, in general, are at increased risk for this problem.

"By understanding the potential link between low levels of estrogen and aneurysms, we can focus our areas of study with the hope of providing women who are at risk for brain aneurysms with preventative therapies," said Chen, who also is assistant professor of neurology, neurosurgery and radiology at Rush University.

Brain Aneurysms and Women 

A brain aneurysm occurs when an artery inside the head bulges outward, forming a kind of “bubble” that pushes up through the surface of the vessel.  The bubble in and of itself is not dangerous but the risk of rupture is high. When this occurs bleeding into the brain results dramatically increasing the risk of s hemorrhagic stroke, and ultimately brain damage and even death. 

Experts say 1 in 15 people in the US will develop a brain aneurysm , with women affected far more often than men.  And in fact, the observation that post menopausal women seemed at greater risk was part of the impetus for the new study. 

 Indeed, while looking at results from the two largest brain aneurysm trials to date, Chen and colleagues noted that  brain aneurysms appeared to occur most frequently in post menopausal women. In fact, the research showed that 70 percent of these aneurysms occurred in post menopausal women around age 52 – and that the neurologic events appeared to coincide with a severe drop in estrogen  occurring at roughly the same time.

To help further elucidate a connection between aneurysms and estrogen, Rush researchers studied a group of 60 women aged 31 to 80  between the years 2008 and 2010 .  Sixty five percent of the women in the study  had unruptured aneurysms while 35% had been previously treated for ruptured aneurysms. 

During this observational study the doctors compared a variety of factors between their two groups of women and a control group of 4,682 women. These factors included gynecologic history, used of oral contraceptives and use of HRT.   Other variables included their BMI or body mass index, their  age of first menstrual period, a woman’s age at the birth of her first child, and the age during which they began to experience  menopause symptoms. 

In comparing the groups – women with aneurysms to women without – doctors noted that most of the variables seemed evenly distributed.  The only significant difference to pop from the study results was the use of oral contraceptives and/or HRT.

How HRT Reduces Aneurysm Risk

More specifically the study reported that the rate of oral contraceptive use in the control group was 77.6 percent, compared to just 60 percent in the study group.   The use of HRT was just 23.7 percent in the group with aneurysms compared to 44.8 percent in the control group.

Moreover, the length of time these medications were used also seemed  to differ. While women in the control group used hormone treatments for around 5 years, those in the study group who used them did so for less than half that time – roughly 2.6 years. 

"These differences in the usage of estrogen modifying agents qualify as statistically significant and indicate that women with brain aneurysms use oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy less frequently than the general population," said Chen.

Chen adds that it’s reasonable to conclude that the drops in estrogen occurring each month during the menstrual period, and more significantly, the lasting drop that occurs at menopause may be one reason why women in general, but particularly post-menopausal women are at greater risk for brain aneurysms. 

The study authors further conclude that stabilizing estrogen levels with HRT may play a protective role in women who are at risk for aneurysms, says Chen.  Study results were recently presented at the 7^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery. 

HRT And Your Health: What You Should Know 

As impressive and important as this new research is, it’s important to point out that the use of traditional HRT has been shown to increase the risk of a number of other significant health issues. According to the massive WHI – Women’s Health Initiative Study – HRT caused a 26% increase in invasive breast cancer,  a 20% increase in heart attacks, a 41% increase in the risk of stroke and 100% increase in the risk of blood clots in the lungs.   Other studies have shown that women who used HRT had roughly twice the risk of developing dementia. 

So, what’s the answer?    Individual care.  Indeed,  as I have detailed in my book Your Perfectly Pampered Menopause,  as new studies continue to emerge revealing  both the pros and cons of hormone use there is  only one “voice of reason” that  should  prevail.  And that voice is saying “ When it comes to HRT there is  no “One Size Fits All.”  Indeed, much like the one-size-fits-all panty hose which, quite frankly never fit anybody right,  one-size-fits-all hormone use is not the way to go. 

Certainly for some women – particularly those at risk for aneurysm ( if there is a family history, for example, or one or more aneurysms have already been detected) the benefits of hormone therapy may certainly outweigh the risks.    But for those at greater risk for a heart attack or breast cancer, for example, the neuroprotective benefits of HRT may be less than stellar. 

The key: Finding a doctor who is willing to treat you  as an individual – and what’s more willing to treat the “whole woman”  and not just your body parts.  

Only when you can take this comprehensive, whole-body approach to post menopausal health care can you really begin to determine the treatments – including the hormone treatments – that are right for you.

For more information on individual treatments for menopause check out YourMenopause.com .For the latest beauty and style advice for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary.com  - IT'S FREE! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com for money-saving beauty and style tips!

Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2010 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements. The authors and/or owners of this blog may benefit either directly or indirectly from products mentioned in these posts and in the advertising on these pages.