Calcium may reduce cholesterol levels Form vs. function Add this to the list of good things about calcium: it may lower cholesterol. This latest piece of good news comes from a study conducted in Germany that suggests that taking supplements of a certain type of calcium may help control cholesterol metabolism. The type of calcium they believe brings about a reduction in cholesterol levels is calcium phosphate. The researchers believe that calcium phosphate binds to cholesterol-carrying bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract and expels them from the body as waste. The scientists found that it lowered the total cholesterol and the LDL-cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study of 31 young, healthy volunteers. As good as calcium phosphate appears to be for your heart, other types of calcium supplements are more likely to be used to support bone health. They are calcium citrate, calcium carbonate, or calcium citrate malate. These calcium supplements -- as opposed to calcium phosphate, which is excreted from the body fairly quickly -- are used to combat osteoporosis because of their relatively high rate of bioavailability. **************************************************** State of confusion Q: When mentioning CODEX recently, you referred to the bill H.R. 3377, which is the Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act. Yet, I find another bill with this title, H.R. 3156. I would like to write my representatives but want to be sure I am referring to the correct legislation. Can you clarify this matter? JVW: Bill H.R. 3156 is the latest version of the old H.R. 3377. Both are referred to as the Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act. The key difference between the old bill and the new one is that the new one is even stricter than the old one. You read that right: They made it worse for those of us who support choice in matters of natural medicine and supplementation. The new bill proposes strict controls on all products containing herbs and herbal extracts and anything else that is not a vitamin or a mineral. The controls being proposed exceed those currently in place for food additives and over-the-counter medicines, meaning that supplements are to be evaluated, controlled, and taken off the market at the first hint of trouble. When is the last time that has happened for medicines, the side effects of which have lead to countless deaths -- or for food additives, which are suspected of causing health risks but remain so prevalent? The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) and co-sponsored by her colleagues Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI), seeks to significantly alter the FDA's burden of proving that an ingredient is unsafe for use in dietary supplements. The bill authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require reports of adverse events and to determine the fate of any supplement by assessing the risks against the benefits. That may be an impossible standard to satisfy since the science in this area receives less than 1 percent of the research funding in this country. If this bill passes it will lead to higher costs for therapeutic herbs and the likely removal of some perfectly fine supplements from the marketplace. What it won't do is provide users with safer products -- although that is the supposed basis for its introduction before the U.S. House of Representatives. This is a bad idea that would undermine and weaken the intent of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). I urge everyone to write to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, and speak out against this proposal. Send your letters t The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201. **************************************************** What is...bioavailability? Bioavailability is the rate and extent to which supplements or medicines enter our circulatory system. Products administered intravenously are said to have a 100 percent bioavailability rate because they enter the circulatory system directly. Orally ingested products enter circulation at varying rates and amounts due to issues of metabolism and absorption. Yours in good health, Amanda Ross Editorial Director Nutrition & Healing Sources: Ditscheid B, et al. "Cholesterol metabolism is affected by calcium phosphate supplementation in humans," J Nutr 2005; 135(7): 1,678-1,682

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