Dr. Tori Hudson, N.D.

A great deal of confusion has been stirred up in the last few months about the potential harm of too much calcium intake. As is often the case, there are studies that reveal conflicting results. Examples of this include the following summaries: 1) Calcium from food does not appear to raise the risk of cardiovascular [...]

This paper was a retrospective analysis of data from 2710 men and 1143 women which included 626 postmenopausal women and overall, an average age of 30 or older in Seoul, South Korea. None of the study subjects were taking a calcium supplement and a 24 hour dietary recall was used to assess calcium intake. Women [...]

Postmenopausal women with low bone density (osteopenia) but not osteoporosis were given green tea supplements for 6 months. A total of 171 women participated in the study in which there were four groups. Women in the placebo group and the placebo plus Tai chi groups received a total of 500 mg of a placebo per [...]

Many women think that if a certain amount of calcium is good for the bones than even more is better. A large longitudinal and prospective cohort study from Sweden recently showed that consuming more than 700 mg of calcium per day in women older than 63, did not further reduce the risk for fracture or [...]

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released their assessment of current data on health outcomes as they related to calcium and vitamin D after being commissioned by the U.S. and Canadian governments. The new reference values, expressed Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), are based on an abundance of information and higher quality published studies than were [...]

One-hundred and seven patients with primary osteoarthritis of the knee were studied and included those with knee pain on a scale of at least a 5-10 in intensity, radiographic osteophytes and at least one of the following features: > age 50, morning stiffness < 30 minutes in duration and crepitus on motion. The majority of [...]

I have recently been introduced to a new product, shea nut extract, for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Shea nuts have been used in food and Traditional African Medicine for generations, in West Africa in particular. A Danish company has developed a method to greatly concentrate and enhance the triterpenes found in shea nut, yielding a [...]

The potential for soy protein or soy isoflavones to alter bone metabolism and bone resorption is currently contradictory and inconclusive.  The lack of agreement in the literature is thought to be related to variations in study design. These variations in study design include differences in the dosage and form of soy products studied, (i.e. soy [...]

36,282 postmenopausal women were enrolled in a Women’s Health Initiative clinical trial to determine the effects of calcium and vitamin D on the incidence of hip fracture. Invasive breast cancer was a secondary outcome measure. Patients were randomly assigned to 1000 mg of calcium with 400 IU of vitamin D3 daily, or placebo for an [...]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Pycnogenol in reducing symptoms of osteoarthritis (OA) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. 100 patients older than age 25 (14 men and 36 women in the pycnogenol group and 18 men and 32 women in the placebo group) suffering from mild OA (stage I [...]