WARNING: This book is a lighthearted practical health guide. Laughter may be a side effect.

• Both bones and eggshells are made primarily of calcium. Although bones can be impressively strong, depending upon their density, they can break like an eggshell.
• Osteoporesis, a common condition of the elderly, affects women more than men because they have less bone mass and because they produce less estrogen after menopause which reduces the body's ability to keep calcium in the bones. Osteoporesis leads to degeneration of the spine, humpback, and fragile bones--which are more easily fractured. This condition is creating an elderly population which is fragile, weak, and, like an eggshell, breakable.

Osteoporesis is also creating a legion of shorter elderly people whose vertebrae are compressing against each other due to the loss of calcium from the bone. Perhaps this explains why the Incredible Shrinking Woman got so small.

This epidemic of osteoporesis has created a major market for calcium supplementation. If calcium supplements were listed on the stock exchange, their price would have skyrocketed in recent years. However, if people knew the research about calcium that follows here, the stock's value would have fallen as fast as it rose.

There are numerous countries that have a very low rate of osteoporesis despite the fact that the people consume as little as 200 mg of calcium a day, considerably less than the 1,000 to 1,500 mg. of calcium that most doctors recommend for pre- and post-menopausal women. The problem in this country is that most women consume too many things that leech the calcium out of their bones.

• Despite the fact that Eskimo women get over 2,000 mg. of calcium a day (from their consumption of fish bones), and even though exercise is a regular part of their life, they are known to have one of the highest rates of osteoporesis in the world. This problem is not due to bad luck. It is because they eat so much protein (as much as 250 to 400 grams a day) and so much fat; this excess causes increased calcium loss. This example highlights the importance of looking at factors that help AND hinder calcium absorption.

Conventional physicians often recommend hormone replacement therapy as a preventive to osteoporesis. Research has shown that lifelong use of these hormones helps to maintain bone strength, though it does not restore bone loss that has already occurred. More troublesome about the use of these drugs are the numerous studies indicating that they create side effects including increased chances of endometrial cancer and heart disease. Also, once a woman stops taking these drugs, calcium excretion is significantly increased.

Here are some strategies which are less costly than drugs, both financially and otherwise, and with fewer side effects. Since having adequate calcium levels in the bone is dependent on building bone strength during youth, it is best to take measures to prevent osteoporesis as early in life as possible. Although the best time to start was when you were a child; the second best time is today.