Importance Of Mineral Supplements For Cattles
We have to protect animals that provide us with a living and provide the world with a safe, high quality food supply. They require a number of dietary mineral elements for normal bodily maintenance, growth, and reproduction. These requirements are based on the type, weight and age, as well as the rate of performance expected of the animal.
Mineral imbalances and/or deficiencies can result in decreased performance, decreased disease resistance and reproductive failure which results in significant economic losses. Mineral supplements are not uniformly palatable. Other than dry matter intakes, daily water consumption and satisfying salt intakes, cattle have no known inherent ability to satisfy daily intakes of other nutrients including minerals.
Selecting the correct mineral supplement is important for maintaining healthy animals, and optimal growth and reproduction. Since high-quality forages and/or grains can furnish a large portion of the required minerals, producers should select supplements that will meet animal requirements and avoid excesses that reduce profits and lead to unnecessary mineral excretion.
Minerals essential to cattle nutrition are classified as macrominerals or microminerals, depending on whether they are found at levels greater than or less than 100 parts per million (ppm) in the animal’s body.
The macrominerals required by beef cattle include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine and sulfur. There are 10 microminerals required by beef cattle. Seven of the 10 microminerals have established requirements and include iron, manganese, copper, zinc, selenium, cobalt and iodine. The microminerals chromium, molybdenum and nickel do not have an established requirement and are not normally added to mineral mixes fed to beef cattle.
Breast Cancer: Multivitamin and Mineral Supplements
Multiple enzyme digestive formulas can be taken with meals to aid in digestion. This is especially helpful for women who are undergoing or have recently undergone any form of chemotherapy. The effects of the drugs used will often compromise the function of the digestive tract for some time and therefore will adversely affect the ability to digest foods and nutrients properly and completely. A multiple enzyme digestive formula will aid in the absorption of nutrients, which is important in maintaining health and proper functioning of the body.
Cadmium and magnesium are minerals that are important in helping to maintain and create bone mass. It is particularly important to take them after chemotherapy and radiation treatments. For reasons still unclear, women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy have a significant loss of bone during this period. Because it is difficult to digest, many women find to hard to take calcium during chemotherapy. On the other hand, if it is tolerable, taken during this time it may be beneficial. The chemotherapy drugs may affect the osteoblastic cells that are constantly replacing reabsorbed bone. This loss is small in relation to one’s total bone mass, perhaps 1 to 2 percent, but it is difficult to replace later.
There are several medications to help correct osteoporosis that results from breast cancer chemotherapy. One class of medications is known as bisphosphonates. A group of German doctors recently performed a clinical trial using bisphosphonates in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. The groups of women receiving the bisphosphonate clodrinate had a significantly lower systemic recurrence rate compared with the women who did not take the medication. Other breast cancer research groups are in the process of repeating the experiment to see if the results can be repeated and reproduced. If so, this would be a major breakthrough in that bisphosphonates have a very low side effect profile.
One of the richest food sources of calcium is seaweed. It can be eaten daily as a salad, vegetable, condiment, or seasoning. Other rich sources are dark green, leafy vegetables such as kale, collards, beet greens, cabbage, and broccoli. Additional sources of calcium include tofu, molasses, and almonds.
Essential fatty acids are critically important but are largely absent in American food sources, since they are damaged or destroyed during modern food processing. As a result, most Americans are chronically deficient. It is recommended to take both flaxseed oil and evening primrose oil, alternating every two weeks to facilitate replenishment of damaged and hydrogenated fat that has been used by all cells in the body in the absence of high quality fats. The dosage should be up to 1,000 mg of evening primrose oil or one tablespoon of flaxseed oil per day.
Until more research is done on diet and breast cancer, it is impossible to say how much soy and flaxseeds a woman should take following the consultation of her conventional Western treatments. One estimate is that 200 mg of soy equals 0.3 mg of pharmaceutical estrogen. Another estimate is that a half cup of soybeans and two soybean snacks are equivalent to about 200 mg of plant estrogen.
Beta carotene is a powerful antioxidant that provides protection to all lipid-rich tissues in the body, including the skin; the mucous membrane of the mouth, nose, throat, and lungs; the soft tissue and linings of the digestive tract, kidney, and bladder; and breast tissue. Several studies have shown that an increase in dietary beta carotene may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer. Carotene is abundant in carrots, but it is present in even higher concentrations in green leafy vegetables such as beet greens, spinach, and broccoli.
Plant, Food and Mineral Therapies-Herbalism
Therapies involving plants, foods, and nutritional elements are some of the oldest and perhaps easiest to understand of all the therapies available to us. Over the last decades, we in the West have been encouraged to believe in “a pill for all ills,” and we take comfort in medical treatment that can be taken orally and that appears to be prescribed in a conventional manner.
Almost every culture has a history of herbalism, each depending on the local flora or vegetation to nourish and to heal. Herbalists were, in the past, dealers and collectors of herbs; we refer to them as herbal therapists or medicinal herbalists, to make clear the distinction. Much of modern medicine is based upon early herbal practices; indeed, most conventional drugs contain synthesized extracts and essences of herbs and plants. The active constituents of many ancient natural remedies are the key ingredients of many proprietary drugs. The tradition of herbalism is best established in North America and the Far East, and it was these cultures that encouraged the development of our modern-day herbal medicine.
Plant Essences Herbalism and aromatherapy and homeopathy use the pure essences of plants to treat illness and disease, and find that this prevents side effects and provides a more effective form of treatment.
Each of these disciplines uses different types of plant in different forms, and, therefore, the technical terminology within herbalism and the plant- and food-based therapies varies widely; for eample, homeopathic, remedies include a dilution quotient, and herbal remedies and aromatherapy use the Latin taxonomic term for the plant, with or without additional descriptions. Herbalism may sound complicated, but everyone cat grow herbs and experience the profound effect they have on the body.
Food and Nutrition Food and nutrition are fundamental to all life, and the therapies that have evolved around the implementation of diet and the elements of nutrition to address health problems are correspondingly essential to most kinds of treatment conventional or complementary. Diet has always played an important role, both spiritually (diets for religious purposes) and physiologically (diets for medical purposes), and as an understanding of nutrition has evolved, that role has become more, defined. Nutritional therapy focuses on tailoring diet toj the person, examining the individual condition and treating accordingly. Through it, diet has become more than the sum of its parts; it has become a tool for living.
Finally, the wide-ranging and holistic disciplines of homeopathy and flower and plant essences have become more popular than ever, promoting good health and wellbeing by gently encouraging the body’s own life force in order that it may heal itself. All flower and tree remedies are based on herbal sources, as are many, homeopathic medicines.
Mineral Make Up Is Gentle To Your Skin
Both bare mineral and inorganic pigments that are natural are the inspiration for “mineral make up”. A myriad of compounds of these colored minerals like titanium dioxide, iron oxides, zinc, mica and ultramarine colors is capable of being created. Any cosmetic ranging from eye shadows to body powder with shimmer to foundation can be made with these minerals.
Some make up has naked minerals which have numerous health benefits. These types of minerals give skin its natural look. It will stay on all day long and provide long lasting protection for sensitive skin. Also, its property is anti-inflammatory and contains no harmful ingredients.
As with any makeup product, mineral make has both fans and detractors. Those who are fans like it because it is light, natural, and long lasting. Those who don’t say that it irritates and dries out the skin, as well as accelerating the development of wrinkles and skin aging. Others say that there is an undertone to the colors that is ashy, which is not good for certain ethnic skin types. Beside all of these claims, though, many are drawn to mineral make up for the first time because of all that they hear about its claims for good skin health. These claims state more specifically that the purity of the formulations is better for sensitive, and even acne or rosacea prone, skin types.
Mineral make up is fantastic in that it has no strong chemicals and additives. These can clog pores and cause skin to develop blemishes, make acne worse or any other skin problem. The best products to apply to skin are natural ones. This cosmetic is almost natural due to its lack of chemicals and artificial additives.
Both titanium and zinc oxide are its foundation and are natural elements. They have none of the questionable ingredients that are typically detected in all cosmetics. These oxides have a SPF 15 for protecting the skin from the sun. Also, due to the fact that zinc contains anti-inflammatory properties, it is wonderful for acne and other skin problems. It allows the skin to heal if applied after surgical cosmetic procedures or irritating facial treatments.
Mineral makeup was unveiled thirty years ago. Today, it continues to dominate the fashion, film and cosmetic businesses. It is the newest addition to a developing beauty culture designed to improve our lifestyles. The secret to flawless application is to lightly buff the makeup on the skin surface for approximately two minutes. By doing this, you can achieve a completely natural and perfect application.
Anti Aging - Anti Aging Mineral Water
People around the world are constantly looking for a way to reduce or even better prevent aging. In our fast world of technology and discoveries, anti aging mineral water is fast becoming a trendy anti aging solution. This is not a fast cure to aging but some people believe body aches and dry skin are caused by the lack of important minerals or due to our body becoming too acidic.
Anti aging mineral water which is ionic and also alkaline in nature has received some good feedback from people. It has also been claimed that anti aging mineral water can help prevent diseases associated with aging because of its alkaline properties.
Our bodies are made up of around 60 percent water and hence it is a vital ingredient for all our organs to function in optimum condition. Think of water like the oil for our vehicles. Not enough oil and the engine starts to overheat and breaks down. As we age, the body may consist of only 45 per cent water and this reduction can lead to health problems. Water also plays a role in eliminating toxins from our body and to transport important nutrients to the body cells. It keeps our body tissues moist and acts like a mode of transport among the organs in our body.
Acidic Body
If our bodies are too acidic, we may experience some health problems such as inflammation due to the disruption of our body’s cellular activity. Anti aging mineral water advocates claim that a highly acidic body is an excellent host to diseases. People who consume alkaline based mineral water will have a lower acidic level and hence be able to prevent diseases from surviving in their body.
Good anti aging mineral water contains ionic minerals known as electrolytes. These minerals are efficient at increasing your hydration level very quickly. Some people claim that after exercising or doing any strenuous activities drinking plain water will cause dilution of the body salts and this can disrupt the vital functions of the body cells.
Keep Your Body Hydrated
You should ensure your body is hydrated all the time since water plays a big role in our overall body functions. To quench your thirst fast and efficiently you should consider drinking water with some ionic minerals like anti aging mineral water. Advocates of anti aging mineral water claim that by drinking this water routinely to hydrate your body, it can improve your overall health.
A Good Vitamin and Mineral Preparation
What is needed in a good vitamin and mineral preparation?
It should contain many of the essential vitamins which are expressed as part of the Daily Value (DV) based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
It should contain Vitamins C, B vitamins, D, E, and K. Only vitamins A, E, and B12 are stored to any significant extent in the body.
These should include bulk or essential minerals, also knows as “macrominerals.” Two macrominerals are calcium and magnesium. There should also be trace minerals or “microminerals”. These include boron, chromium, iron, zinc, copper, selenium, and many others.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found that a significant percentage of the population receives less than 80% of the RDA of vitamins and minerals.
A good vitamin and mineral preparation might also include “adaptogens” for energy. Adaptogens are natural substances found in certain herbs and plants. They help the body achieve increased mental and physical performance. Adaptogens are non-toxic; they help increase the body’s mental and physical performance; they help provide resistance to stress to the cell; and they increase the ability of the body to balance and normalize its overall health.
It might also contain Green Tea Extract. Green Tea Extract provides EGCE (Epigalocatechin Galate). It is an antioxidant. It might also contain anti-oxidants coming from various fruit and vegetable sources.
Finally, if the vitamin and mineral preparation is in a liquid form, it makes it easier to swallow and easier to take on a daily basis, thus ensuring that the consumer gets the benefit of the formulation.
Mineral Makeup and Bismuth Oxychloride
Mineral makeup is becoming ever popular as we become more and more conscious of what we are putting onto our skin and bodies. Because of this increased awareness people are asking more questions. And one of the most popular questions is about the ingredient bismuth oxychloride. Women want to know what it is and why it is in so many brands of mineral cosmetics.
There are a lot of almost facts and half- truths flying around out there. In this article we’ll learn what bismuth oxychloride is, where it comes from, why it is used, and if makeup with it as an ingredient is a good choice for you.
Bismuth is the by-product of lead and copper refining, as well as other metals to a smaller degree. Bismuth occurs very rarely in nature. It is on the periodic table of elements under the symbol Bi at atomic number 83. It is very heavy and chemically resembles arsenic and antimony. It has a whitish/iridescent hue and has a very high shine property to it. Of all the heavy metals it is the only non-toxic. Bimsuth is a carrier for fuel in nuclear reactors. Bismuth components are used in everything from detection work, to making acrylic fibers, to safety devices in fire detection and extinguishing items, soldering, magnets and medicine as well as cosmetics. Because it is a by-product of lead refining, bismuth oxychloride should be lead free when companies begin using it in their cosmetics.
Companies use this in their cosmetics because it is cheap to buy and is an inexpensive filler. It does have binding qualities, so the makeup will “stick” to your skin, so to speak. There are other products that are just as effective at adhesion, and are better for your skin. Because of its molecular make up, it is often viewed as shiny or pearlescent. It is often sold in these two varieties. This makes it highly refractive, which is something companies want. Refraction will camouflage fine lines, wrinkles and discolorations. If you use a brand with bismuth oxychloride you’ll notice a shiny look after applying the makeup. Not like oiliness, but almost shimmery. That’s the bismuth oxychloride.
It’s a very heavy element, which makes it difficult for many people to wear. It has to be forced into the pores (hence the buffing technique) otherwise it is capable of sliding off the wearer’s face. The heaviness can result in clogged pores or irritated skin. Bismuth oxychloride often feels silky and not rough when rubbed between the fingers. Mineral makeup companies that do not use it have a lighter feeling makeup that usually blends into the skin better and with less effort.
Its molecular makeup is a crystalline shape, which may be a cause of the itchiness some women get when they wear it. Many women experience noticeable itching when they sweat. Don’t forget it is also kin to arsenic, chemically. Your body will reject things it does not like, and if you’ll get sick from ingesting arsenic, it would make sense that your skin would get irritated from having arsenic forced into it.
So, if you find you’re experiencing some problems with your current mineral makeup and it contains bismuth oxychloride, you may want to consider switching brands. Many women experience skin irritation when using mineral makeup and don’t know why. It’s likely that bismuth oxychloride is the reason.
Mineral spirits: concrete inspires a different kind of custom homes
Of all the materials that go into a custom home, it would be hard to find a pair more different than wood and concrete. Wood is light, resonant, flexible, flammable. Like us, it has cells; it was once alive. Wood has more in common with a carrot than it does with a concrete block. In most of North America, wood remains the principal structural material for light construction. And it is fine finish carpentry, as much as any other feature, that puts the custom in a custom home. Concrete, on the other hand, is dense, rigid, inert, mineral. You mix it from a recipe of ingredients and pour it into a mold–like pudding, only harder. Concrete’s qualities have made it the material of choice for our least glamorous applications: sidewalks, bridge abutments, foundation walls.
But in recent years concrete has overcome such prosaic associations to join wood as a high-end finish material. Always a strong supporting actor, it has advanced to cameo appearances in polished slab floors and countertops. And a small but growing number of custom homes take the material further still, casting concrete (as it were) in the starring role.
For most of the homes on these pages, the choice of concrete as the principal building material addresses a practical concern. Concrete block works well in the desert Southwest, with its bleaching sunlight and hungry termites. In the earthquake-prone Pacific Northwest and hurricane-lashed South Florida, reinforced poured concrete structures stand the best chance of surviving nature’s wrath. But each embraces concrete as more than a practical choice, exploiting the material’s unique visual and tactile qualities and its nearly infinite flexibility. Poured or stacked, board-formed or smooth, painted, dyed, waxed, or left untouched, the concrete in these homes gives a taste of the material’s vast range of expression.
A concrete house, particularly one that celebrates the material as these do, is not for every client–or every builder. Finish applications require a level of care that is miles beyond that necessary for ordinary foundation work. Block walls can be economical, but poured concrete is far more expensive than conventional frame construction. And mistakes … well, let’s not even talk about mistakes. Still, concrete can do more than we commonly ask of it, and some things that no other substance can match. And, like any great actor, it makes its supporting players look good too. Especially wood.
Seattle architect George Suyama makes no secret of his fondness for concrete. “Philosophically I just love the material,” he says, “because of its elemental quality.” That quality made it a natural choice for this weekend compound, whose site on Washington’s San Juan Island offers a bracingly elemental experience of earth, air, sun, and water. Suyama dug the main house deep into the earth, virtually burying its north and east walls and carving out a sheltered south-facing courtyard. The scheme lends the building a firm sense of groundedness–from some angles it appears to have emerged from the earth itself–but serves a rather practical purpose as well. It allows the owners to turn their backs to the housing development uphill from their home and focus instead on downhill views of parkland and salt water. * Having chosen concrete as his principal medium, Suyama emphasized the material’s essential attributes. “Everything in the house plays off the weight of the concrete and the simplicity of the concrete,” he says. Holding back the hillside is a suitably massive concrete retaining wall that serves, along with an exposed concrete slab floor, as the house’s main interior backdrop. The building’s other principal elements–a massive concrete fireplace and chimney, two wood-paneled “bars” that flank the entry corridor, and the zinc-clad half-vault roof–seem to float free of each other, connected only by an infill of glass panels. A concrete terrace and walkway connect the main house to a concrete cube, half-buried further down the hillside, that contains a simple guest suite. * “There is no framing lumber in the house,” says builder Dan Lowe. “It’s all concrete, steel, and glass.” As a result, Lowe had to collapse the normal sequence of foundation, framing, and finish into a single extended phase. His own crew handled the concrete work, pouring 16-inch walls around a core of 4-inch rigid insulation. “It was finish work from the start, that’s for sure,” says Lowe, who otherwise took the project’s unusual demands in stride. “We formed it all the same way. We just took more care. We used new forms, obviously.”
The landscape of Arizona’s Tucson Mountains is dry and rough, with an angular, weather-beaten beauty. The same may be said of this house, which achieves a harmony with its desert environment that is both visual and practical. Design wise, says architect Teresa Rosano, “most everything came out of the site, and concerns for the site.” The plan consists of three connected pavilions carefully sited to spare the majestic saguaro cacti that dot the site and to minimize energy consumption. “The volumes are rotated for good solar exposure,” says Rosano, who oriented major spaces to the southeast to maximize winter heating and minimize summer overheating. The dark split-face concrete block that is its primary material ties the building to a natural landscape pierced by dusky brown rock outcroppings. “The outcroppings are almost exactly that color,” says Rosano, who likes the shadows cast by the block’s rough surface “Because it’s not a solid color, like a paint, it blends in with the natural surroundings.” Concrete was a natural choice for another reason, she adds: “We have a lot of termites [in Tucson]. Most tract house developers still build out of wood, but it’s not really a good idea.” The rusted steel that wraps the exterior trim, garage door, and pool wall evokes the hardscrabble settlements once typical of the region. * These rustic materials wrap to the house’s interior, where they mix in more refined company. Millwork and ceilings are birch plywood. Most interior walls are gypsum board, furred out over concrete masonry structural walls. The kitchen island is black granite laid over a curved base of mesquite wood. The main kitchen wall is crowned by an exposed stainless steel plenum for the combined air conditioning and evaporative cooling system. A full-height stainless steel backsplash lifts to reveal a counter-length appliance garage. Except for the house’s pie-slice entry, which shares its rough-finish concrete walking surface with the exterior walks and pool deck, ground-level floors are smooth integral, color concrete with an acrylic sealer Here too, says Rosano, the choice of concrete was both aesthetic and functional. “The thermal mass of the concrete floors is really helpful in the summers.”
When a well-heeled El Paso, Texas, client presented him with the idea of building a cast-in-place concrete house, architect Jon Anderson hesitated for a moment. “I was a little leery of it,” he admits. This was not due to any fault in the material itself, but because he did not know a residential concrete contractor who could produce the quality of work the project would require. “It’s hard to get good-looking concrete in the residential realm,” says Anderson, who turned instead to an industrial subcontractor, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Cambro Construction. Not only could the company turn out first-rate architectural concrete work, but it also happened to have a 75-man crew in town–building a sewage-treatment plant. * The project still gave them a workout. “Some of these walls are 24 feet tall,” Anderson says, “and there are no horizontal cold joints.” Exterior walls, 12 inches thick, were cast around a 3-inch layer of rigid foam insulation. In this no-redo scenario, a quality result depended on “the joinery on your forms and the cleanliness of your forms and making sure the placement and vibration is done right.” Getting the right mix, the right reveals, and the right pattern of snap ties was essential too. “We did eight on-site samples before we poured any concrete on that house.” Pouring the walls alone took 12 weeks. * Under foot is a post-tensioned concrete slab with 10 zones of hydronic heat. Where the slab was left exposed, the concrete was polished, stained, treated with an acrylic sealer, and waxed. Ceilings and furred-out interior walls are pigmented plaster with a diamond finish that looks like machined stone. “The finishes are very simple inside,” Anderson says. “The concrete comes right down and hits the floor.” Against this monolithic backdrop, accent materials stand out in bold contrast: agave plants in a stepped planter near the entry, polished stainless steel doors at the courtyard gate and entry, a 10-foot-high water wall of saw-kerfed black granite, a cherry paneled den. But none of them steals the show. In this house, concrete is the main attraction.
Gold: The Noble Mineral
The ExtraLapis English No. 5 publication on Gold was one of the biggest sellers at the Mineralogical Record tables during the 2004 Tucson Show, keeping pace respectably even with Bob Jones’ new book on the 50-year history of the Tucson Show and the 2004 edition of Fleischer’s Glossary of Mineral Species. Yes, of course, this is partly because 2004 was the “Year of Gold” at Tucson, and partly because of the eternal mystique of “the noble mineral” itself, but surely the new book was popular also because the ExtraLapis English productions (which are really individual books rather than journal issues) have by this time acquired a mystique of their own, for their beauty, informativeness, and lively presentation.
Indeed, each new ExtraLapis English seems to be more alluring than the previous one, and presents the reader with its own set of little surprises: the approach to topics remains flexible, almost playfully so, from book to book. A new set of authors and even of editors takes charge each time, and in this new book, sure enough, the author-list of the 19 chapters amounts to a roll call of gold experts of various kinds, and on the editing team Dr. Robert B. Cook (from academe) and Edward R. Coogan (gold prospector extraordinaire) join general-series editors Dr. Günther Neumeier and Gloria Staebler. The chapters are clearly conceived and straightforwardly titled: gone this time is the somewhat squishy organization and over-cute topic rubrics of which I complained in my review of extraLapis English No. 4, on Calcite. And yet the march of chapter-subtopics through the book retains the element of creative “surprise” when we encounter, say, a chapter (by Gary Mason) on “Gold Records,” on the biggest/ deepest/oldest/most valuable etc. gold-related phenomena, or a chapter (by Wayne Leicht) on aesthetic evaluation of gold specimens, or a chapter called “The British Gold Rush of 1854,” which its author, Mick Cooper, knows perfectly well most readers will begin in a “Really?? Never heard of that before . . .” spirit.
In fact, I don’t want to list all the chapter titles in order, for fear of spoiling the eclectic fun, and will settle instead for an overview. We read of the history of man’s fascination with gold, from times more ancient than Old Kingdom Egypt (”Gold and Man: Since the Dawn of Civilization,” by Karl-Ludwig Weiner) to the contemporary period of gold prospecting with metal detectors (”The Great Electronic Gold Rush,” by Edward R. Coogan and Robert B. Cook). The great gold rushes of history are limned, and, along the way, the geology and mining history of famous gold provinces (”Gold Fever in the Southeastern USA,” by Chris Tacker; “California and All That Is Golden,” by Wayne Leicht; “Australian Gold: Mega-Nuggets from Down Under,” by Dermot Henry and Bill Birch; “The Rush for Gold Turns North to Canada and Alaska,” by Mark Mauthner; “Farncomb Hill: Colorado’s Finest Gold Specimens,” by Ed Raines). Basic science gets done in chapters like “What is Gold?” by Karl-Ludwig Weiner; “Gold Deposits-an Overview,” by Karen L. Webber, Rupert Hochleitner and Robert B. Cook; and “The Mineralogy of Gold-a Review,” by Stefan Weiss (this last, which describes all known gold-essential mineral species, is an update to Wendell Wilson’s similar listing back in the Mineralogical Record’s first Gold Issue in 1982). And finally there are “surprise” chapters on topics like gold pseudomorphs (Dave Ellis), gold mining and investment (Hans-Gert Bachmann), the testing of gold (Hans-Gert Bachmann), and the uses of gold in medicine (Jamie Spiller, a high school student, and clearly a very bright one, from Massachusetts).
Everywhere-not just in the “Gold Records” chapter but throughout the book-we hit gold factoids that fascinate. The total volume of all the gold ever mined is equivalent to a 19.6-meter cube, or the volume of a small apartment building. The famous “Dragon” gold specimen from the Colorado Quartz mine was first located by a metal detector. The largest known single mass of gold was a 3,000-ounce specimen found in 1872 in an Australian mine. India now has more gold (including jewelry gold) within its boundaries than does any other country. And do not neglect to ogle the Jeff Scovil photograph of Dave Bunk’s amazing 3.5-cm crystal group of the rare gold/lead/ antimony sulfo-telluride nagyagite from Sacaramb (formerly Nagyag), Romania.
Beautiful photographs and clear graphics, a stout binding and good, heavy, slick paper, and a general bibliography with about 100 titles, all help to complete the success of this effort. Errors of fact seem few, although a reviewer must carp at one photo caption (on p. 23) which places the Peabody Museum at Harvard (it is at Yale), and I hope that the copyeditors will bear in mind, for next time, the fact that the past tense of the verb lead is led, not lead (when lead rhymes with “head” it’s a noun, denoting the metallic element); a few other mechanical glitches occur as well. But if by this time you have developed a craving to buy up new issues of ExtraLapis English as they appear, there is no reason now-less than ever-to kick the habit.
Effects of contraception on bone mineral density
Loss of bone mineral density in women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate for contraception has been reported in several small, short-term studies. Berenson and colleagues conducted a controlled trial to compare the effect of oral and depot contraception on bone mineral density over at least two years.
They studied women 18 to 33 years of age who sought contraception and could meet the minimum criteria for entry into the armed forces. Women wishing to receive hormonal contraception selected either injectable or oral forms. Injectable contraception was provided as 150 mg of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate every three months. Women selecting oral contraception were randomly assigned to 0.035 mg of ethinyl estradiol plus 1.0 mg of norethindrone or 0.030 mg of ethinyl estradiol plus 0.15 mg desogestrel. Women who did not wish to use hormonal contraception acted as control subjects. Researchers gathered base-line data on medical history, demographic variables, smoking status, body mass index, exercise habits, and calcium intake. Bone mineral density at the lumbar spine was assessed at baseline and after one and two years of contraceptive use.
Data were complete in 110 women, and at least one follow-up bone mineral density test result was available in 191 women. At baseline, the four groups were similar in all important variables except that smoking was significantly less common in women using oral contraceptives. After controlling for significant variables, women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate for two years experienced an average loss from baseline of 5.7 percent in spinal bone mineral density. Women using the desogestrel oral contraceptive had a loss of approximately 2.0 per-cent between the first and second year, but this loss was not statistically significant over the two years. Women using norethindrone showed no significant change in bone mineral density over the two years. Women in the control group had a gain of 2.6 percent in bone mineral density during the second year of the study.
The authors conclude that women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate contraception lost approximately 3 percent in bone mineral density per year. Because this form of contraception is intended for long-term use, they call for additional studies to determine if the loss continues linearly and to identify strategies to counteract the effect.