BACKGROUND Alkali provision may explain why fruit and vegetables benefit bone health. OBJECTIVE We aimed to determine the effects of alkali-providing potassium citrate (double-blind) and fruit and vegetable intake (single-blind) on bone turnover over 2 y. DESIGN We conducted a randomized placebo-controlled trial in 276 postmenopausal women (aged 55-65 y). Women were randomly assigned to 4 g...

Abnormalities in zinc homeostasis are indicated in many human diseases, including Alzheimer disease (AD). 63Zn-zinc citrate was developed as a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging probe of zinc transport and used in a first-in-human study in 6 healthy elderly individuals and 6 patients with clinically confirmed AD. Dynamic PET imaging of the brain was performed for 30 minutes following in...

Inhalation of platinum, as soluble salts, is known to cause respiratory distress and severe dermatitis in workers. Platinum coordination complexes are widely used in the treatment of a variety of solid tumors. However, the clinical use of cisplatin (CDDP) (the most useful agent) is limited by the development of nephrotoxicity. High dose accidental exposure to soluble platinum in platinum refine...

Between 1958 and 1962, physicians Olive W. Smith, George V. Smith, and Robert W. Kistner performed experiments that demonstrated the effects of the drugs MER-25 and clomiphene citrate [2] on the female human body. MER-25 and clomiphene citrate [2] are drugs that affect estrogen [3] production in women. At the time of the experiment, researchers did not know which organ or organs the drugs affec...

PURPOSE Exposure to the microgravity environment of space increases the risk of kidney stone formation, particularly for calcium oxalate and uric acid stones. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of potassium alkali as potassium-magnesium citrate in reducing renal stone risk and bone turnover. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was performed as a double-blind, placebo controlled tr...

Two processes permit the urine pH and the medullary interstitial pH to remain in an "ideal range" to minimize the risk of forming kidney stones. First, a medullary shunt for NH(3) maintains the urine pH near 6.0 to minimize uric acid precipitation when distal H(+) secretion is high. Second, excreting dietary alkali excreting alkali as a family of organic anions--including citrate--rather than a...

Urinary calcium excretion is strongly related to net renal acid excretion. The catabolism of dietary protein generates ammonium ion and sulfates from sulfur-containing amino acids. Bone citrate and carbonate are mobilized to neutralize these acids, so urinary calcium increases when dietary protein increases. Common plant proteins such as soy, corn, wheat and rice have similar total S per g of p...

Urinary calcium excretion is strongly related to net renal acid excretion. The catabolism of dietary protein generates ammonium ion and sulfates from sulfur-containing amino acids. Bone citrate and carbonate are mobilized to neutralize these acids, so urinary calcium increases when dietary protein increases. Common plant proteins such as soy, corn, wheat and rice have similar total S per g of p...

Sodium pyruvate, choreito (a herbal preparation), and urajirogashi (a herb) were added to a calcium-oxalate lithogenic diet (a glycolic-acid diet) to determine their effects in preventing lithogenicity. Male Wistar-strain rats which had been fed the glycolic-acid diet developed marked urinary calculi within 4 weeks. Rats in the groups fed a pyruvate diet had, however, almost no stones in the ur...

We investigated the effects of polysaccharides from the brown seaweed Sargassum graminifolium (Turn.) (SGP) on calcium oxalate crystallization, and determined its antioxidant activities. To examine the effects of SGP on calcium oxalate crystallization, we monitored nucleation and aggregation of calcium oxalate monohydrate crystals, using trisodium citrate as a positive control. We assessed anti...