A study of 1,500 women age 45-80 found that women who lost abnormally high levels of calcium through their urine could cut the loss by up to 50% with tiny doses of vitamin K daily. When the supplement was stopped, calcium loss resumed at the rapid, old pace.
[Dr. Cees Vermeer, U. of Limburg, Maastricht, the Netherlands]

      People who have high blood levels of vitamin D are much less likely to have colorectal cancer than those with low levels.
      [Dr. Cedric Garland, principal author; U. of California, San Diego; Johns   Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health]

      Low levels of the trace mineral manganese can stunt growth, cause fatigue, birth defects and reproductive problems.

      Levels of manganese in the blood were 33% lower in 23 women with osteoporosis than in 17 healthy controls. When given a supplement, women with osteoporosis absorbed twice as much manganese into the blood, suggesting a greater need for the mineral.
[Dr. Jeanne Freeland-Graves; U. of Texas at Austin]

      Low levels of magnesium are linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and pregnancy problems.
[Conference on Trace Substances in Environmental Health---St. Louis]

      Calcium supplements can reverse the effects of salt in hypertensive black adults.
[Drs. Zemel and Sowers; Wayne State University, Detroit]

      A study of 6634 men and women by the U. of Southern California, LA, showed that for each gram of dietary calcium consumed per day, the risk of high blood pressure was lowered by 12% overall; 16% for non-drinkers and light drinkers; 25% for people under 40; 18% for people with lean body mass.
[James Dwyer, USC/LA]

      Dr. Lawerence M. Resnick. M.D., Assoc. Prof. of Medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell U. Medical Center, in a 1/22/92 Letter To The Editor (New York Times):
      "As is so often true, we've really just rediscovered the wheel. A Toronto physician, W.L.T. Addison, in articles written between 1924 and 1928, first documented the antihypertensive actions of both calcium and potassium supplementation in patients suffering from essential hypertension. He further suggested that these minerals worked by offsetting the effects of salt. His work was forgotten for more than 50 years, but his insights deserve to be remembered.
      Our group at the Cardiovascular Center of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center was the first in the modern era to demonstrate what Addison suspected: that the ability of calcium to lower blood pressure depends on the underlying type of hypertension present. Specifically, we demonstrated as early as 1983 that low levels of the kidney hormone, renin, identify subjects in whom calcium supplementation lowers pressure most often. Interestingly, these are also the subjects in whom dietary salt usually elevates pressure. Hence we routinely utilize plasma renin activity measurements in screening hypertensive subjects prior to providing any dietary advice to limit salt and/or to increase calcium intake."