K. Guggenheim

Radiological osteoporosis: correlation with dietary and biochemical findings.

Abstract: Roentgenograms of the lumbar spine, left femur and left hand were obtained on 1451 adults who did not have bone disease or malignant disease. Osteoporosis was visually evaluated on the basis of radiological density and the number of collapsed vertebrae. The height and the antero‐posterior length of the 3rd lumbar vertebra, and the total and medullary diameters of the femur and the 2nd metacarpus were measured. In females, vertebral height decreased with age and the degree of osteoporosis. The ratio of vertebral mid‐height to anteroposterior length decreased in females with age and in both sexes with increasing severity of osteoporosis. The ratio of mid‐height to anterior vertebral height was independent of age, sex and the presence of osteoporosis. In tubular bones, the medullary‐canal width increased with age and the severity of osteoporosis, particularly in females. This finding was more pronounced in the metacarpus than in the femur.

Effect of low calcium diet on bone and calcium metabolism in rats and mice--a differential species response.

Abstract 1. 1. The effects of administration of a low-calcium diet (−Ca) to young rats ( Rattus norvegicus ) and mice ( Mus musculus ) on some parameters of calcium metabolism were studied. 2. 2. Administration of a −Ca diet decreased both bone ash content and concentration of serum calcium. These effects are less marked in the mouse than in the rat. 3. 3. Fluoride was without effect on the degree of osteoporosis in both rodent species fed a −Ca diet. 4. 4. Mice fed a −Ca diet absorb calcium more efficiently from the diet than rats fed a similar diet. 5. 5. When fed a −Ca diet there was an increase in the concentration of calcium-binding activity in duodenal mucosa of the mouse but not in the rat. 6. 6. Rats grow faster than mice on either a −Ca or +Ca diet. However, the difference in growth between −Ca and +Ca rats becomes greater with increas- ing age, in contrast to mice. 7. 7. It appears that in mice calcium deficiency induces two kinds of adaptation, thus largely avoiding bone rarefaction : improved utilization of dietary calcium and diminished skeletal growth. In rats, these mechanisms are less effective and osteoporosis results.

An epidemiological study of osteoporosis in Israel.

Lateral lumbar spine roentgenograms from 1,463 adult outpatients without bone disease or malignancy were visually evaluated for degree of osteoporosis, with diet studied for 330. Degree of osteoporosis increased with age, more rapidly in females. In subjects over 60, 68% of men and 94% of women showed some degree of osteoporosis, and 5% and 22%, respectively, showed more than minimally detectable osteoporosis. Subjects of North African and Asian (other than Israeli) origins had significantly more osteoporosis than those of European, North American, or Israeli origins. Males consumed more calcium and protein, consumption of both decreasing with age. By age and sex, there was no association between calcium or protein intake and osteoporotic extent. Although levels of calcium, nitrogen, or hydroxyproline in random urine samples were not associated with osteoporosis, higher phosphorus levels were.

Aortic calcification in Israel. An epidemiological study.

Lateral roentgenograms of the lumbar spine from 1,463 ambulatory outpatients of the Department of Roentgenology of the Hadassah-Hebrew Hospital in Jerusalem were graded with respect to the degree of osteoporosis and aortic calcification. Aortic calcification increased in both sexes with an increase in age and to approximately the same degree, although men over the age of 60 showed somewhat more calcification than women of the same age. Many of the subjects were immigrants to Israel, but little effect of the area of origin upon the degree of aortic calcification could be proven. The association between the degree of osteoporosis and aortic calcification in both men and women over age 60 was highly significant, but this association is not explained by the fact that both disorders are age- dependent.

Changes in the metabolism of vitamin B 12 and methionine in rats fed unheated soya-bean flour

1. Young rats were fed on diets containing heated or unheated soya-bean flour. 2. Feeding unheated soya-bean flour decreased concentrations of vitamin B 12 in liver, kidneys and blood serum, urinary excretion of sulphate and concentration of reduced glutathione in liver. Blood glutathione level and urinary excretion of methylmalonic acid and formimino-glutamic acid following loads of propionate and histidine, respectively, were increased. 3. Supplementing a diet of unheated soya-bean flour with vitamin B 12 , had no effect on the level of reduced glutathione in the liver. Adding methionine to this diet decreased excretion of methylmalonic acid and the level of glutathione in blood. 4. The activity of liver methyl-tetrahydrofolate: L-homocysteine S-methyltransferase was not affected by the nature of dietary soya-bean flour nor by supplementation with vitamin B 12 5. It is concluded that heat-labile substances present in soya-bean flour induce metabolic changes which can bring about an increased requirement for vitamin B 12 , and a deficiency of sulphur-containing amino acids.

Composition and nutritive value of diets consumed by strict vegetarians.

The population in technically developed countries generally subsists on a mixed diet. Its pattern of food consumption is varied and almost every meal consists of foods of both animal and vegetable origin. This diversity of food sources is often thought to be a requisite of a ‘well-balanced’ diet, providing all nutrients in adequate amounts. A satisfactory diet can also be obtained on a strictly vegetarian rCgime, but a careful selection of foods is necessary to furnish all nutrients and particularly the essential amino acids in sufficient amounts and right proportions, and even a well-selected vegetarian diet is likely to be deficient in vitamin B,, (Wokes, Badenoch & Sinclair, 1955; Halsted, Carroll, Dehghani, Loghmani & Prasad, 1960), which is lacking in vegetable foods. In most of the developed countries there are small groups of people who adhere, for reasons of conviction, to a strictly vegetarian diet. Though very conscious of the kinds and origin of the foods they eat, they do not generally select them according to scientific principles. Moreover, food fads, and strange beliefs concerning the value of certain foods, are frequently encountered in these groups. I t therefore seemed of interest to study the composition and nutritive value of the diets of strict vegetarians living in a country-Israel-where normally the pattern of food consumption is mixed. The diets of 119 strict vegetarians were studied and the protein value of a composite dietary sample was assessed in experiments with rats.

Characterization of the 'meat anaemia' in mice and its prevention and cure by copper.

IT was reported (Adler, 1958; Ilan and Guggenheim, 1960; Ilan, Kende and Guggenheim, 1960) that young mice kept on a diet composed entirely of meat develop an anaemia accompanied by stunted growth and a hgh mortality. None of the haematopoietic factors, such as pyridoxine, folic acid, vitamin Blz or iron, or any combination of them were able to prevent the anaemia. Beef liver, on the other hand, both prevented and cured the anaemia. Liver of normal mice had a weak haemotopoietic potency, whde liver of mice rendered anaemic by feeding the meat diet was ineffective. It was assumed that a haematopoietic factor other than pyridoxine, folic acid, vitamin Biz or iron is present in beef liver in higher concentration than in normal mouse liver and is absent from the livers of mice restricted to a diet of beef muscle. In this paper data are presented which characterize the ‘meat anaemia’ in mice.

Nutritional status and food consumption of pregnant women in a development area of Israel

The purpose of the survey was to gain information on food habits and conditions and status of nutrition of pregnant women in one of Israel’s development areas. These areas, the most important of which is the southern part of the country, called the Negev, with its capital Be’er-Sheba, are underpopulated and both economically and agriculturally underdeveloped ; there new immigrants are employed in road building, afforestation and other public works projects. On arrival they live in camps in small tin and wooden huts. Later, they settle in villages or small towns which they erect with governmental help. This system strives for a solution of two difficult problems which face the State of Israel: economic development of the country and absorption of the masses of immigrants. Many of the newcomers, originating in underdeveloped Near and Middle Eastern countries, are unskilled or semi-skilled labourers and have lived under backward cultural and health conditions. It is clear that serious social and public-health problems arise in this situation. Since we were not able to carry out a country-wide survey on representative groups of all parts of the population of Israel, a nutritionally vulnerable group was chosen: immigrant pregnant women living in a development area. Signs of malnutrition were thought to be more widespread among this sample of the total population than in the rest, and if signs of a specific deficiency were found to be absent, it could safely be concluded that malnutrition is not a major public-health problem to the country.

Investigation on the seasonal fluctuation of vitamin C excretion in Palestine

SINCE Harris et al. (1933) first showed the significance of urinary vitamin C excretion, numerous papers have been published on vitamin C excretion by man. Few of these investigations deal with excretion of vitamin C by normal individuals under natural nutritional and climatic conditions, v. Euler & Malmberg (1935) carried out a comprehensive study of the vitamin C excretion of the inhabitants of north Sweden, south Sweden and Stockholm. Their observations, however, are based on but a few random samples obtained during the winter months. Hamel (1937) investigated the daily vitamin C excretion of different classes of the population of Rostock, during a small part of the year. The investigations of van Eekelen & Wolff (1936) dealt with thirty-three Dutch families and were intended mainly to yield information on the vitamin C nutrition of the Dutch population, rather than on the seasonal fluctuation in vitamin C excretion in urine. The aim of the present investigations was twofold: (1) to follow the vitamin C excretion in man under prevailing nutritional conditions, and (2) to ascertain the influence of the specific natural nutritional conditions of Palestine on the seasonal variations in the excretion of vitamin C.

Seasonal fluctuations of the vitamin A and C content of Palestinian milks.

A STUDY of the seasonal fluctuations of the elimination of vitamin C by the Palestinian population, alld hence supply, has been reported in a previous paper (GFuggenheim, 1939). It was found that the seasonal curve of vitamin C in the urine diSered from that found in Europe, as a consequence of the consumption of citreous fruits produced in Palestine. This paper records a complementary study of the seasonal fluctuations of vitatnins A and C in Palestine milk. Milks from an urban, a valley and a hill district have been examined in order to determine the influence of variations in fresh fodder on the vita.min content of the milk, and hence to assess the value of the milks as a source of vitamins in human nutrition.