If you’ve picked up a health book or magazine lately, you know all about calcium’s role in preventing osteoporosis, the brittle-bone disease that inca­pacitates thousands of women (and men) each year. But if scientific studies are any indication, there may be another, more immediate reason to add a calcium supplement to your medicine chest: It may relieve PMS.

In one study, researchers studied the diet of more than 3,000 women over 10 years and found that those who consumed 1,200 milligrams of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D a day through food had up to a 40 percent less chance of experiencing PMS. And it appears that choosing the low-fat versions of high-calcium foods made a difference. Women who drank 2 per­cent milk or lower had fewer symptoms than women who drank whole milk.

You would think that a couple of thousand years would be enough time to find a way to beat an ailment as common as bedsores. Evidence of these painful lessons has been found in ancient Egyptian mummies, but today we’re still struggling to prevent bedsores from forming on people who are confined to bed.

Clearly, the quality of mattresses has improved since the rule of King Tut. Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, have less to do with beds and lots to do with nutrition, say the experts. And that, sadly, is something that can still be pretty poor even in this day and age, especially among the elderly.