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May 23rd, 2012
06:30 PM ET
More evidence links calcium supplements to heart attacksCalcium supplements, widely taken by older people to prevent bone fractures, may be doing more harm than good, a large new study suggests. Researchers tracked nearly 25,000 European adults for 11 years, and found that people who reported regularly taking calcium supplements were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who didn't use any supplements. Only the use of calcium supplements, and not overall calcium intake, was associated with an increased risk of heart attack. In fact, people who consumed higher amounts of calcium from foods, such as milk and other dairy, tended to have a lower risk of heart attacks than people who consumed less. The new study, which appears in the journal Heart, adds to the preliminary yet growing evidence that calcium supplements may harm the heart. Since 2010, two separate studies that re-analyzed existing data have reported a similar link betweencalcium supplements and heart attacks. "Calcium is an important mineral," says Sabine Rohrmann, Ph.D., the senior author of the new study and an epidemiologist at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. "However, we probably do not need mega-doses of calcium, and the current recommendation"—1,000 to 1,200 milligrams for most U.S. adults—"can be met by a balanced diet that includes (low-fat) milk and dairy products." Older people who don't tolerate dairy products well could try mineral water or calcium-rich vegetables, such as certain types of cabbage, Rohrmann adds. Health.com: 11 foods for healthy bones Why is calcium from food any different than calcium from supplements? Experts aren't entirely sure, but one factor may be that supplements tend to release their calcium in a single flood rather than a slow, steady stream. Calcium, along with cholesterol, is one of the substances that contributes to the hardening and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis). For reasons that remain unclear, when calcium levels spike suddenly, the calcium appears more likely to end up in plaques that line artery walls, a major culprit in heart attacks. "People who take supplemental calcium have a surge in [blood] calcium levels, and we know that surge increases calcium uptake in atherosclerotic plaques," says Christopher Cove, M.D., assistant director of the cardiac catheterization lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, N.Y. On the other hand, Cove says, "Calcium from your everyday diet is digested slowly, and it's also not the high concentration you get from tablets." Health.com: 10 healthy calcium-packed recipes For now, though, there are more questions than answers. The new study, known as an observational study, is the first of its kind to look at the link between calcium supplements and heart attacks, and it has several important blind spots that will need to be explored in future research. Notably, only about half of the supplement users in the study itemized which vitamins and minerals they took, so the authors likelymissed some people who took calcium supplements, potentially skewing the results. And only about 1.5% of the study participants had a heart attack during the study, limiting the power of the findings. In addition, as in all observation studies, unknown factors may have contributed to heart attacks. Although the authors controlled for a wide range of health measures and behaviors, it's possible that calcium-supplement users were more vulnerable to heart attacks for reasons that had nothing to do with the supplements. Health.com: Surprising heart attack risks Even these tentative findings could lead doctors to reconsider the use of calcium supplements, however. Many postmenopausal women take calcium supplements to preserve their bone health as they age, but as an editorial accompanying the study suggests, the effectiveness of calcium supplements in preventing bonefractures appears to be so modest that it may not outweigh even a potential, still-unproven heart risk. "Recommending calcium supplements may not be the right thing to do," Cove says. Copyright Health Magazine 2011
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I've definitely cut back on taking calcium supplements. Now I just get it from fish and leafy greens.
This has to be the dumbest ad most medically slanted article/research I have read in a long time. Filled with so many falsehoods and misguided data. Good luck trying to acquire and assimilate adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals from the food you eat. Aint gonna happen.Especially if you are ver active, as we should all be. In my view it's an ourage and a total diservice to those looking to prevevnt the onset of a myriad of diseases and optimize overall health.
Bob is wrong.
I read about calcium supplements being more toxic than good a few years back and decided right there and then to use real food for calcium. If one thinks about it scientifically, calcium is a mineral that can leave deposits. It makes total sense to me. I take supplements but not for minerals as I consume enough foods to cover these needed minerals.
The aim for supplements is to ensure we get what may be lacking in our diets due to overprocessing of foods. Since I live in a colder climate, I take vitamin D. I also take Kelp and tumeric since I am not likely to get the benefits from food sources since I do not care for curry dished and kelp is simply a good idea rather than relying on sea vegetables.
Seriously, it does not require us to eat tons of food, just good whole foods and no processed junk to muck it all up.
Anytime I have ever attempted to take calcium supplements regularly I get leg/foot cramps. Now I am glad that this reaction prevented me from taking them!
Nutrients almost always require each other to be metabolized properly. Taking individual supplements by themselves is often a waste of money, as they lack co-nutrients necessary to be used by the body; e.g. calcium, magnesium and vitamin D need to go together to be most effective.
Absolutely correct. Calcium and magnesium should be taken together in one cal–mag supplement that's basically in a 2:1 ratio. Individual supplements should be taken only for short periods, and taken along with a balanced multi-vitamin, because they work TOGETHER, much the way building blocks do–add or remove one, and you create an imbalance with another. Vitamins should also be NATURAL for the best results as well as for the least toxicity–for example, a multi that is not natural which contains iron and the Vit. E actually has these counter-acting each other. (Otherwise, a non-natural iron or Vit. E should be taken 8 hrs, apart in order not to have them cancel each other out.) This can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be at all; just read up. The best book I've found to explain it clearly (in layman's terms) is Earl Mindell's "The Vitamin Bible." An inexpensive paperback, but it is an invaluable resource–you'll never get confused again about vitamins.
There is no need for dairy or calcium supplements if you eat enough vegetables with calcium; leafy greens are the best!
They might also want to investigate what type of calcium supplements that participants used. There are many different ways that calcium supplements are made, and the base may also affect how it is metabolized.
As with many supplements, people take them because they heard it was good for them, without any consideration of whether or not they're actually lacking in the substance. Unlike vitamins which the body expels, calcium is a mineral. It can build up.
You are full of nonsense. As an osteoporotic woman whose body for some reason cannot hold vitamin d, and as a vegetarian who is a picky eater, I assure you that some of us need vitamin supplements. Contrary to what the above, poorly-written and misleading article states, it is difficult to get 1000 mg of calcium from food every day. The body does not process every food with equal efficiency. For instance, cottage cheese is known to be a source of calcium...but that calcium is in a form your body cannot access well. So if you eat a cup of cottage cheese, that calcium passes out of your system for the most part.
To get enough calcium in veggies, you need to eat more each day than most people eat in a week. I eat collard greens frequently because they are he highest, but even those provide Just 350 mg per cup - cooked. Broccoli has a mere 94 mg per cup cooked. Kale 179.
Agreed, Fifi. Same is true of magnesium. You physically cannot get enough of it from the foods you eat, pretty much everyone should supplement it, and yet as someone else noted, it should be supplemented in combination with calcium to work properly, which leaves me confused as to what to do. I also question the advice given in the article to try using mineral water to get extra calcium, since I know you should take calcium with food in order to properly absorb it and I've read that because of this, mineral waters are a waste of money, as the minerals generally just pass through unabsorbed.
So what did humans do for the tens of thousands of years of our existence before we created supplements?
People died thousands of years prior to supplements and they did not live to see osteoporosis. The reason for increased longevity can be chocked up to immunizations, antibiotics, and clean water. All the rest is just pseudoscience.
Jody, Get "The Vitamin Bible," by Earl Mindell. This explains vitamins in layman's terms, clearly, and you'll never be confused again. Really. I love that book. (And don't try to take magnesium supplements separately–ever heard of "Milk of Magnesia"–and what it's for? Haha. You'll quickly grasp what I mean if you ever do take magnesium separately!!) Calcium and magnesium supplements are best taken as cal-mag supplements, which should be basically in a 2:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium. These are like "vitamin buddies" that work best together. Vitamin C also helps us to process all of our vitamins and minerals–esp. minerals, which essentially are like rocks for our systems to process. We actually process only about 10 percent of the mineral supplement, simply because they're "hard" for the system to break down. Vit. C assists that and the other vitamins–and, as I noted in a previous post, it's best to take a NATURAL multi-vitamin supplement along with any individual supplement you may need, because vitamins work like building blocks–remove or add one, and it causes an imbalance elsewhere. Also, women and men have very different vitamin needs. The iron that pre-menopausal women need would be a potentially harmful level for men, for example. None of this is rocket science, however; it's entirely possible to get a good grasp of it so that you feel you can take the appropriate action for your own body's needs. I was confused, like you, until I started reading up in many books. Mindell's "The Vitamin Bible" proved to be the one comprehensive, most easy-to-understand source I ever read–and it remains so. (It's in expensive paperback, so I'm sure an amazon search would find you a copy readily.) It's very important to make sure your vitamins are NATURAL, rather than synthetic, because the overages and the counter-actions of certain individual supplements within them tend to happen with synthetic supplements. The other key point of advice I always give is another that Mindell offers: take them during the work-week, and don't take them on the week-end. This way, if you are getting too much of anything, it's usually out of your system by the third day. It's a common-sense approach. (Natural vitamins are found primarily at health food stores.) Hope this information helps!
In the current unregulated market, you can hire anyone to tout your product and make claims of miracle cures if you are selling supplements without fear of malpractice or liability of any kind without testing, proof or integrity!
Isn't it funny that most supplements made in the US are manufactured in Utah and that Orrin Hatch has blocked all efforts to require proof of efficacy and even more importantly blocked certification by the USP. Which would require verifiable proof of the make up of each pill!
Doc4Subs, every statement that you've made in your rant is untrue. Every one.
At least they're not made in China!
Doc, have you ever googled any of the individuals belittling your "rant?" There are some shady people with pasts easy to research. My family member passed away due to a supplement distributed by a company called AdvoCare. The creator of that formula is one of your respondents.
Take vitamin k-2 and it won't be so bad.
People who take supplements probably just worry more and that's what leads to more heart attacks.
Wow, very interesting comment. May be.
Yes, that should be tested. In supplement users, is there more psycho pathologies?
I take a food-sourced (from algae) calcium supplement that includes food-sourced magnesium, K2 and D3. I only take a small dosage relative to what they recommend (one capsule instead of three). The cheap "rock based" calcium supplements can cause harm hypothesis ... that is not a real shocker to me.
GB, I take red mineral agae as well, but I do so because the product is vegetarian and is absorbed more efficiently by the body (as proved by studies). If the above observational study has any merit, however, red mineral algae would be MORE harmful to your hear because it is taken up by the body in a larger dose.
@Fifi, not necessarily. The problem may be caused by calcium that is NOT being taken up by the cells and just floating around in the blood.
Please tell me about this suppliment. I have been looking for something like this. I am in agreement with this article (the woman who asked how she could get 1000 mg of calcium needs to understand first that she doesn't need that much calcium), and also have researched to know that excess calcium can actually cause bone loss. The key is D3 and K2 for bone health.
You have to read 12 paragraphs of scaremongering before learning that this was an observational study, in which half of the participants dien't itemize their supplement intake, and only 1.5% of the participants had heart attacks during the study.
In other words, it's meaningless and you should still take your calcium.
I would like to see a study done on osteoporotic women who take large doses of calcium daily, vs. those who take it periodically by injection or megadose, with a control group being those who get it just through food. Then the results would mean something.
I wouldn't call it meaningless. They likely had to show some kind of red flag through a cheap, observational study before working up a grant package to fund a more invlolved study.
This is not the only study that's shown a possible link between calcium supplements and heart attacks. My doctor had me stop taking calcium about a year ago, for this very reason. You may feel that you need a calcium supplement, but that doesn't mean that it's the best thing for other people, or that the conclusions of the studies are incorrect.
The problem is not calcium supplements, it's poorly formulated calcium supplements. Calcium and magnesium are both essential minerals and compete for uptake. Simply taking calcium supplements compromises magnesium status in the body and leads to a number of metabolic problems. A properly formulated "calcium" supplement should include magnesium in the correct form and ratio, as well as manganese, silicon, boron, vitamin K (unless one is taking blood-thinning meds), and vitamin D (though not in the excessive amounts currently being touted as healthful and safe), plus an organically-bound source of fluoride such as tea extracts.
Where can you find this supplement? Do you have any suggestion?
Thank you!
Rick is correct. Calcium and magnesium need to be taken together in supplement form, in a ratio of approx. 2:1 cal to mag. (And you do NOT want to take magnesium by itself. Think of "Milk of Magnesia," and its purpose. Haha.) Vitamins work like building blocks, and work together. Adding or lowering one makes a difference to another. This is why it's best to take a NATURAL multi-vitamin (synthetic forms are where you tend to get overages and counter-active problems), and then take any individual supplement that's needed additionally along with it. (Usually most individual ones are taken for short periods, rather than long-term. Usually.) I've said this in responses to a couple of others here, but I'll say it once more. Of the many books I've read that are for the lay-public's consumption, Earl Mindell's "The Vitamin Bible" is the most comprehensive and easiest to understand. It's in paperback–an amazon search will get you an inexpensive copy readily. One of the best investments in your health you can make, aside from acting with common sense on the information you gain.
Calcium and magnesium should be taken in a 1:1 ratio, not to exceed 400-500 mg. per day. Your body will decide whether it needs more magnesium or calcium. They are competing minerals.
Coral calcium is the answer..........
No, it isn't.
"Notably, only about half of the supplement users in the study itemized which vitamins and minerals they took, so the authors likely missed some people who took calcium supplements, potentially skewing the results. And only about 1.5% of the study participants had a heart attack during the study, limiting the power of the findings."
Translation: this is another b.s. study....
First, I think the article is crap. What kind were used? Some docs Rx TUMS as a calcium supplement. I have seen a trend of unhealthy people "pop" pills as they will be safe. Also...Milk is a horrible source for calcium. Milk actually causes you to lose bone calcium. Green leafy veges are the best.
Drinking soda and diet soda will affect calcium as well. True you cannot just pop a pill...Always by high quality and stop getting supplements from WalMArt
this article brought to you by the drug makers...
That defies logic. The drugmakers make calcium supplements, and this article is telling people not to take them. How does that benefit the drug companies?
Eating processed calcium products causes a buildup of calcium in the arteries. Eating
cheeses made from natural enzymes and other fermented calcium products, redirects more of the calcium to the bones, not the arteries.
Calcium needs to be taken with vitamin d or else it cannot be used to make bone. Probably the biggest problem with taking calcium supplement is not taking enough vitamin d with it. Most Americans are chronically short of vitamin d due to our minimum exposure to sunshine. Dermatologist have a morbid fear of sunshine and skin cancer. Dermatologist tell everyone to slather on sunscreen. So maybe people have less skin cancer but have other diseases due to a lack of vitamin d. Damned if you do; damned if you do not.
Most doctors tell their patients to take Vitamin D along with their calcium supplements. Some calcium supplements also contain vitamin D. Some Americans don't have high enough levels of vitamin D, but you are incorrect in saying that that most don't.
Calcium is an ELEMENT. There are plenty of MOLECULES that contain calcium (eg. calcium carbonate). Just becasue a food is high in "CALCIUM" doen't mean it has the same chemical makeup as the calcium in a supplement.
The problem with all such studies is that they produce results that are below the noise floor. The thing to remember is we all die, and we will likely die much sooner if we don't eat than if we do eat.
I take many vitiman supplements, and I really couldn't prove that any of them are helping me stay healthy. Then again I don't know that they aren't. The answer is long term testing of the vitimans that currently are not requlated by the FDA.
What a joke of a study. Try to scare people away from supplements. Go Big Pharma Go
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Mary Ann!! I was wondering the exact same thing but have been too piyahcslly mangled to communicate much lately. Ditto on the fish oil except mine is from krill with some evening primrose. Also, yes on the vitamin D, magnesium and B. In addition, I was taking grapefruit seed extract ( I rarely drink the juice but I've read it can interact with many meds), as well as guggol, turmeric and neem. Also, yes, on the probiotics and prebiotics. Plus I was eating a lot of kelp. not sure if this would be important, but I have a Welsh/ German background and tend to get those little red spots called cherry angiomas ( little busted blood vessels) Oh, one final thing-chlorella. I was taking about 15 tablets per day.Thanks for your other note of support. I'm going to respond as soon as I put my 2 year old down for his nap ..
Why is calcium from food any different than calcium from supplements?
So what if you take the supp with food?
There is obviously a huge market for a proper calcium supplement. I hope that someone will soon develop either a slow relise calcium supplement or a chewable "calcium candy" which one can pop 6-7 times per day and get the supplement in small doses to stabilize the calcium blood level.
From what I have read Americans eat few vegtables and fruits. To think you cannot eat right and a pill will take care of it is foolish. Who said the 1000 to 2000 mg is the right dosage? Evrything that is consumed works together to create health. To think that one vitamin or the other is what we need is looking at the problem narrowly.
This report has certainly made the rounds and what i don't understand is how when calcium is in so much of our American diet we can say it is only in supplements that is a risk. Someone previously made the statement that it is pretty blatantly a way to attack supplements in general.
Also, one thing not mentioned in the report is the magnesium/calcium connection. This is very important as any doctor will tell you and the reason in many supplements, like the one i take http://www.esupplements.com/products/optimum-nutrition-opti-women/ you will see it has both calcium AND magnesium.
There is a need for much more data before all the alarm.
There is a study in work right now. It's a Paleo Diet study with an emphases on people over 55. It's been going 3 years and has 2 years to go. So far the bone density concerns on some female members is improving without any calcium supplements. A grant is being written to extend the study to 10 years and expand the number of participants. Many of the research staff have joined the study diet plan because of the positive results, so far. Evidently osteoporosis is a modern disease that became a problem when man moved from a hunter/gather to a farmer and started eating grains and dairy products.
I am retirement age, have rarely taken calcium supplements as I read about the danger a few years ago, so dumpled them... even though I bought theme combined with magnesium. As a result, I eat green leafy vegetables and am getting good at ways to prepare them. The added benefit of fiber and other nutrients makes this a win win situation,
My doctor was shocked I had not had a bone density test being a woman of medium height who does not drink milk other than coffee. I do take vit D with krill oil for absorption. I believe vit D is important as it is a hormone that is required for health. The other supplement I take is ubiquinol (coq10) which is another hormone required for health. The trouble with hormones is a lack of them as we age.....
Interesting comment regarding grains – I agree and have minimized them to twice a week. I used to eat grains for the fiber effect and moving my sluggish system but no more as not required when eating right.
There was a major study done ( by Harvard I believe ) that showed that double strength cranberry juice improved artery health and appeared to remove excess calcium and made arteries more elastic rather than "hardened" . GOOGLE : "double strength cranberry juice study heart disease ".
It is true that calcium can cause problems in arteries , but there is still a lot of confusion over why, how, and what, to do to maintain bone healtth and artery health . A fuzzy picture at this time .
When will medicine become a science?
Medicine IS a science. One based, in part, on statistics and probability. No two people respond to medication in exactly the same way. If we did then medicine would be more like basic math where 1 plus 1 equals 2. (I'm sure some will post a smart comment here about some proof to the contrary in a futile effort to look intelligent.)
Everyone's body chemistry differs. So, in essence we process supplements different. To overdue supplements and food causes side effects. Do you know what you take and eat, where it comes from, what the ingredients are, and how your body will process it? Not even researchers can exact anything for sure. So just be careful what you put in your body.
My wife takes her daily megadose of calcium and D3 in three smaller increments spread out across the day. I wonder if the study differentiates between total daily dose and dosing rate. Just a thought...
It's amusing to see how so many commenters are absolutely dead certain that their position is correct and everyone else's is rubbish – and yet no two of them say the same thing, except they're all sure that the scientific study reported in the article has to be wrong and was probably the result of an unholy conspiracy. Yes, medicine is based on science, but the whole mystique of supplements is not, as these comments show.
I use a great multi (http://www.esupplements.com/products/gaspari-anavite/
http://www.esupplements.com/products/gaspari-anavite/) which has both calcium AND magnesium – which is important you take together for absorption.
interesting article
I don't doubt that calcium could cause a build up in the arteries, but I have a hard time believing the credibility of the article because it says, "Calcium, along with cholesterol, is one of the substances that contributes to the hardening and narrowing of arteries". There is no evidence that cholesterol contributes to hardening of the arteries. Our bodies need cholesterol to function properly. I guess the line was inserted by an uninformed writer who still believes all the "low-fat is good for you" nonsense.
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Would a whole food calcium supplement made with algae be safer? And regarding the calcium supplement study, what about calcium fortified foods that the study deemed safe? That doesn't make sense since calcium fortified foods – i.e., orange juice, soy milk, etc. fortified with calcium are simply foods with a vitamin supplements added to them in my opinion. I would love clarification.
To Author:
Could you please cite your sources for this so called "evidence" you are referring to for the claims you make?
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Great post! thank you for sharing. i agree with what you have to say about More evidence links calcium supplements to heart attacks. but we can also get calium from other sources too.
Great post thanks for sharing..want to share this also.http://milkcalcium.tumblr.com/post/40159695396/calcium-good-health
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Nobody on this whole comment section knows anything about Vitamin K2 (not K1). That is the missing ingredient here. Google it and you will find a ton on it. Also, westonaprice.org.
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