Q. What is calcium?A. Calcium is a silvery white metallic element found in such common substances as chalk, granite, egg shell, seashells, hard water none and limestone. The body of an 11 stone adult contains about 3 lb of calcium making it the most abundant mineral in the body.
Q. What role does calcium play in the body?
A. building of bones and teeth is calcium’s most familiar role. Some 99 per cent of the body’s calcium is found in the bones of the teeth. However calcium is also essential for nerve conduction, muscle contraction, heartbeat, blood clotting the production of energy and the maintenance of immune function among other things.
Q. Does calcium keep bones and teeth hard?
A. yes. Its not only mineral involved in this process but it is important one. Bone consists of protein mineralized with crystals of calcium phosphate along with magnesium, sodium and trace minerals. And bone undergoes changes throughput life. Its possible for your body to draw calcium form your bones to maintain adequate levels in your bloodstream. And calcium can be delivered to bones throughout your lifetime too although the body is most efficient at making bone up to the age of about 30. After that the bone density tends to fall off.
Q. yes I have heard that the people’s bones get weaker as they age. Can getting enough calcium throughout my lifetime prevent this from happening?
A. the condition you are referring to is osteoporosis literally, porous bones. Some people especially postmenopausal women develop such severe osteoporosis that their bones break under their bodies’ bones own weight or as a result of quite minor falls or bumps.
Research shows that getting enough calcium early in life up to the age of 30 can help to prevent osteoporosis by allowing bones to reach their maximum density. Then when bones lose density later in life they are less likely to become so weak that they fracture.
Q. What about calcium supplementation later in life?
A. Some research also shows that getting large amounts of calcium later in life helps to show the bone loss associated with osteoporosis. In one study of postmenopausal women, a calcium supplement of 1000 mg a day reduced the loss of bone mineral density by 43 per cent when compared with a group receiving a placebo. The rate of bone loss in the legs was reduced by 35 per cent and in spine bone loss was stopped. That’s an important finding because many of the fractures associated with osteoporosis are crush fractures or tiny breaks of the spinal vertebrae.
In another study, women taking a combination of 1200 mg of calcium and 20 mcg of vitamin D had a 70 per cent reduction in the risk hip fractures after 10 months of supplementation
Q. I have heard that getting extra calcium in your diet can help to prevent muscle cramps, including menstrual cramps. Is that true?
A. Calcium is involved in the process of muscle contraction and relaxation and a calcium deficiency can lead to severe muscle spasms. Obstetricians occasionally prescribe extra calcium to pregnant women who complain of leg cramps and one study showed that calcium supplementation helped to reduce the incidence of leg cramps in pregnant women.
Calcium along with magnesium is sometimes recommended to relive both menstrual cramps and symptoms associated with menstrual syndrome. One recent study suggests that calcium actually can relive some of these symptoms. In that study women getting 1300 mg of calcium a say reported fewer problems with mood swings or ability to concentrate than women getting only 600 mg of calcium. The women getting extra calcium also reported fewer aches and pains during menstruation.
Q. isn’t there some research showing calcium helps to prevent colon cancer?
A. Several studies indicate people getting lots of calcium in their diets are less likely to develop colon cancer than getting only small amounts. From these studies, it appears than men are getting the calcium equivalent of about 1 ½ cups of milk a day have three times the risk of developing colon cancer than men getting calcium equal to 4 ½ cups of milk a day.
Q. how does calcium prevent colon cancer?
A. One theory Is that calcium binds with cancer promoting bile acids produced in the colon, thus reducing intestinal irritation. And in test tubes calcium is able to normalize the growth cells lining the intestinal wall so it is able to inhibit the kind of cell growth that could lead to cancer. Several studies are in progress to see if large amounts of calcium up to 3 grams of day can reduce the development of potentially cancerous intestinal polyps in people at high risk of colon cancer.
Q. Is calcium helpful for anything else?
A. In several studies calcium supplementation has provided a modest reduction in blood pressure about five points in people with established hypertension. And in one study people who consumed at least 1000 MG calcium a day the equivalent of three helpings of dairy products reduced their risk of high blood pressure by about 12 per cent. In that study people who got the most benefit from a high calcium diet were those aged 40 or younger thin people and those having no more than once alcoholic drink a day. (Alcohol depletes the body of calcium)
If it’s given both before and during pregnancy calcium may also be able to reduce the risk of pregnancy included hypertension a condition dangerous to both mother and foetus. A daily 2 gram dose of calcium lowered the risk of pregnancy included hypertension to 10 per cent compared with 15 per cent in a group of women receiving a placebo.
Adequate calcium intake can also protect people exposed to lead experts say. Lead absorption is blocked by calcium in the intestines.
Q. how much calcium do people get in each day?
A. men do better than women since their higher calorie diets provide more of most minerals. Studies indicate that about 10 per cent of people get less than 50 per cent of the RNI of calcium. Some 60 per cent of women aged 35 to 74 get less than two third of the RNI.
Q. I have heard that drinking lots of milk make a person develop kidney stones. Is that true?
A. No. kidney stones used to be considered possible side effects of a high calcium diet because most kidney stones do no contain calcium. But a recent study showed than men getting the most calcium in their diets had only one third the risk of developing kidney stones compared with men eating low calcium diets. A high calcium diets makes you excrete oxalate a component of kidney stones which may prove to be more important than calcium researchers say.
Calcium
Quick Reference guide
RNI
Men 800 mg
Pre menopausal women 1000 mg daily
Post menopausal women not taking estrogen
Replacement 1500 mg daily
Post menopausal women taking estrogen 1000 mg daily
Sources
Milk and dairy products such as cheese and ice cream kale, turnip greens, tinned salmon and sardines and soybeans
Signs of Deficiency
Low blood calcium level occurs in condition such as hyperventilization or parathyroid gland abnormality. These include abnormal heartbeat, muscle cramps, muscle spasms affecting the hands and feet, mental changes. Calcium deficiency results from dietary lack or poor absorption as a result of vitamin D deficiency. This causes rickets or bone softening.
Risk of deficiency
Avoiding dairy products low calorie, high protein, high fiber diets, having two or more alcoholic drinks a day, use of aluminum containing antacids which inhibit calcium absorption.
Possible Toxicity problems
Doses up to 2500 mg a day acre are considered safe. Gastrointestinal complaints such as nausea, gas, and constipation can be avoided by taking divided doses with metals or using supplements in the form of calcium gluconate or calcium lactate, the most two soluble forms. Early signs of high blood calcium vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite occur only in people who have taken enormous doses of 25000 mg or more.
