WEB – SITE ARTICLE: September 2006
CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS - - How Much ?? Do They Help ??
One of the significant advances in diagnostic medicine in the past two decades has been the ability to assess the structural integrity of the skeleton with a bone density measurement. This study is utilized in individuals thought to be at risk for bone fractures resulting from the insidious process of osteoporosis….a condition which may not be recognized for lack of symptoms until a major fracture occurs. Most typically, this is seen in women in the post- or perimenopausal years of life when falling estrogen levels permit calcium to be released or leached from the bony structures it has supported over the years. “When it comes to calcium, the mark is that American women are malnourished. That includes young girls just building their adult skeletons, who on average run 500 mg short daily. For menopausal women, the intake gap can easily be as wide as 900 mg , in part because of plummeting estrogen. Estrogen blocks bone breakdown and makes the body more efficient at taking up and holding on to calcium.” (Healy, Bernadine, M.D. “Calcium and Common Sense”, U.S. News & World Report, 8 May 2006. p 71).
Confounding the casual reader is a bit of information posted following release of the results of the government-sponsored Women’s Health Initiative earlier this year in which it was noted that women ages 50-79 who took calcium and Vitamin D for seven years did not lower their risk of fractures when compared to those women who took a placebo (dummy pill). In this article, Rebecca Jackson, an osteoporosis expert at Ohio State University is quoted as saying that biological processes at work must be considered in interpreting and acting on contradictory outcomes. Dr. Healy adds….”For example, hip fractures do not usually occur in women in their 50s or early 60s, though during that critical time around menopause they are facing a silent loss of calcium from their bones and need to shore it up. So those these women appear to get no benefit from supplements in terms of reduced fracture risk, we know for sure that they are being set up for fractures a decade or more later. For these women to throw away their calcium pills based on the insignificant number of fractures in their age group is just plain silly.”
So what is the bottom line to this brief discourse. Again some sage advice from Dr. Healy’s article is quoted: “Common sense says know your daily calcium intake and add supplements if it is short (1000 to 1500 mg of calcium per day along with up to 800 I.U. of Vitamin D). A glass of milk or carton of yogurt offers 300 to 400 mg. of calcium as do calcium-fortified fruit drinks like orange juice. And for bone health and cancer prevention, don’t forget exercise. This lesson is a key one for the great mass of baby boomers, about to become fragile-boned, cancer prone seniors. Like most preventive measures, be they vaccines or birth-control pills, you have to take them to get a benefit”.
William O. Rossing, MD – FACP
Medical Director - DAKOTACARE
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