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Thread: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

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    United States Avalon Member Calz's Avatar
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    Default Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Bugger. If not one thing then another. Expect the best way to go would be all natural foods/sunshine/earthing etc etc etc.

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    Breast Cancer and Heart Attacks: A Deadly Side Effect of Calcium Supplements?

    Posted By Dr. Mercola | January 30 2012


    Calcium is one of the most popular dietary supplements on the market, largely because of the widely circulated mantra that mega-doses of this mineral are essential for building and maintaining healthy bones.

    As a result, many people believe that taking a calcium supplement is a simple way to prevent bone fractures associated with osteoporosis.

    What they have not been told is that while you can force increased bone mineral density with calcium supplements, you cannot be sure that this will result in greater bone strength.

    Be Careful In Interpreting Bone Tests Results
    Bone density, while an excellent measurement of compressive strength, does not reveal tensile strength, i.e. whether or not your bone will resist breaking from being pulled or stretched, as commonly occurs in a fall or similar trauma.

    Moreover, "osteoporosis," as presently defined by bone scans (DXA scan) using the T-score, inappropriately defines "normal bone density" according to the standard of a 25-year old, young adult.

    In other words, if you are 40, 50, or even 100, the T-score-based system says your bones are not normal, or even diseased if they are not as dense as they were when you were a young adult.

    If in fact they used the age-appropriate Z-score, most cases of "osteopenia," and many cases of "osteoporosis," would suddenly disappear because they were inappropriately classified from the start.

    Do Calcium Supplements Predispose You to Breast Cancer?
    Ultimately, the "calcium is good for your bones" mantra is yet another example of a good theory gone wrong, and represents how broadly deluded the mainstream medical community is about bone health and the nature of osteoporosis, and its highly fabricated twin condition "osteopenia."

    There are actually a number of studies indicating that mass market calcium supplements increase your risk for cardiovascular incidents and other problems, while offering little benefit to your bones. Only because something can increase your bone density: eating what amounts to chalk or pulverized bone meal, or worse, chemicals like the drugs Fosamax and Evista, does not mean this will translate into improved health for your bones, or any of your other organ systems.

    Indeed, before jumping off the lemming-like cliff of conventional medical wisdom, consider there is a solid body of research indicating that higher bone density may actually increase the risk of malignant breast cancer by 300% or more! Considering that close to 1 in 4 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lives, with breast cancer top on the list, isn't the neurotic fixation on increasing bone density with calcium supplements misplaced, especially when it may increase the overall risk of dying from cancer and, as we will see, cardiovascular disease (the #1 killer), as well?

    Taking Calcium Might Increase Your Heart Attack Risk
    Heart attacks may be caused by supplemental calcium from elemental sources, which include limestone, oyster shell, and bone meal, according to two meta-analyses of available research (a meta-analysis is a review and summary of the results of many clinical studies on the same subject).

    The first, conducted in 2010 and involving over 8,000 people, showed that taking this kind of inorganic calcium supplement in amounts of 500 mg or more would increase your relative risk of heart attack by 27 percent.

    Critics of the study pointed out that it only looked at calcium supplementation without vitamin D administered at the same time (vitamin D helps you absorb and utilize calcium). However, the second analysis showed that even when co-administered with vitamin D, elemental calcium still increased heart attack risk by 24 percent, with researchers concluding:

    "Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D modestly increase the risk of cardiovascular events, especially myocardial infarction … A reassessment of the role of calcium supplements in osteoporosis management is warranted."

    In fact, the second analysis was even more disturbing, as it found the calcium supplementation (in addition to vitamin D) increased the composite risk of heart attack and stroke by15%!

    Calcium Can be Beneficial or Deadly Depending on Where it Ends Up in Your Body
    Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body, necessary for not only bone health but also regulating your heartbeat, conducting nerve impulses, clotting blood and stimulating hormone secretions. Your body does not make calcium, and in fact loses calcium daily through your skin, nails, hair, sweat and elimination, which is why you must replace it via your diet.

    It has been estimated, however, that your body excretes as little as 100 mg a day, making the current recommendations by the National Osteoporosis Foundation for women over 50 to take 1200 mg a day, a bit troubling. When we compare our calcium-rich diet to the traditional calcium-poor Chinese peasant diet, which was free of cow's milk and calcium supplements, approximately 250 mg a day of plant-based calcium was all that was needed to fulfill their bodily needs – and this is a culture with no word for "osteoporosis" in its 3,000+ year old language!

    Due to the fact that about 99 percent of your body's calcium is stored in your bones and teeth, if you don't get enough calcium, your body will take calcium from your bones to perform necessary functions. This is where the idea that supplementing with calcium could prevent calcium loss from your bones comes from -- but it is an overly simplified theory that lacks solid evidence to back it up, especially in Western, modernized cultures which consume unprecedentedly large amounts of dairy-derived, fortification-based and supplemental calcium.

    For instance, one 2010 article presented evidence for a total lack of support in the research for calcium supplements reducing fracture risk!

    Moreover, in the Harvard Nurses' Health Study, a review tracking 78,000 nurses for 12 years found that the relative risk of hip fracture was 45% higher in those women who drank two or more glasses of milk per day versus those who drank one glass or less. Indeed, in countries where both dairy consumption and overall calcium levels in the diet are the lowest, bone fracture rates are also the lowest; conversely, in cultures like the United States where calcium consumption is among the highest in the world, so too are the fracture rates among the highest (see: The China Study).

    The truth is that taking any calcium in excess or isolation, without complementary nutrients like magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K2, which help keep your body in balance, can have adverse effects, such as calcium building up in coronary arteries and causing heart attacks. Even taking calcium with vitamin D does not appear to be enough to prevent these types of adverse effects.

    So when you take a biologically foreign form of calcium (such as limestone, oyster shell, egg shell and bone meal (hydroxylapatite), or when your body's ability to direct calcium to the right places becomes impaired (as when you are deficient in vitamin K2), calcium may be deposited where it shouldn't be, which can lead to multiple health problems.

    Often, much of the burden of removing the excess calcium falls on the kidneys, which is why it has been proven on numerous occasions that calcium carbonate rapidly calcifies arteries in those with compromised kidney function, especially hemodialysis patients. Calcium deposits are, in fact, major contributors and even causative factors in many conditions, including the following:

    ...


    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...0130_DNL_art_1

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    Avalon Member NeverMind's Avatar
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote The truth is that taking any calcium in excess or isolation, without complementary nutrients like magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K2, which help keep your body in balance, can have adverse effects, such as calcium building up in coronary arteries and causing heart attacks. Even taking calcium with vitamin D does not appear to be enough to prevent these types of adverse effects.
    Absolutely. What's more, it's been known for quite a few years now that women (or maybe - probably - both sexes, I don't remember) who drink a lot of milk and other calcium-rich foods were THREE TIMES more likely to have a hip fracture. Why this isn't better known, I don't know.

    I am not particularly obsessed with supplements - or with health in general (being as I am perennially healthy - touch wood! ) - but I do take K2 vitamins every day.
    Magnesium is a given, since I live in a place with magnesium-rich water.
    Last edited by NeverMind; 30th January 2012 at 18:57.
    ET SI OMNES, EGO NON

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    United States Avalon Member SomaSmith's Avatar
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    I agree that the natural way is the best way to go! I have always been weary of anything in pill form... even suppliments. They have their place, and I won't deny that suppliments and modern medicine has helped a lot of people. But, I often wonder how different things would be if we lived in a world where we only use what nature provides for food and medicine.
    "One day at a time."

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    Wales Avalon Member Lisab's Avatar
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Thank you Calz I'l keep an eye on this and keep looking for more information. I was recommended a calcium/magnesium supplement due to the I was post natal and taking them in the evening help you sleep. It certaintly helped and Ive been taking them ever since alongside vitamin D. The fact that they help me sleep, Ive always taken as confirmation that I must have been deficient, thinking the benefits to my bones as a bonus really. But this articles obviously got me thinking now.

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    Avalon Member NeverMind's Avatar
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by SomaSmith (here)
    I agree that the natural way is the best way to go! I have always been weary of anything in pill form... even suppliments. They have their place, and I won't deny that suppliments and modern medicine has helped a lot of people. But, I often wonder how different things would be if we lived in a world where we only use what nature provides for food and medicine.
    Very good point.
    Fermented soy and fermented dairy are a good source of vitamin K2.

    Here's another video-article by dr. Mercola, about natural sources of K2:
    http://products.mercola.com/vitamin-k/

    (It is an infommercial, yes, as most articles by this good doctor - but I do like him - however it is useful information.)

    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    Do not stop taking them LisaB! Clearly your body needs them (as do all our bodies).
    Just balance it with K2, that's all.
    ET SI OMNES, EGO NON

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    This is not particularly cheerful reading for me as about five years ago I was diagnosed as osteoporotic and after a bone density scan was put on calcium supplements. Another bone scan a year later showed a small increase in density but my bones were still too porous for someone my age. I then sort of forgot about it and just after Christmas this year fell and fractured my wrist - well shattered it really and am due to have another bone scan to see what is going on. I have been recommended bisphosphonates - this too has had a bad press so where does this leave me? I am a vegetarian (sorry about this real vegetarians) who occasionally eats fish but don't like dairy much although I do eat goats cheese.

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Corncrake - on the contrary, it should cheer you up very much.
    Because now you will be safer than before you read this, and now you know what to do. Add a K2 supplement to your diet, and you should be fine.

    P.S. I am a vegetarian myself.
    Last edited by NeverMind; 31st January 2012 at 05:17.
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    calcium derived from plant sources rather than limestone has benefits and can be absorbed into the bones with the help of vitamin K

    if your bone supplement has calcium carbonate as its primary from of calcium, throw it out. you are basically ingesting chalk. calcium citrate is much easier to absorb even if it is synthetically derived.

    companies such as new chapter and mega food make high quality bone supplements.
    "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by NeverMind (here)
    Quote The truth is that taking any calcium in excess or isolation, without complementary nutrients like magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K2, which help keep your body in balance, can have adverse effects, such as calcium building up in coronary arteries and causing heart attacks. Even taking calcium with vitamin D does not appear to be enough to prevent these types of adverse effects.
    Absolutely. What's more, it's been known for quite a few years now that women (or maybe - probably - both sexes, I don't remember) who drink a lot of milk and other calcium-rich foods were THREE TIMES more likely to have a hip fracture. Why this isn't better known, I don't know.

    I am not particularly obsessed with supplements - or with health in general (being as I am perennially healthy - touch wood! ) - but I do take K2 vitamins every day.
    Magnesium is a given, since I live in a place with magnesium-rich water.
    I remember reading a report on osteoporosis and dairy and the report said that the highest incidence of osteoporosis was in the Netherlands where cheese consumption is the highest in the world. Also, calcium retention through weight bearing movement or exercise is one of the best way s to keep density. as well as a more alkaline diet. Acid diets, meat and processed foods, leach calcium from bones as blood strives for a slightly alkaline Ph.

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by bearcow (here)
    calcium derived from plant sources rather than limestone has benefits and can be absorbed into the bones with the help of vitamin K

    if your bone supplement has calcium carbonate as its primary from of calcium, throw it out. you are basically ingesting chalk. calcium citrate is much easier to absorb even if it is synthetically derived.

    companies such as new chapter and mega food make high quality bone supplements.

    I have read the same thing, and it may very well be true. Certainly it is extremely valuable information for anyone taking calcium supplements.
    I personally do not take calcium supplements. I do drink unprocessed milk, however - sometimes quite a lot, as I find it comforting - and I rather like cheese.
    Anyway, just to be safe (I have read on K2, of course), I think it's a good idea to incorporate K2 into one's diet.
    It also helps other things - apparently, it helps against dementia, too. (But I am quoting from memory right now, so I am not 100 % sure).

    Quote I remember reading a report on osteoporosis and dairy and the report said that the highest incidence of osteoporosis was in the Netherlands where cheese consumption is the highest in the world.
    I rest my case.

    And yet, so many people seem never to have heard about this.
    I wonder why.
    Last edited by NeverMind; 31st January 2012 at 05:18.
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    In Scientology Niacin supplement is used with other vitamin B supplements, so i found out that only Beplex Forte B and Neurobex are some tablets in India are without calcium ingredient in them. All other tablets have calcium in them.

    http://www.mims.com/ this site is helpful in finding out Quantity of ingredients and prices of medicines available in Asian countries.

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by Corncrake (here)
    This is not particularly cheerful reading for me as about five years ago I was diagnosed as osteoporotic and after a bone density scan was put on calcium supplements. Another bone scan a year later showed a small increase in density but my bones were still too porous for someone my age. I then sort of forgot about it and just after Christmas this year fell and fractured my wrist - well shattered it really and am due to have another bone scan to see what is going on. I have been recommended bisphosphonates - this too has had a bad press so where does this leave me? I am a vegetarian (sorry about this real vegetarians) who occasionally eats fish but don't like dairy much although I do eat goats cheese.
    Read this article Corncake.. I think it will tell you what you need to know. Its a comprehensive osteoporosis care plan I wrote up
    http://www.healthsalon.org/524/nine-...oporosis-plan/

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Thanks for all of this info, new to me. But I wonder if anyone else agrees that Tai Chi /Chi Kung are also good (weights are too) for bone density?

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Yes, when you put regular pressure on bones through muscle use, the bone will get denser and stronger.
    Vitamin D3 and a good steak now and then will do the rest. Everyone should take D3 supplements, it supplies your natural defense mechanism with fuel.
    People (most ppl) are deficient in D3, it causes all kinds of desease to manifest.
    But don't take it from me alone, look it up.
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Calcification of joints and other areas are a major cause of illness and death. Do not take calcium supplements without knowledge and guidance.

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by TWINCANS (here)
    Thanks for all of this info, new to me. But I wonder if anyone else agrees that Tai Chi /Chi Kung are also good (weights are too) for bone density?
    real chi kung practitioners have a high amount of living marrow.
    "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."
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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Here is an article on K2, with extensive bibliographical references.
    Highly recommended.

    http://www.springboard4health.com/notebook/v_k2.html
    ET SI OMNES, EGO NON

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    Default Re: Side Effects of Calcium Supplements???

    Quote Posted by kanishk (here)
    In Scientology Niacin supplement is used with other vitamin B supplements, so i found out that only Beplex Forte B and Neurobex are some tablets in India are without calcium ingredient in them. All other tablets have calcium in them.

    http://www.mims.com/ this site is helpful in finding out Quantity of ingredients and prices of medicines available in Asian countries.
    Now i found out many tablets with only nicotinic acid in them available in market.

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