More Medical News – Calcium and Cardiovascular health

An article in the Science Section of last week’s New York Times mandates sending this out. The article was entitled, “Popular but not very effective.” The subtitle was, “Cardiovascular supplements and diets do little for hearts.” It was a relatively extensive article about a number of popular supplements and different diets based on research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which reviewed data from hundreds of clinical trials involving almost one million people. 

Obviously, I am not a cardiovascular specialist and I am not going to comment on most aspects of that article. However, it did mention that taking calcium, “increased the risk of stroke, perhaps because of increases in blood clotting and hardening of the arteries.” THIS IS NOT NEW NEWS! In January of 2017, I sent an email blast based on a cover story in the journal OBG Management that I had written entitled, “Calcium and atherosclerosis?” At that time, I described the fact that in 2001, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a consensus panel on osteoporosis that concluded that calcium intake was crucial to maintain bone mass and should be maintained at 1,000-1,500 milligrams per day in older adults. That panel felt that the majority of older adults were not meeting recommended intake from dietary sources and recommended calcium supplements.

However, even at that time in 2017, large randomized, placebo-controlled trials, which, as you know, are the gold standard of clinical research, that involved calcium supplements had demonstrated concerns about their safety as well as their efficacy in possible fracture prevention. Studies show that calcium supplements increase the risk of kidney stones, as well as cardiovascular events in healthy older women. In addition, I reviewed the fact that calcium supplements are actually bound as a “salt” and, when they are broken down in the blood stream to elemental calcium, they only yield 40% of what was on the label. Thus, a 500 milligram Oscal® will give you, at best, 200 milligrams of elemental calcium.

Since that time, I have advised so many of you to make sure that your diet has adequate calcium intake (approximately 1,200 milligrams per day). Click here for a list of foods and how much calcium they contain. Vitamin D supplementation is important and should be in the range of 1-2,000 IU/day. Next time you have blood drawn, either by me or your primary care doctor, ask them to check your vitamin D level. The optimal range is 30-50 picograms/milliliter. 

Dr Steven R. Goldstein is a Menopause Specialist in NYC with concern for the bone health of women and Osteoporosis as they age and go through Menopause.