Bone Health Explained

Are Calcium Supplements the Answer to Optimum Bone Health? By Elaine Hollingsworth

For decades there has been a great deal of propaganda about our supposed need for large amounts of calcium, in the form of dairy products and supplements of very doubtful safety and benefit.

Because of this, people have been brainwashed to think they must take calcium tablets containing between 800 and 1200mg per day. Contrary to industry’s relentless advertising campaigns, the truth is that when large amounts of calcium are administered, the body turns off its production of vitamin D hormone, stopping the bone remodelling process. This results in an unhealthy skeleton.

Excess calcium can be redistributed in the body, and can lead to bone spurs, tendonitis, tennis elbow, arthritis, bursitis, arteriosclerosis, glaucoma and an increased risk of kidney stones. Merely quitting calcium supplementation can bring about a ‘miracle cure” of pains of long standing. Susceptible people sometimes feel pains in various parts of the body shortly after ingesting calcium pills. I am one of them – even a tiny amount gives me joint pain in just one day.

Dr John Lee, in his Newsletter, says, “The majority of calcium available is almost un-absorbable, so people get very little out of it. What’s not used and converted into bone material will end up being excreted through the kidneys. I find it common that women who are put on high calcium supplements develop kidney stones after a year or two.” In his newsletter, Second Opinion, Dr William Campbell

Douglass warns that calcium phosphate reduces iron absorption by 62 percent, causing life-threatening anaemia in elderly women. He writes, “Don’t take calcium supplements unless you have a disease of the parathyroid gland that requires it – which is highly unlikely. You get plenty of calcium from your diet.” I agree completely.

This is what the Journal of the American Medical Association said about calcium: (284-11-:1425-29) “Researchers obtained calcium supplements derived from a variety of sources and produced and distributed by a variety of manufacturers and analysed them for lead content. In this study, sea bed ‘oyster shell’ calcium supplements varied in lead content, from undetectable to high levels. ‘Refined’ (calcium carbonate) supplements also varied considerably in lead content, and name brands offered no protection from lead – some brand products tested had much higher lead content than did generic brands. The researchers also noted that consumers ‘cannot assume that a given brand is uniformly safe, because some products may have high and others low lead levels.’ Even individual formulations within a given brand may vary in lead levels over time, because of batch-to-batch inconsistency in lead levels of materials used in manufacture.”

One of my closest friends, film actress Allison Hayes, died because of a calcium supplement, which contained large amounts of lead and the pesticides dieldrin and aldrin. She sued the company and won, but she didn’t live to enjoy the money.

A serious aspect of calcium overload is that it can imbalance stores of other minerals in the body – minerals which are more critical than calcium for building bone. Further, calcium tablets can suppress the thyroid gland, and glandular health is essential for the maintenance of strong bones, and for overall health.

There are several different forms of calcium available. Some health professionals prefer calcium citrate because it appears to be better assimilated.

Studies have concluded, however, that this calcium significantly increases absorption of aluminium from dietary sources.

It seems clear that mega-dosing on inorganic forms of calcium can be dangerous and certainly doesn’t help bones. One example, of many, is a British Institute of Radiology study, in which women of all ages were tested for calcium levels. It was found that none had low calcium levels, whether they supplemented with calcium or did not, and whether they were osteoporotic or not. What they did find, in the osteoporosis sufferers, was low levels of the other, more important, nutrients – magnesium, zinc, manganese and vitamins C and D. Another study, reported in the American Journal of Public Health, found that hip fractures tended to be more common in women consuming higher calcium supplementation.

There have been so many studies proving that calcium supplementation is illadvised, that it is difficult to know whom to quote. For example, in his Second Opinion Newsletter , Dr Robert Jay Rowen tells of a study at Penn State University which started following women at age 12. They found no significant effect on the bone density of these women through to age 20, whether their intake of calcium was at the low end of 480mg or at a high end of nearly 2000mg. Lead researcher Thomas Lloyd suggested that young girls’ bones “do not benefit from more than 500mg calcium daily.” He also quoted a study at Harvard University showing that “women who drank the most dairy products suffered the most fractures.”

Bill Sardi, in a well-researched article in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients , January 2003, quotes from many studies. One, from the International Journal of Cardiology , 33:19, 1991 , says, “The countries with the highest calcium consumption (from dairy) have the highest mortality rates in the world (Scandinavian countries, USA and New Zealand), while the countries with the lowest calcium consumption ( Japan, Portugal) have the lowest mortality rates.” And, from the Journal of Clinical Endocrinal Metabolism , 81:2149, 1996 , “Among men less than 50 years of age, high blood calcium levels are associated with a 30-200% increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease.” The Japanese have the longest disease-free lifespan and only consume around 400mg per day.

In case you have been popping calcium supplements, these, according to Nutrition Reviews 55:1, 1997 , are some of the symptoms of overdose: “Anxiety, muscle cramping, migraine, heart flutter, eyelid twitch, leg cramps and constipation.

Calcium is a smooth muscle constrictor.”

Most health advisors recommend calcium to women who want to maintain bone density. But just remember, that “… as bone mineral density increases, so does the risk for breast tumours”, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 276:1404, 1996 .

Have a most outstanding day

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