Print
this Article
Strong
Bones or Osteoporosis - Beware of Too Much Calcium
The Key Roles of Silica, Magnesium & Other Nutrients
Part 1 - by Earl Staelin
Well Being Journal Vol. 15, No. 2, March/April
2006
Americans
have been taught that they need lots of calcium, especially
post-menopausal women who frequently develop osteoporosis
with the risk of spontaneous fractures. Older men also
lose calcium in their bones, more gradually at first,
although they tend to catch up with women when in their
seventies. Adequate calcium absorption and levels of calcium
in blood and tissues are of course essential for all children
and adults for bones and teeth, and for women who are
breast feeding or pregnant. In the U.S. 10 million men
and women have osteoporosis, a disease of seriously weakened
bones. One out of two women and one in eight men breaks
a bone due to osteoporosis. After a hip fracture one in
five dies within a year.
However,
excess calcium intake may cause muscle spasms, the calcium
may appear as unwanted deposits in organs and tissues,
such as bone spurs or plaque in the wall of blood vessels
or in kidneys, heart, and liver, and it may increase the
risk of cancer and cause other symptoms, including migraine
headaches, pain, kidney stones, depression, and heart
arrhythmia. Americans consume milk and milk products as
well as calcium supplements at one of the highest rates
in the world. Yet we have one of the highest rates of
osteoporosis in the world.
Of
course the goal is to have calcium in the right amounts
in all tissues. But how much do we need? Despite all that
has been written about calcium, it is not at all clear
how much calcium humans need. This article will show that
the conventional wisdom about calcium, which a number
of prominent nutrition authorities reject, is faulty and
incomplete, and that optimal health requires a substantial
revision of our thinking about calcium.
The
conventional wisdom about calcium is embodied in the government
guidelines for vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
The current U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for
calcium is: for ages 9-18, 1,300 milligrams (mg)/day;
ages 19-49, 1,000 mg/day; age 50 and over, 1,200 mg/day.
In 1986 the RDA was raised from 800 mg/day for adults
to present levels. The World Health Organization recommends
500 mg/day for children and 800 mg/day for adults. Professors
such as Willard Willett, chairman of the Harvard Nutrition
Department, T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutrition
at Cornell University, and Marion Nestle, chairman of
nutrition at NYU, believe that these current RDA's are
too high and are not supported by the evidence. On the
other hand Prof. Robert Heaney of Creighton University,
Bess Dawson-Hughes of Tufts University, past president
of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, and a number
of other prominent experts stand by the current RDA's.
The calcium proponents have the upper hand right now,
with many doctors pushing calcium, and with calcium being
added to orange juice and numerous other foods to make
it easy for everyone to meet the RDA. The calcium proponents
cite many studies in their favor, some of them involving
fewer fractures, so it becomes necessary to sort out the
apparent conflicts between studies.
Read
the full article, posted on The Well Being Journal
