Vitamin Supplements

Calcium, the most abundant mineral in the human body, makes up about 2 percent of your body weight. About 99 percent of that is in the bones and teeth; the rest is in tissues and in the body fluids that bathe the cells. In order for your body to absorb the calcium from your diet and make use of it, you also need sufficient amounts of vitamin D.

A mechanism built into your body keeps the levels of calcium in your blood balanced—at sufficient but not excessive amounts. When calcium levels begin to rise too high, the thyroid manufactures a hormone called calcitonin, which draws excess calcium from the blood and deposits it in the bones; urine and feces also carry extra calcium out of the body. Conversely, when calcium levels dip too low, the parathyroid produces a hormone that pulls stored calcium from the bones and sends it to the blood. If the latter process goes on for too long, the bones are depleted of the calcium they need and become thin and weak.

• Calcium is a key factor in building and maintaining strong bones and teeth. Even after their formation early in life, bones are continually rebuilt (or “remodeled”). Calcium is necessary throughout life, then—not just during the growing years of childhood and adolescence.
• Calcium controls the release of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers that pass impulses from one nerve to the next, carrying messages throughout the body).
• Calcium is necessary for muscle contractions. It is particularly important for the contraction of the heart muscle and the regulation of heartbeats.
• Calcium initiates the process of blood clotting by interacting with blood platelets and stimulating the proteins necessary for clotting.
• Some studies indicate that calcium may help regulate blood pressure.
• Calcium activates a number of enzyme systems in the body.

Who’s at Risk for Calcium Deficiency?

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you have an above-average risk of developing a calcium deficiency

• Are you an older person? Older people do not absorb calcium as well as younger adults do and tend not to take in as much calcium to begin with.
• Do you take diuretics? Some diuretics change the function of the kidneys so that more calcium is lost in urine.
• Do you exercise frequently? Perspiration contains calcium. Your levels of this mineral can become depleted if you are extremely active physically—or if you exercise or perform physical labor in very hot weather—and you do not replace the calcium that you lose.
• Are you on a low-calorie diet? Dieting often cuts down on the intake of calcium.
• Is your diet high in protein? Individuals who eat lots of high-protein foods lose more calcium in the urine than other people do.
• Is your diet high in fat? Fats can bind themselves to calcium and interfere with its absorption.

Signs of Deficiency

If you do not take enough calcium, your bones suffer more than any other part of your body. Hormones work hard to ensure a balance of calcium levels in the blood, but that process can draw the mineral out of the bones, leaving them depleted and at potentially serious health risk.

The most common problem relating to long-term calcium deficiency is the disease osteoporosis, whose name means “porous bones” in Latin. In this condition, bones lack in substance and strength. Osteoporosis is most common in postmenopausal women, afflicting about 25 percent of females over the age of 60, but it also occurs in older men.

• Is your diet extremely high in fiber? Your body has more difficulty absorbing calcium if your diet includes a lot of fiber.
• Are your vitamin D levels low—either because your diet includes too little vitamin D or because you have limited exposure to sunlight? Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium.
• Is your diet high in phosphorus? Foods rich in phosphorus—such as beef, pork, chicken, seafood, cheese, and nuts—may decrease the amount of calcium you absorb.
• Is your diet high in phytates (found in whole grains) and oxylates (found in spinach, rhubarb, beet greens, and swiss chard)? Both of these substances bind with calcium and keep it from being absorbed.
• Are you pregnant? A mother supplies an average newborn with about 30 g of calcium. As a result, the mother may be left with a deficiency.
• Are you breast-feeding? Breast milk contains 320 mg of calcium per liter. To replace this, mothers should take more of this mineral while nursing.
• Are you a smoker? Smokers have less bone density than nonsmokers. Extra calcium may help to offset this condition.

The symptoms of osteoporosis can be devastating. A person might lose height when the vertebrae are deformed and collapsed, as in dowager’s hump. Even more worrisome, the bones become increasingly fragile and brittle. A person with osteoporosis may suffer more fractures than a healthy person, not just from falls but from everyday activities such as lifting a child or a bag of groceries.

These injuries may involve any bone in the body but are most common in the hip, spine, and wrist. Each year, about 1.3 million older people in the United States experience fractures related to osteoporosis.

While a calcium deficiency can certainly contribute to osteoporosis, other factors may also influence development of this complex disease. A scarcity of female hormones (estrogen), a chronic state of being underweight, and lack of exercise can all complicate matters.

Calcium deficits can affect parts of the body other than the bones, too. Low calcium intake might lead to modest increases in blood pressure, for example. A condition called tetany, in which a person experiences uncomfortable muscle spasms, has also been associated with severe calcium deficiency.

In children, poor absorption of calcium can produce rickets, a disease that stunts the growth of bones. Symptoms of rickets include bowlegs, knock-knees, enlarged ankles and wrists, abnormal curvature of the spine, a bulging forehead, and a narrowed chest. In adults, deficits of calcium can lead to osteomalacia—frequently referred to as an adult form of rickets—which causes bones to soften and be more prone to fractures, deformities of the limbs and spine, and rheumatic-like pain.

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