Calcium & Heart-attacks

Calcium doses might raise heart-attack risk

By Misti Crane THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A study showing an 86 percent higher rate of heart attacks in people who take calcium supplements shouldn’t prompt rash decisions to abandon the bone-strengtheners, experts say.

• The research, which came out of a study designed to look at cancer, was performed by German and Swiss researchers who analyzed nearly 24,000 people 35 to 64 years old for 11 years.

Good news

They found some good news regarding calcium and heart attacks: Those who consumed a moderately high amount of calcium per day in their food and beverages (820 milligrams on average) had a significantly lower risk of heart attack.

Not such good news

But the researchers also found something that troubled them: People who took calcium supplements had a higher risk of a heart attack.

The researchers did not collect information regarding the dosage taken by those on supplements.

The research was published this week in the journal Heart. It was the first study of its kind to show that calcium supplements might increase the risk of a heart attack, the authors said.

The study is provocative enough that it might lead to more research specifically designed to look at calcium and heart attacks, but it’s not strong enough to change doctors’ recommendations, said Dr. Steven Yakubov, an interventional cardiologist at Riverside Methodist Hospital.

Not a “Perfect Study”

One weakness of the study is that the cardiovascular analysis was a sidebar to a larger study looking at cancer, Yakubov said. Furthermore, the study didn’t adequately account for differences between the supplement and no-supplement groups, including whether they smoked, Yakubov said.

Calcium’s bone-health benefits are undisputed and are important to remember, considering the burden of osteoporosis in the United States, said Dr. Keith Hruska, president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and a kidney specialist at Washington University in St. Louis.    (couldn’t agree more)

Most Americans don’t get nearly as much calcium as the 1,000 milligrams a day recommended by the Institute of Medicine (1,200 for those older than 70), Hruska said.

“A lot of Americans are taking calcium supplements; what I would say is they shouldn’t stop,” Hruska said. “It’s hard to understand why calcium in the diet can reduce the risk, but supplements increase the risk.”     (Wonder if a course in “nutrition” would help in any way?)

The study’s authors mention previous research that showed that supplements lead to a spike in the calcium level in the blood, which doesn’t happen with dietary calcium. But they draw no direct conclusions about what led to the difference.   (Please see the comment below for a  brief reference to scientific research  over the last decade or so by Dr. Loren Cordain of the now ‘world famous’ Paleo Diet.)

The study is important in that “it opens our eyes, and maybe we should scrutinize the importance of taking supplements,” said Dr. Laxmi Mehta, clinical director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Clinic at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

Many times, people take vitamins and minerals without considering that there might be negative affects as well as positive, Mehta said.

But she said she’s not inclined to tell her patients to scrap their calcium supplements based on this study. Instead, she said it serves as a good reminder to discuss diet with each patient and tailor recommendations to needs.

Mehta said she’s always suggesting to patients that they should try to get their nutrients through their diets and to improve their health without taking medications or supplements whenever possible.

mcrane@dispatch.com   @MistiCrane

(Jan’s Comments:

One must congratulate the German and Swiss researchers  for their forward-thinking and ground-breaking revelations with regard to the importance of calcium in health,  specifically to the framework of the body,  the bones.     According to this article and the tepid, reluctance to it’s acceptance, one might almost think that we in this country don’t really have a problem here.   In actuality, we do.  We have an enormous problem.   We in American ingest more calcium supplementation than any other civilized country anywhere on our planet.  We are admonished by our government’s standards (RDA);  individual doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry browbeats us daily via the media.  And yet, the consensus is – we don’t take enough calcium. .  .  we need more.

Women seem to be targeted as they near middle-age more than any other class.    There are weekly, monthly and annual prescriptions for use in the hopes of offsetting the newly diagnosed osteopenia, which segues into  full-blown osteoarthritis followed in some period of time by broken bones i.e.  hip,  ribs and so on.  Sadly, this is common.  It is devastating and unnecessary – – it doesn’t have to be. 

Modern health movements are proliferating everywhere these days.    There are a great many physicians who come from  allopathic medicine, but become disenchanted when what they do isn’t helping people, and often, is hurting them.    At “smokinchoices” many have been showcased, so regular readers know this to be true.  We aspire to abundant health reflected by high energy, clarity of mind and a simple lifestyle.   We guard against processed food, genetically modified anything and seek organic food and routine exercise.   So,  unprocessed, live organic whole food of one’s personal choice is the preferred option which potentiates maximum ability for good health and freedom from pain and disease.    If and when the unforeseen happens our choice for healing is of the natural, herbal and dietary persuasion

Tho I spoke of modern health movements,  natural forms of healing go back throughout time. . . all the way to the father of medicine, Hippocrates who taught that “food was our best medicine.”  So, this is not new, some thing off the wall or bizarre.   Most of our modern day afflictions can be traced to lack of dense nutrition or the ingestion of toxins and/or eating garbage which is often called food these days.  Chemicals and synthetic foods are not recognized by our body as food, but only something to be gotten rid of – a burden to our organs (liver and kidneys primarily).  

Now, back to calcium,   most of what passes for calcium today is little more than chalk.  It is useless to us.  It is a burden to our body to get rid of.  I don’t care who makes it or how or in a laboratory – – it does nothing for our body. Observe bovines and other large animals – they eat no calcium tablets of any kind.  Don’t need to.  Their diet NATURALLY is grass.  (I refer to natural cows, living a natural life – not GRAIN-FED, FACTORY FARMED ANIMALS, who are sick and medicated)

Almost anybody within the ‘enlightened’ crop of doctors understands that DAIRY is not good for us.  Messes up our hormonal system (both sexes),  responsible for menses problems and early maturation of kids today. Is the biggest culprit where ACNE is concerned.  However, here and now, we are interested in discussing bone and arthritis, etc.,.

Dr John McDougall speaks much about dairy, arthritis and advises not to take vitamins and supplements.  His patients loose their pain and problems.  Humans get the necessary minerals from the plant world.  Amen!  Dr McD  has his own classification up in FIND IT .  .  all his articles are there to choose from.

Same with David Wolfe.  This is a new-age young man hailing from a medical family – both parents, and he choose a different path and become huge in the modern movement.   His article on Aging can’t be beat.  He explains that Calcium is such a big offender.  Never take calcium he says, causing our cataracts, hardening of arteries, pain in joints, kidney stones and so on.    Again, his advice is PLANTS are where the minerals are and that’s what we need. 

The scholarly dissertation is done by Dr Loren Cordain – everyone’s hero.  His Paleo Diet is a classic and he remains almost everyone’s favorite “expert”.  Again,  his books and articles detail the scientific workings of the body and tries to inform all in the clearest, most helpful terms.  He speaks of the Calcium balance.  That is is not just important to regard how much calcium is taken into the body, but to determine as well, how much is lost via urine.    He deals with the acid-base balance of all food ingested – – and the multiple variables which affect this bone balance and how and why we loose calcium from our bones and wind up in the bloodstream and how limited this perception is.  The story is so much more.  Check out the Paleo books and/or some of his articles for the information needed. 

I take no calcium, don’t use dairy,  juice daily, am as organic as can afford (rarely have meat), lived eight decades, am healthy.  Took some awkward falls about 9 months ago or so.  Hurt a lot,  but nothing broke.  Go figure.  Must br something to it. . .whadayathink?  Jan)