Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Question: Which type of calcium supplement is best?
Answer: There are many types of calcium supplements , including calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, calcium gluconate, and others. Calcium exists as a compound, bound to something else, that's why it is found in these forms. However, some people debate whether or not one particular type of calcium is better than another.
The most important thing to look for when choosing a calcium supplement is the amount of elemental calcium the supplement contains. Depending on the manufacturer, the amount of elemental calcium may be listed directly on the label, or the weight may be listed on the calcium tablet itself. Another way to check for the amount of elemental calcium the supplement contains is by looking at the recommended daily allowance RDA.
The RDA for most individuals is milligrams mg of calcium per day this varies by age, gender, and special situations, including pregnancy. Calcium supplements are generally made with one of two sources of elemental calcium: calcium carbonate or calcium citrate. There are several differences to note:. This is not just a concern for older people; much of your ultimate lifetime bone density is determined in adolescence, and insufficient calcium intake in middle age can cause bone density loss to accelerate sooner and more rapidly 7.
Osteoporosis is a major public health concern. According to a study by Nicole C. Wright and other researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham, However, there were still over two million men over 50 in the United States who have osteoporosis 8. The good news is that there are some well-known ways to help prevent osteoporosis, and calcium supplementation is one of them.
Calcium supplementation seems particularly effective when combined with vitamin D, which boosts calcium absorption 9 , and exercise plays an important role in preventing bone loss. In fact, one study found that calcium supplementation alone was significantly less effective at preventing bone loss than calcium supplementation combined with exercise Calcium supplementation can prevent osteoporosis-related fractures in both men and women.
Increased bone density from a calcium supplement is great, but does it translate into a reduction in osteoporosis-related fractures? Fortunately, this too is a highly-researched question, and the answer appears to be a yes.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine described an experiment that demonstrated these effects The study involved almost men and women age 65 or older who took either a placebo supplement or a calcium and vitamin D supplement over the course of three years. The researchers found that, as we would expect, bone density increased.
Moreover, the risk of having a bone fracture decreased significantly. The results of this study mean that calcium supplementation reduces the risk of serious injuries linked to low bone density, meaning that the increase in bone density from calcium supplements is sufficiently large enough to prevent bone fractures.
Calcium supplements can help female athletes prevent stress fractures. A study on female Navy recruits, who experience a high rate of stress fractures because of the demands of basic training, put this idea to the test In the study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, over 5, female Navy recruits were recruited and randomly assigned to either a control group, which received a placebo supplement, or a calcium and vitamin D group, which took mg of calcium and IU of vitamin D per day.
This suggests that female athletes doing sports that have a high risk of stress fractures, like soccer, running, and basketball, should consider taking a calcium supplement to reduce stress fracture risk.
Be sure not to take your calcium supplement at the same time as an iron supplement , though, since calcium can inhibit iron absorption. When it comes to what kind of calcium supplement to take and what dosage you should aim for, there are some pretty solid guidelines that can be found in the scientific research. A scientific article in the medical journal The Lancet pooled 29 randomized clinical trials of calcium supplementation for reducing loss of bone density and conducted a meta-analysis on the results Drawing from a population of over 63, study participants, the researchers found that calcium supplementation results in a substantial and statistically significant reduction in the risk of bone fracture and in the rate of bone density loss.
Pooling massive sets of data like this allows you to find some pretty cool trends. For example, the researchers found that the compliance rate of any given subject—i. Clinical trials that used dosages of more than mg of calcium and more than IU of vitamin D per day were more successful than those that used less. The recommended daily intake for calcium is only mg and the recommended daily intake for vitamin D is only mg—the evidence from the research indicates that these values might need to be revised upwards, at least for adults over age As for the constituents of the supplement itself, there are a number of studies that suggest that, all else equal, a calcium supplement that contains calcium citrate is superior to one that contains calcium carbonate.
The citrate form of calcium appears to be absorbed more effectively, as demonstrated by a study by Jean A. Harvey, Margaret M. Zobitz, and Charles Y. Pak While conventional wisdom holds that an excess of calcium in your diet, either through supplementation or normal dietary intake, puts you at risk for kidney stones, scientific research shows that the opposite is true—if anything, a high calcium intake reduces your risk of kidney stones.
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Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Because your body has difficulty absorbing more than mg of calcium at a time, more of the mineral may go to waste. So, while you may think that you've met your daily requirements by taking that 1,mg calcium pill, you may actually be only halfway to your target.
Calculate your cost per serving based on how many tablets or chews the package contains, and consider whether you might find it inconvenient to take several tablets a day. Here are some final tips for choosing and taking calcium supplements as found in the Harvard Special Health Report Osteoporosis: A guide to prevention and treatment :.
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