We have been told for decades that eating enough calcium is vital for growing bones when we are young and ageing bones as we grow old. Calcium has been prescribed by doctors and nutritionists for many years, even Naturopath’s like myself have been prescribing calcium to help maintain bone density, especially when there is a risk of osteoporosis.
Well, what if I told you that we don’t actually need calcium for strong bones? That we have been sold prescriptions and supplements based on research that is about as accurate as cholesterol and heart disease (more on THAT later). People have been marketed to for a very long time and given health advice like taking calcium for bone health, that not only don’t help the situation, but can create a whole lot of other issues as well. There is so much misinformation out there it’s hard not to become lost in the noise, so I’m going to sort this one out.
It’s time to dispel some myths and give people real information about how the body works so you can make educated decisions that are best for you and your family. There is no health practitioner out there who gets it right 100% of the time, however in recent times it has gotten worse and the wrong advice is being given more often than not and it can be downright damaging to your health!
Okay! Calcium for bone health, it sounds all good in theory – the theory being that calcium is like the concrete that makes our bones hard and strong. The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent, according to Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C..
In fact, there are now many studies showing that calcium, particularly calcium from dairy, not only does not help to support bone health, but actually does the reverse! This information is not new, a 12 year Harvard Nurses’ Health Study in 1994 based on 77,761 women aged 34 through 59 years of age, found that those who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk.
So if calcium is not where it’s at for bone health, what should we do? Look to the major players that help to metabolise and stabilise calcium: magnesium, Vitamin D and Vitamin K.
Without Vitamin D the body only absorbs about 10-15% of the calcium that you eat. So even if you eat a lot of calcium or take a calcium tablet, without Vitamin D the body can’t use it! When Vitamin D levels are good, the body absorbs 30-40% of the dietary intake of calcium. A big difference! In this world of slip, slop, slap that we live in, it’s vital to make sure that there are times that you spend in the sun without any coverage at all. We need the sun to help us synthesise vitamin D that we don’t get from the diet. Don’t spend hours in a hot day, use your common sense. It’s best to get 10-15 minutes of direct sunlight in the warmest part of the day to synthesise our own Vitamin D and for many other reasons as well. Don’t be afraid of the sun. Without the sun there would be no life, including us. We need it.
Vitamin K is responsible for many things in the body, but when it comes to bone health it is key. Vitamin K helps the body utilise and regulate calcium. It helps proteins bind to calcium to transport it to where it is needed in bones, muscles and organs. Vitamin K is also needed by the bone to produce osteocalcin, which is protein that helps bind the calcium to the bone.
Magnesium does thousands of things for us in the body. It has it’s finger in all the metabolic pies! Overall though magnesium is what is needed most of all for calcium absorption and bone formation, and not just through one mechanism. Magnesium is an essential cofactor in 80% of all cellular enzymes — including the thyroid hormone calcitonin, which regulates bone turnover. The liver uses magnesium to produce enzymes that convert vitamin D into calcitriol, it’s active form. Remember how we talked about vitamin D for proper calcium absorption? Magnesium deficiency can lead to a syndrome known as vitamin D resistance, so if your vitamin D is low you may need to check on magnesium as well. The activity of another critical enzyme for bone formation, alkaline phosphatase, also depends on magnesium. Alkaline phosphatase solidifies calcium into the bone. Much of the body’s magnesium, roughly 60% is stored in the bone, and then released into the blood when it is needed by other tissues. Magnesium deficiency is also known to impair parathyroid hormone secretion and action, and contributes to the development of osteopenia and bone fragility.
So you see, there is much more to the picture than calcium when it comes to bone health. In my humble opinion I don’t even think calcium deserves a look in when it comes to bone health when nutrient status isn’t right with magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K. We need to place our focus on getting it right with these guys first before we even give calcium a look in.
And for heavens sake, please if you are going to supplement with calcium, don’t get a crap one like Caltrate. It’s the most prescribed calcium supplement by doctors but in all honesty, the only thing that’s good for is binding up excess oxalates that may be causing you pain, but more on that another day!