Our bodies contain approximately 1,200 grams, about 2.5 pounds of calcium, 98 percent of which is stored in our bones, teeth. The remaining 1 percent of calcium-10 to 12 grams, about a third of an ounce-is distributed throughout the body in the bloodstream the fluids surrounding our cells.
Functions and Uses Hypertension
Study indicates that the high incidence of hypertension (high blood pressure) in the United States may be a result of poor calcium intake combined with high sodium intake. In another study, forty-eight hypertensive men were treated with 1,000 milligrams of calcium for eight weeks. Twenty-two of them (44 percent) achieved a therapeutically meaningful reduction in their blood pressure. In many reasons, the result was similar, superior to that achieved with blood pressure medication.
In other study, women with high blood pressure were given either 1,500 milligrams of calcium, hypertensive medication for 4 years. The calcium-supplements group achieved a significant drop in their systolic blood pressure. The unsupplemented group experienced a rise in their blood pressure; even they were taking hypertensive medication.
Calcium supplementation is free of the unpleasant side effects so frequently encountered with antihypertensive drug treatment, including impotence, exercize intolerance, weight gain, dizziness, impaired concentration. The studies indicate, calcium therapy can be an effective medication-free means of treating high blood pressure. Hypertensive who are salt-sensitive seem to benefit.
The Bones
Attention paid to calcium is due to its role in maintaining strong, healthy bones. As we have seen, most of the calcium in the body is found in the bones, calcium performs various vital functions throughout the body. So, our bones are designed to provide more than a rigid framework for our body. They also function as a kind of bank from which the body can draw the calcium it needs for another purposes. This is an ongoing dynamic process during which bone-which, despite it is seeming permanence, is a live tissue-is constantly being broken down, re-formed. In the process, about 600 to 700 milligrams of calcium are exchanged in the bone of normal adults every day. Normally, if there is sufficient calcium being absorbed from the diet, the blood, bone calcium levels stay in balance, fluctuate only slightly. From the body's point of view, it's more important to maintain enough calcium in the blood to keep the heart beating regularly than it's to keep the bones strong, hard. Thus if the diet is deficient in calcium, the body will always choose to maintain a certain level of calcium in the blood by drawing it out of the bone. This is accomplished through a complex system involving hormones, the parathyroid hormone, vitamin D. Then if there is adequate calcium in the diet, a lack of vitamin D will seriously impair the bodies ability to make use of the mineral.
The growing consensus is that osteoporosis is not a disease that comes on suddenly in middle, old age. Few studies have correlated a long-term poor-calcium diet, perhaps beginning at the age of thirty, earlier, with the development of osteoporosis, periodontal disease. In children, the deficiency symptom of low calcium intake is rickets, a condition in which the bones grow too weak to support the weight of the child, with deformity being the highly visible result. There is some recent evidence that a suboptimum calcium intake in childhood may help set the stage for bone loss in later life, even then there are no obvious problems during childhood.
Because the body gives top priority to the maintenance of normal calcium levels in the blood, blood tests are an ineffective means of determining calcium levels in either the bone, the diet.
Supplements
Calcium supplements are available as tablets, flavored chew-able squares, in liquid form. The supplements generally combine pure, elemental, calcium with another chemical, salts. The forms most commonly available are calcium aspartate, calcium carbonate, calcium gluconate, calcium lactate. When we are buying calcium supplements, remember to consider the amount of elemental calcium, not the amount of calcium salts. Of the two forms, calcium carbonate contains the greatest amount of elemental calcium: 41 percent. Many men prefer this form because the higher calcium content allows them to take fewer pills to obtain their Optimum Daily Intake. The other forms may have specific therapeutic value. Other factor to consider is absorbability. I generally recommend calcium carbonate, calcium lactate, since they appear to be very absorbable. Calcium citrate, which is also quite absorbable, may be a particularly good choice for the elderly. Elderly individuals have poor levels of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs, so do best with calcium citrate, which requires little hydrochloric acid for absorption.
I advise you to take your calcium supplements along with magnesium, vitamin D, as this three nutrients work together to enhance one another's absorption, utilization in the body.
