Complete Information on Calcium Supplements

What is calcium and what are calcium supplements? What role do they play in your good health and well being? Find out the essential health information here.

Calcium is among the most abundant minerals in our body. But the irony is that despite this fact, most adults need to take calcium in the form of dietary supplements because numerous studies point towards the fact that most people are consuming only around half of the calcium that their bodies need on a daily basis! 

Our teeth and bones store around 99% of our body's calcium. The remaining 1% circulates in our blood stream. If we do not consume an adequate amount of calcium to maintain its proper levels in our blood, then our body extracts outs its requirements from our teeth and bones to carry out the vital body functions.

Over a period of time, this leads to the depletion of calcium from our teeth and bones. This makes them fragile and causes many types of problems such as osteoporosis.

Besides that, calcium deficiency is also associated with palpitations of heart and hypertension.

How Can You Benefit From a Calcium Supplement?

Calcium plays a key role in sustaining the ability of our nerves to communicate with each other. It also plays a supportive role in the health of our body's cells, tissues and bones.

It helps the body in the recovery and healing of wounds, blood clotting and promotes the healthy functioning of our heart. It also aids in the proper disbursement of nutrients across cell membranes and throughout our body.

Studies have shown that consuming adequate amounts of calcium helps to lower blood pressure. It also alleviates heartburn as calcium helps to regulate digestion and neutralizes acids.

Precautions

People suffering from kidney diseases or formation of kidney stones should avoid consuming calcium in the form of supplements as it could aggravate their condition.
Calcium also interferes with some types of prescription drugs, so it is advisable that you check with your doctor before you begin consumption of any calcium supplements.

Our Opinion on Calcium And Mineral Supplementation

We strongly recommend that you seriously consider taking calcium supplementation. This is because most adults show inadequate intake of calcium, in spite of the fact that calcium plays a crucial role in our health!

In case you are inclined to take it in the form of food, some excellent sources of calcium are: sardines, almonds, collard greens and broccoli.

There is a caveat though, modern farming practices since the last couple of decades have led to a significant diminishing of the nutritive value in the vegetables and fruits that we consume. This includes its calcium content too.

Therefore, in our opinion you should not merely rely on food sources for your daily calcium requirements.

In supplements, calcium comes in many forms. Among the most common forms is as calcium carbonate. We recommend that you should avoid this form of calcium supplementation and instead choose the one which is in the form of calcium citrate.

Calcium carbonate is known to cause constipation or gas in some people, while calcium citrate generally does not result in such side effects. Besides that, calcium citrate is among the best absorbed forms of calcium when it comes to calcium supplementation.

On the other hand, calcium carbonate has to be taken with meals so that the excess stomach acid can be generated to increase its absorption.

You should avoid buying calcium mineral supplements that have been produced from oyster shells, bone meal and dolomite. These have been shown to contain very high levels of toxins such as lead.

In addition to that, calcium is not absorbed by our body unless it is taken with magnesium and vitamin D.

Therefore, our recommendation is that you should take calcium magnesium supplement as a part of a synergistic formula that is comprehensive, rather than in the form of a standalone calcium product.