Researchers say calcium supplements not so good
Source: Agencies |
July 31, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CALCIUM supplements, which many people consume hoping to ward off osteoporosis, may increase the risk of heart attack by as much as 30 percent, researchers reported yesterday.
These tiny tablets which carry concentrated doses of calcium were also associated with higher incidences of stroke and death.
The researchers advised people consuming calcium supplements to seek advice from their doctors, take more calcium-rich foods and try other things like exercise, not smoking and keeping a healthy weight to prevent osteoporosis.
"People regard calcium supplements as natural but they are really not natural at all," Ian Reid, professor of medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said yesterday.
Reid and colleagues in Britain and the United States conducted a meta-analysis encompassing 11 studies that tracked nearly 12,000 elderly people over four years. Half of them were given calcium supplements and the other half placebo or dummy pills with no therapeutic content. The results were published in the British Medical Journal.
"What we found was a 30 percent increase in heart attacks in the people who were randomized to take calcium," Reid said. "If you have 1,000 people taking calcium for five years, we will expect to find 14 more heart attacks, 10 more strokes and 13 more deaths in the people given calcium than they would have had if they hadn't been treated with calcium."
These tiny tablets which carry concentrated doses of calcium were also associated with higher incidences of stroke and death.
The researchers advised people consuming calcium supplements to seek advice from their doctors, take more calcium-rich foods and try other things like exercise, not smoking and keeping a healthy weight to prevent osteoporosis.
"People regard calcium supplements as natural but they are really not natural at all," Ian Reid, professor of medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said yesterday.
Reid and colleagues in Britain and the United States conducted a meta-analysis encompassing 11 studies that tracked nearly 12,000 elderly people over four years. Half of them were given calcium supplements and the other half placebo or dummy pills with no therapeutic content. The results were published in the British Medical Journal.
"What we found was a 30 percent increase in heart attacks in the people who were randomized to take calcium," Reid said. "If you have 1,000 people taking calcium for five years, we will expect to find 14 more heart attacks, 10 more strokes and 13 more deaths in the people given calcium than they would have had if they hadn't been treated with calcium."
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