Calcium, one of the most abundant minerals in your body, can be found in your bones. Chloride is a state of the element chlorine in which it is bound to another element, such as hydrogen to form hydrochloric acid or calcium to form calcium chloride. When calcium and chloride combine, their properties change and can be hazardous to your body in concentrated amounts.
Functions
With phosphorus, calcium forms the main structure of your bones and teeth. It also plays a role in relaxation and constriction of blood vessels, muscle contraction, nerve impulse conduction and insulin secretion. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, when calcium binds with the protein calmodulin, they activate enzymes that initiate a series of chemical reactions that contract muscles.
Chloride, or serum chloride in the human body, combines with other elements to help metabolize food into energy and maintain normal acid-base balance in your blood.
Recommended Intake
Dietitian Ellen Coleman, author of "Ultimate Sports Nutrition," recommends that you take 1000 mg of calcium a day if you are an adult male and 1200 mg a day if you are an adult female. You should not take more than 2000 mg a day because you can develop high blood calcium and have a higher risk for kidney problems.
There are no recommendations for chloride or chlorine intake. According to Coleman, normal chloride blood range for adults is between 98 to 105 mmol/L, or millimoles per liter, which is equivalent to 1.8 g of chloride per liter of blood. One gram is about one-fourth of one teaspoon.
Sources
Dairy products such as milk, yogurt and cheese are the best sources of calcium. Eight oz. of milk or yogurt contains 300 mg of calcium. If you are vegan, you can get calcium from broccoli, pinto and red beans, Chinese cabbage, tofu and calcium-fortified cereals and orange juice. You can get chloride from the salts you eat in the form of sodium chloride or potassium chloride.
Toxicity and Deficiency
Too much calcium can cause hypercalcemia, which refers to too much calcium in your blood. This can cause calcium to deposit into your muscles, joints, heart, kidneys and other soft tissues. These deposits harden, causing muscle immobility and pain in a process called calcification, according to former nutrition professor Gordon Wardlaw of Ohio State University. As your kidneys excrete more calcium in urine, calcium combines with oxalate to form kidney stones in your kidneys.
Calcium deficiency can cause osteoporosis that increases your risk for fractured bones. Since your bones undergo a continuous process of remodeling their structures, a lack of calcium causes the bones to become porous and brittle.
Although there is no known toxicity of chloride intake, chloride deficiency can cause improper muscle contraction and nerve impulse conduction. This is often caused by excessive sweating, diarrhea and vomiting.
Interaction
Food companies use calcium chloride to preserve foods and prevent canned fruits and vegetables from losing their fleshy tone. A small amount of calcium chloride is not harmful to your body, but concentrated forms can cause a burning sensation on wet skin.
References
- "Perspectives in Nutrition"; Gordon Wardlaw; 2002
- Linus Pauling Institute; Calcium
- "Ultimate Sports Nutrition"; Ellen Coleman; 2004
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