What Are The Side Effects Of Not Taking Calcium In Your Diet?

Like most vitamins and minerals, calcium is an essential part of a well balanced diet. Both males and females between the ages of 9 and 18 need roughly 1,300mg of calcium each day. From there, the requirement changes slightly. Women need 1,000mg until the age of 50. After age 50, the requirement increases to 1,200mg, whereas men need 1,000mg until the age of 70, and then after this age, the requirement increases to 1,200mg. Not getting enough of this mineral in your diet has certain health complications.

Stature

Lack of calcium in the diet can potentially affect the stature of children. A study conducted by the Division of Bone Diseases from the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Osteoporosis and Bone Disease found that prepubescent girls with a low intake of calcium experienced gains in height after increasing their daily calcium intake. Over the course of a year, those girls supplementing their diets with foods containing 850mg of calcium twice a day saw greater skeletal growth than those given a placebo, indicating that deficiencies in calcium could negatively affect stature in children.

Bone Density

Another side effect of a calcium-deficient diet involves issues with bone density. The bones in the body are continuously remodeling, a process where old bone breaks down to make way for new bone. When you're not taking in enough calcium in your diet, the minerals used to create this new bone are lacking, so the bone now contains fewer minerals than before, and its density is affected. This means the bones are no longer as strong and thus are at a greater risk of breaks and fractures.

Osteoporosis

Going hand in hand with bone density is osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease. If your diet doesn't incorporate the recommended daily intake of calcium, you're increasing your risk of this condition. The likelihood of its development in largely influenced by the level of bone mass reached by your early 30s, so increasing your intake of calcium to recommended consumption can often prevent osteoporosis in both men and women.

Cardiovascular Health

While calcium has the most impact on bone health, it can potentially influence other systems of the body, including the cardiovascular system. It appears that increasing your intake of this mineral may have a positive impact on blood pressure, especially in those affected by hypertension. Taking a calcium supplement each day may help improve systolic blood pressure --- or the pressure placed on the arteries as the heart takes a beat --- by as much as 2 to 4mmHg. With its potential affect on blood pressure, calcium could also reduce the risk of other cardiovascular diseases and complications, such as stroke.