Calcium is the most common mineral in your body and you need it in large doses each day. It is best known for its ability to give strength and structure to bones and teeth, but it also has several other important functions. A variety of foods provide the calcium you need, but if your diet falls short, your doctor may suggest taking a calcium supplement, which come in a variety of forms.
What Calcium Does
Most calcium, or about 99 percent, supports strong bones and teeth; however, the remaining 1 percent is essential for several functions. It helps your heart beat, muscles contract, allows cells to communicate to one another, secretes hormones and assists in nerve transmission. Your body works hard to regulate adequate calcium levels in your body and can pull calcium from bones, if needed, to support other functions.
Types of Calcium Supplements
Providing all of the calcium you need in one pill would make it too large to swallow. Calcium supplements supply elemental calcium, which is the amount of calcium available for your body to absorb, allowing pills to be smaller. While there are a variety of forms of calcium supplements, such as calcium lactate, maltate and gluconate, calcium carbonate and calcium citrate are the two most common types that have the greatest bioavailability. Both types are equally absorbed in your body, but having decreased stomach acid allows you to absorb calcium citrate more easily. Calcium carbonate provides about 40 percent elemental calcium, while calcium citrate has 21 percent. Other forms of calcium contain less than 20 percent elemental calcium. While you need calcium for a variety of functions, too much can be toxic and cause adverse effects.
Normal versus Toxic Dosage
As an adult, you need 1,000 mg of calcium daily, which increases as you age to support bone loss. After the age of 50, women require 1,200 mg and men need this same amount after age 70. You can handle as much as 2,500 mg of calcium as an adult through age 50, but after age 50, calcium can be toxic at 2,000 mg. You can absorb as much as 500 mg of calcium at once, so if your doctor suggests taking 1,000 mg daily, split up your doses into two separate servings.
Effects of Toxicity
Calcium toxicity is likely to occur from calcium carbonate or calcium citrate if you consume too much, since these types of calcium supplements provide the most elemental calcium for you to absorb. Elevated calcium in the blood leads to a condition called hypercalcemia, which most likely occurs from too much supplementation, not from dietary sources. Mild forms of hypercalcemia can lead to gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea, stomach cramping and loss of appetite. Severe hypercalcemia may cause confusion, coma and can lead to death if left untreated.
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