Your bones and teeth hold nearly all the calcium in your body, but the 1 percent dissolved in your blood and soft tissues plays a critical part in keeping other body systems functioning properly. Muscle movement, heartbeat and many other body functions depend on calcium. If you don't eat enough of this mineral, your body dissolves enough calcium from your bones to meet your needs. Low calcium intake contributes to osteoporosis and other skeletal problems.
Bone Loss
Calcium shortages in your diet don't manifest as low blood calcium levels. Your body automatically compensates for lack of calcium in food. Osteoclast cells in bones constantly renew your skeleton, dissolving old bone cells and passing the calcium to osteoblasts that build new bone tissues. In a healthy person with sufficient dietary calcium bone rebuilding exceeds bone destruction. When your food lacks calcium reabsorbed minerals from bones enter your bloodstream to keep blood calcium at the right concentration. Osteopenia, or thinning bones, takes years to develop and causes no obvious symptoms, but advanced bone loss or osteoporosis causes loss of height, spine deformities and bone fractures during normal activities.
Developmental Problems
If you don't eat enough calcium-rich food during childhood, you could develop rickets. Bowed legs, failure of permanent teeth to grow and other skeletal problems were once considered signs of vitamin D deficiency. Calcium supplements alone sometimes provide an effective treatment, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. A lack of either nutrient could cause rickets. When blood calcium drops, your parathyroid glands create a hormone that converts vitamin D to calcitriol. Calcitriol and parathyroid hormone reduce the excretion of calcium in urine and release digested calcium from the small intestine. If diet fails to provide calcium, the same process activates osteoclasts that reabsorb bone.
Pregnancy Issues
If you're pregnant low calcium intake puts you at higher risk for life-threatening health problems. Pregnant or breastfeeding women between 19 and 50 years old need at least 1,000 mg of calcium daily. Pregnant women in their early teens need at least 1,300 mg. Low calcium in your diet could trigger high blood pressure and preeclampsia. Problems usually begin after the 20th week, and sometimes lead to eclampsia or toxemia, with symptoms including severe swelling, convulsions and coma. Healthy women of all ages need extra calcium during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, since large amounts of calcium pass from mother to child.
Uncertainties
Low calcium intake could increase chances of developing other health problems. Reduced calcium intake could contribute to high blood pressure in both men and women, and exaggerate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. Reducing calcium could cause you to gain weight. Low-calcium diets might increase your chances of stroke or colon cancer or increase your blood cholesterol levels. Studies have not determined whether these problems result from reduced calcium or from eating fewer of the nourishing foods that contain calcium. For best health, eat a variety of foods naturally rich in calcium. Ask your doctor for advice about taking calcium supplements.
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