You're probably aware that calcium is part of the "backbone" of your musculoskeletal system. This essential nutrient is more prevalent in your body than any other, and 99 percent of it is found in your bones and teeth. The other 1 percent circulates in your bloodstream. Alterations in blood calcium levels can disrupt a number of physiological functions, including the maintenance of normal cardiac rhythms.
Calcium and Your Heart
Calcium plays a number of roles that impact your heart. It helps regulate the widening and narrowing of blood vessels, thereby influencing blood pressure. It is essential for muscle contraction, and your heart muscle is no exception. Calcium is so essential to heart function that when your serum calcium level falls too low, your body will steal calcium from your bones to boost it back to normal range.
Effects of Calcium Deficiency
Your body takes the regulation of blood calcium levels quite seriously, and with good reason. Calcium deficiencies can lead to numb or tingling fingers, convulsions and irregular heartbeat, also known as cardiac arrhythmia. Untreated calcium deficiency can be fatal, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements.
Effects of Calcium Excess
There are also concerns about taking too much calcium. In 2010, a meta-analysis of 11 studies found that women taking calcium supplements of about 1,000 mg daily had a 27 percent greater chance of suffering a heart attack. This effect was not seen in a subsequent review of women who took both calcium and vitamin D. Also, if you take the prescription medication digitalis, high doses of calcium can increase your risk of abnormal heart rhythms, according to the Linus Pauling Institute.
Research
Cardiac arrhythmias are the main cause of sudden heart failure in the U.S., according to an article by Mary Beth Gardiner published in January 2002 in the "Reporter," the weekly newspaper of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, or VUMC. The article points out that your heart contracts when the calcium level in the fluid surrounding your heart cells rises. The article reported on a study, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Balser of VUMC, published in the journal "Nature" in January 2002 that found that abnormally high levels of calcium in the fluid around cells often occur simultaneously with life-threatening arrhythmias. More research is needed to fully understand the relationship between intracellular calcium levels and heart arrhythmias.
References
- Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health: Calcium
- Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University; Calcium; Jane Higdon, Ph.D.; April 2003
- "Reporter"; Arrhythmias Linked to Calcium Levels - "Nature" Study Directed By VUMC Anesthesiology Chair Balser; Mary Beth Gardiner; January 2002
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