Physicians often recommend that adults take calcium supplements to fulfill the daily amounts required to maintain healthy bones and teeth. However, increasing your calcium intake could adversely affect your cardiovascular health. Calcium deposits are part of the plaque that clogs arteries and increases the risk of a heart attack. Consult your doctor and pharmacist about the risks of calcium supplements, cardiovascular disease and heart attacks, or myocardial infarctions.
Calcium
Your body contains more calcium than any other mineral. About 99 percent of the calcium in your body resides in bones and teeth, while the remaining 1 percent is in soft tissue, fluid surrounding the cells and blood. Sustaining healthy bones requires consuming adequate amounts of calcium from dairy, dark green vegetables and soy. A dietary deficiency of calcium increases your risk of developing osteoporosis. Postmenopausal women who consume high amounts of caffeine, soda or alcohol and take corticosteroid medications and adults with malabsorption problems might need calcium supplements to meet daily nutritional requirements. Adults ages 19 to 50 require 1,000 milligrams daily, while people age 51 and older need 1,200 milligrams daily.
Heart Attack
A heart attack, also called a myocardial infarction, usually occurs when a blood clot blocks and interrupts the flow of blood in an artery, such as the coronary artery, that supplies blood to your heart. The signs and symptoms include chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting and nausea. Atherosclerosis is a big risk factor for having a heart attack. Atherosclerosis is characterized by formation of plaque that clogs and hardens your arteries. Plaque is composed of fat, cholesterol, calcium and other substances in the blood. A portion of plaque can break away and cause a blood clot that, in turn, causes a heart attack.
Calcium Supplements and Heart Attack
Taking calcium supplements might increase your risk of a heart attack, in part because of its effect on buildup of plaque in arteries. Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand evaluated the outcomes of 15 clinical studies involving people who took calcium supplements and found that calcium supplements are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, according to research published in the "British Medical Journal" in 2010. The scientists expressed concern about the potential public health risk associated with the wide use of calcium supplements, particularly to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Considerations
P.J. Skerrett, editor of the Harvard Health Letter at Harvard Medical School, acknowledges that calcium deposits are part of plaque that clogs arteries and interferes with heart valves. Still, Skerrett yet cautions that much is unknown regarding the association between blood levels of calcium and cardiovascular problems. The most important issue is not whether calcium supplements increase heart attack risk, but instead how much calcium you need daily to maintain strong bones. Getting sufficient vitamin D from exposing your skin to the sun each day, increasing the amount of weight-bearing exercises and eating green-leafy vegetables high in vitamin K are also vital for strong bone health.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Atherosclerosis; 2011
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Calcium; 2010
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University; Calcium; June Chan; June 2007
- MayoClinic.com; Heart Attack; November 12, 2010
- "British Medical Journal"; Effect of Calcium Supplements on Risk of Myocardial Infarction and Cardiovascular Events: Meta-Analysis; Mark Bolland, et al.; 2010
- Harvard Medical School; Could too Much Calcium Cause Heart Disease?; P.J. Skerrett; August 12, 2010
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