Understanding Your Calcium Needs: How Much is Essential?

What amount of calcium do you actually need?

Calcium supplements may do more damage than good and standard recommendations may be excessively high.

How much calcium should you consume per day? In an effort to protect your bones, you might have memorised the recommended daily calcium intake for women, which is 1,200 milligrammes (mg) for those over 50 and 1,000 mg for those under 50. However, the recommended calcium consumption is substantially lower outside of the United States. The target for the United Kingdom is 700 mg of calcium per day, whereas the World Health Organisation advises 500 mg.

Why is 1,200 mg of calcium suggested per day?

Not simply because it makes up a significant portion of our bones, enough calcium is essential for optimum health. Additionally, it is essential for maintaining the health of our organs and skeletal muscles. The process by which bone is continually broken down and rebuilt—the process by which bone remodels—provides the body with the calcium it requires for fundamental bodily processes.

Scientists hypothesised that maintaining an appropriate quantity of calcium in the blood might prevent the body from taking calcium out of the bones since bone density decreases when bone breakdown outpaces bone growth. A few brief trials conducted in the late 1970s suggested that a postmenopausal woman's calcium homeostasis may be maintained by ingesting 1,200 mg of calcium per day.

Based on those findings, an Institute of Medicine panel increased the suggested daily calcium intake for women over 50 from 800 mg to 1,200 mg in 1997. However, the advice was based on research on calcium balance that only lasted a few weeks. In actuality, a considerably longer time span should be used to assess calcium equilibrium. 

Furthermore, there is little proof that taking in so much calcium may truly stop fractures. Nevertheless, since then, the advice has been followed.

The actual requirements for calcium

Numerous research investigations involving thousands of postmenopausal women over the past 20 years have attempted to ascertain how calcium consumption influences the incidence of hip fractures. In each research, women were divided into two groups at random and given either a placebo or calcium supplements along with vitamin D supplements to help with calcium absorption. The number of hip fractures in each group was examined by the researchers after a period of years

The results are as follows:

Supplemental calcium and vitamin D don't stop fractures. Two British research that were published in 2005 led to such conclusion.

It was supported by a 2006 report from the Women's Health Initiative, which revealed that although the density of their hip bones increased slightly, 18,000 postmenopausal women who took a supplement containing 1,000 mg of calcium and 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D were no less likely to break their hips than an equivalent number of women who took a placebo. It's possible that the vitamin D, not the calcium, was to blame for even that slight difference.

High calcium intake, whether from food or supplements, does not lower the incidence of hip fracture. This was the finding of a 2007 assessment by Swiss and American researchers who examined more than a dozen calcium studies.

Produce	Serving size	Calcium in mg
Collard greens, frozen	8 oz	360
Broccoli rabe	8 oz	200
Kale, frozen	8 oz	180
Soy Beans, green, boiled	8 oz	175
Bok Choy, cooked, boiled	8 oz	160
Figs, dried	2 figs	65
Broccoli, fresh, cooked	8 oz	60
Oranges	1 whole	55
Seafood	Serving size	Estimated calcium
Sardines, canned with bones	3 oz	325
Salmon, canned with bones	3 oz	180
Shrimp, canned	3 oz	125
Dairy	Serving size	Estimated calcium
Ricotta, part-skim	4 oz	335
Yogurt, plain, low-fat	6 oz	310
Milk, skim, low-fat, whole	8 oz	300
Yogurt with fruit, low-fat	6 oz	260
Mozzarella, part-skim	1 oz	210
Cheddar	1 oz	205
Greek yogurt	6 oz	200
American cheese	1 oz	195
Feta cheese	4 oz	140
Cottage cheese	4 oz	125
Fortified food	Serving Size	Estimated calcium
Tofu, prepared with calcium	4 oz	205
Orange juice fortified with calcium	4 oz	150
Cereal, fortified	8 oz	100-1,000

 

Supplementing with calcium has drawbacks

The research also identified a few drawbacks to excessive calcium supplementation but not calcium from a typical diet:

A higher possibility of kidney stones. Women who received the calcium-vitamin D combination in the Woman's Health Initiative had a greater chance of getting kidney stones than those who received the placebo. High dosages of calcium from supplements may actually encourage stone development by increasing the amount of calcium that is excreted in the urine, even if high levels of dietary calcium are known to give some protection against kidney stones.

Vitamin D is also crucial.

In addition, vitamin D is necessary for strong bones. In reality, the daily vitamin D requirement was first put in place to aid in preventing rickets in children, a disease in which young bones are brittle and susceptible to bowing.

The skin produces vitamin D when exposed to UV light from the sun. The quantity generated, however, differs greatly from person to person. Those with darker skin create less vitamin D than those with lighter skin, and age affects everyone's skin's capacity to make vitamin D from sunshine. Additionally, if you follow the recommendations to apply sunscreen and cover up to lower your chance of developing skin cancer, your body will produce less vitamin D.

Researchers have found it challenging to determine how much vitamin D people generate in addition to how much they take in supplements because of this diversity. Blood levels of vitamin D have been examined in research, and the results show that levels in the high-normal range are ideal for bone formation. It might be necessary to take 800–1,000 IU of vitamin D daily in order to attain those levels.

What dosage of calcium do you actually need?

We've learned from the research that calcium and vitamin D are both crucial for bone growth. It should be sufficient if you can consume at least 700 mg of calcium daily through diet. However, see your doctor if you have any doubts before taking a calcium supplement.