Many of life’s lessons I have learned the hard way. Actually I have had to learn most of life’s lessons the hard way! I am infamously stubborn. Sometimes that trait serves me well and sometimes it haunts me. I would not listen when my mother and grandparents told me to be careful when I was playing outside because I was going to get hurt. It took a snow skiing accident at the age of 24 for me to begin to take care with my outdoor activities to prevent my own injuries. I did not listen when people told me to go on to college after high school. It took me another 12 years until I was 29 years old to figure out what I want to be when I grow up and start a whole new career at the age of 35. I did not listen when they told me to be grateful for my youth because it would be gone one day. It took my turning 40 last August to realize how quickly Christmas does roll around every year. (By the way, 2005 is officially half over and the days are already getting shorter.) I have decided that I will spend the rest of my life getting life’s lessons a bit more quickly and heeding the advice of people who have walked the road before me rather than trying to reinvent the whole experience. One of those lessons I am learning now is that it is exceptionally important to get my proper daily intake of calcium. I heard all of my life about the importance of consuming dairy products for strong bones and teeth, but of course I ignored it. After observing a few of my patients’ x-rays and seeing the devastation of poor bone density I am taking note.
Adults need about 1200 milligrams of calcium daily in order to promote and maintain proper bone health. That seems simple enough. Go to the store and get a bottle of 1200 milligram calcium tablets, right? Wrong. Go to the store and look at the shelves of all of the different types of calcium. There is calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, calcium hydroxyapatite, calcium lactate, calcium gluconate, calcium citrate, and the latest- coral calcium. With this dizzying array of choices, which one is the right one? If you believe the hype of the marketing industry, coral calcium is the way to go. The truth about coral calcium, however, is that it is one of the worst possible choices. Since coral reefs make up some the earth’s most fragile ecosystems, it is illegal to mine them for calcium or anything else. The coral calcium that is marketed to us is supposed to come from either old “dead” sea beds or from pieces of coral that wash ashore in various places. Who knows if this is true or if the reefs are being mined illegally in the name of free enterprise? Coral calcium has been touted to cure a myriad of diseases from cancer to kidney stones and everything in between but that simply is not true. The truth is that coral calcium is composed primarily of calcium carbonate and is full of toxic metals such as lead or aluminum.
A popular source of calcium is calcium carbonate because it is an ingredient of several antacid tablets. It is also inexpensive. One antacid marketer actually promotes that it is a good thing to take antacid daily to get your daily recommended dosage of calcium. Huh? Is it really a good idea to take antacids every day? I don’t think so. Your stomach needs a certain amount of acid to digest food properly and to fight off bacterial infections. What do you think happens if you take an antacid every day to kill the acid in your stomach? At any rate, one of the main disadvantages of taking calcium carbonate is that it may not be adequately absorbed by those who have insufficient stomach acid. It needs to be taken with food for maximum absorption since your stomach produces acid when you eat in order to digest the food that goes in.
The most easily absorbed form of calcium is calcium citrate. It is easily absorbed regardless of the output of stomach acid at any given time. The main disadvantage is that since the molecule itself is bulkier than that of calcium carbonate you might have to take more tablets or capsules in a day to get the recommended dosage amount than you would have to take of calcium carbonate. Research shows that in order to prevent osteoporosis it is better to take calcium at night than to take it early in the day. It is also best to take calcium supplements with food in order to prevent kidney stone formation. As always be sure to get the right amount of water behind your supplements as well as throughout the day. In order to facilitate proper absorption of calcium the body needs vitamins D and K, small amounts of fats, magnesium, and exercise among other things. It is easy to get the amounts of vitamin D that are necessary if you are exposed to sunlight. The skin produces vitamin D after sun exposure. There are dietary sources of it too for those who don’t get in the sun enough. Small amounts of fat are almost always available in our bodies to facilitate fat’s role in calcium absorption. Magnesium is readily available in supplement form, and the exercise is up to us.
I have tempted fate too many times and have thus far lived to tell about it. I take my calcium citrate every night along with magnesium for maximum possible absorption. I want my bones to remain healthy for as long as I walk the earth. Calcium citrate has been proven to be the most beneficial and most readily absorbable form of calcium in supplement form. Why reinvent the experience? Treat your body well.