Why you need a chelated Calcium Supplement

The previous RDA (recommended daily allowance) of 800 milligrams of calcium per day for an adult woman was replaced by the Institute of Medicine in 1997. The new recommendations, now called DRIs (dietary reference intakes), are for

500mg for ages 1 to 3,
800mg for ages 4 to 8,
1,200mg for ages 9 to 18,
1,000mg for ages 19 to 50.
1,300mg during pregnancy and lactating
1.500mg for women in menopause or over 65

Osteoporosis is the most common bone disease from a metabolic cause in the United States. It produces hundreds of thousands of fractures every year, most commonly in the backbones, hips and wrists.

Eight million women and 2 million men suffer from this disorder. Women are more prone to osteoporosis than men because they have lighter bones and lose bone mass more rapidly after menopause. It is often thought of as being "postmenopausal osteoporosis" because this is the most common setting for the disease.

Hormone deficiencies (estrogen in women and androgens in men) are the most common cause. Many patients will choose to replace these hormones, but this is still controversial for some, due to their adverse side effects.

Calcium, magnesium, boron, mangnese, protein and vitamin D are all necessary to help prevent osteoporosis. Getting enough of these in your diet can be a challenge. Let's talk a bit about sources of calcium and general dietary recommendations. Let’s bone up on the basics.

Dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt are the strongest calcium food sources. That statement is a myth, because today the dairy producing countries like Australia and the USA have the highest number of Osteoporosis cases. Why?. Milk and it’s by products are acidic in nature and eat into the calcium in your bones.

Other foods that are very healthy for you anyway are good calcium sources. You can get a lot of calcium from bony fish, like herring, salmon, sardines and mackerel. Green leafy vegetables like kale, collards, broccoli and turnip greens have organic calcium as well. Many commercial foods, like bread, cereals and orange juice, are now (inorganic) calcium-fortified.

But most people still don't eat enough dietary calcium. People avoid dairy products to stay away from the fat in them, and dairy can also be a low-grade food allergy producer. Most of us don't eat that many green vegetables, and who eats sardines everyday? So there's the problem.

Some foods can interfere with calcium absorption by binding the calcium. This would include foods like spinach, nuts and rhubarb (containing oxalate) and soybeans and wheat bran (containing phytate). These are fine foods, just don't take your calcium supplement along with them. Avoid too, the "natural" sources of calcium like oyster shell, dolomite and bone meal, as they can be slightly contaminated with heavy metals like lead

I think most experts would say that you have to get as much calcium from your diet as you can, and then if you still fall a little short, you can supplement up to a decent level. But what supplements should you take? Well, there's a right answer.

Calcium carbonate is the cheapest and most widely used calcium supplement, but it doesn't dissolve so well, particularly if you are an older person who doesn't make much stomach acid. This is the form of calcium that's in Tums and OsCal. Taking it with a meal can help. You can test the dissolvability of your calcium tablet in normal stomach acid by dropping a pill into a cup of vinegar. If it hasn't dissolved in 20 to 30 minutes, you’ll have trouble with stones and bone spurs after 5-10 years.

Calcium citrate is the second most common form and can be taken in a fizzy drink or a pill. It's more easily absorbed than calcium carbonate.

Chelated forms (calcium is bound to an amino acid -protein is more expensive but will give you greater value for your money. These would include calcium lactate, glubionate, gluconate and calcium citrate malate. They are absorbed up to 10 times better than non chelated forms of minerals. Ref: Earl Mindell’s Vitamin Bible, pg 19. Alboin Labs, International Conference on Human Nutrition 1995.

Taking more than 400 milligrams of calcium at a time is not a good idea, because our absorption mechanism seems to get overloaded at around that level. You should get about 200 milligrams of magnesium as well, because lots of calcium can deplete magnesium. So please ensure you use a calcium magnesium supplement with a ration of 2:1

And remember that calcium requires vitamin D for absorption; so be sure to get 80 IU of this vitamin per day. You also require 7 micrograms manganese and 6 micrograms boron to bring the calcium from your blood stream into your bone to build up your bone bank.

The Enrich Calcium-Magnesium Complex. is the best way, to not only to get all your minerals, but also to absorb them and fully utilise them to strengthen your bones. These minerals at the same time help your muscles relax after a stressful and tiring day. (ref: Physiology Journal)

Magnesium helps to relax the heart muscles too and is needed to stabilise blood pressure, reduce heart enlargement and balance cholesterol. (ref: American Heart Journal).

Some people have reported that after using the Calcium Magnesium Complex for 8 weeks, their migranes stopped, muscle cramps lessen and blood pressure normalises.

Others know that the skeletal structure needs lots of calcium, and because they want tall children, they give them this Calcium Magnesium Complex as recommended.

Go do a bone density test and try it for 8 weeks and you can judge the results yourself.