The Recommend Daily Calcium Intake For Women Over 50?

What’s The Recommend Daily Calcium Intake For Women?

The Internet has no doubt made our lives easier- but with all the wisdom of the world now at our fingertips, it’s hard to keep track of all the information.

For instance, previous generations only had to remember to eat an apple a day to keep the doctor away. Today, however we have access to all the health information that a Harvard medical grad does- and more!

But finding legitimate information sources – and keeping it sorted- that’s the trick.

Let me help…For years now, all day and every day I sift, search and sort through health information. I discard animal studies in favor of human studies, delete small trials for large trials, and have developed very keen radar for authors with vested interests.

So that being said – what is the ideal daily calcium intake for women worried about osteoporosis?

The most up to date science says that 1200mg per day is the optimum daily calcium dosage for women over 50. (7)

That may be higher than you expected, but there’s a reason for this:

Your calcium absorption slowly decreases to 15-20% in adulthood – and even more as you age 1,2,3. Because your absorption declines with age, recommendations for dietary intake of calcium are higher if you are age 50 and over.

But sadly, our SAD (Standard American Diet) provides us less than 50% of the 1200mg that is the recommended calcium intake for women over 50.

And that’s why supplementation is needed.

But many of the typical rock-based calcium supplements on the market will have you taking 1000mg per day- a kind of more-must-be-better strategy.

And so it came as no surprise to me that over-supplementing with typical “rock” based calciums (elemental calcium such as citrate and carbonate – the kind that dominate the market) made international news this year, as mounting evidence shows doing so leads to increased heart attack risk 8.

I’m sure that’s enough to scare most people into reducing their daily calcium intake.

But, consider that a recent meta-study has shown that lower dose calcium supplementation, combined with vitamin D, was most effective at preventing osteoporosis-related fractures, whereas high dose (1000 mg) calcium supplementation was not 4,5,6.

AlgaeCal Plus, the only whole food plant-derived USDA Certified Organic calcium on the market, has taken all of the above into account, and wisely suggests a maximum of 720mg of calcium per day.

This formula is coupled with 1600 IU of vitamin D3 and is backed by published study results showing it actually increases bone density 7, 8.

We were never meant to eat rock calcium. Your intuition knows it- now science confirms it!

Forward this email to someone who’s health you care about.

[Editor Note : Our bodies need calcium but there is such thing as too-much-of-a-good thing. Don’t be mislead by the megadose, horse pills you find in the stores. Algaecal delivers the optimal and safe amount of daily dosage in a food base calcium for better absorption.]

References:

1. Standing Committee on the Scientific Evaluation of Dietary Reference Intakes, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D and Fluoride. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, 1997.
2. NIH. National Institutes of Health consensus statement: Optimal calcium intake. 1994;12:1-31.
3. Heaney RP, Recker RR, Stegman MR, Moy AJ. Calcium absorption in women: Relationships to calcium intake, estrogen status, and age. J Bone Miner Res 1989;4:469-75.
4. Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Willett WC. Comment on the IOM Vitamin D and Calcium Recommendations. Harvard School of Public Health: The Nutrition Source, 2010.
5. Zoler ML. High Vitamin D Intake Linked to Reduced Fractures. Family Practice News, 2010(November 16, 2010).
6. Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Orav EJ, Willett, WC, et al., A Higher Dose of Vitamin D is Required for Hip and Non-vertebral Fracture Prevention: A Pooled Participant-based Meta-analysis of 11 Double-blind RCTs, in The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 2010 Annual Meeting2010: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
7. U.S. Food and Drug Administration
8. Calcium pills pose ‘heart risk’: BBC News Health