Too much of a good thing?
February 19, 2013
HIGH intakes of calcium in
women are associated with higher
death rates from cardiovascular
disease, according to the latest
research published in the British
Medical Journal.
The Swedish study investigated
the link between calcium intake in
women and incidence of
cardiovascular disease, and looked
at 61,433 women (born between
1914 and 1948) with a median
follow up of 19 years.
“We hypothesised that long term
intake of low or high calcium
increases the risk of cardiovascular
mortality,” the researchers said.
“We investigated associations
between long term dietary and
supplemental intake of calcium
with all cause mortality as well as
with cardiovascular mortality in a
large population based prospective
study of Swedish women,” the
researchers added.
According to the results, the risk
patterns with dietary calcium intake
were non-linear, with higher rates
concentrated around the highest
intakes (over 1400 mg/day).
The researchers found that
compared with intakes between
600 and 1000 mg/day, intakes of
calcium above 1400 mg/day were
associated with higher death rates
from all causes: cardiovascular
disease (1 49, 1.09 to 2.02), and
ischaemic heart disease (2.14, 1.48
to 3.09) but not from stroke (0.73,
0.33 to 1.65).
“Use of calcium tablets (6% users;
500 mg calcium per tablet) was not
on average associated with all
cause or cause specific mortality
but among calcium tablet users
with a dietary calcium intake above
1400 mg/day the hazard ratio for
all cause mortality was 2.57,” the
researchers said.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 19 Feb 13To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 19 Feb 13
