If you’re taking Calcium Supplements, READ CAREFULLY! Is your Doctor prescribing it? It may well be killing you…
I’ve made the argument before that some supplements may be necessary even within the context of a nutrient-dense, whole-foods diet. Some nutrients are challenging to get through food alone, especially if you’re not digesting food optimally or you’re struggling with a disease that increases your need for particular nutrients. I routinely recommend supplements to many of my patients and have seen the benefits of proper supplementation in my own life as well. I have been studying nutrition for over 20 years and can summarize it in the words of Michael Pollan, “Nutritional science is kind of where surgery was in 1650 — really promising, but I think I’ll wait.”

That said, there are several supplements that are commonly recommended by conventional doctors and healthcare practitioners that are unnecessary at best, and potentially harmful at worst. Perhaps the best example of this is calcium.

Bottom line. EAT REAL FOOD. If you’re concerned about maintaining healthy bones, you’re better off ensuring adequate calcium intake from foods like dairy products, sardines, salmon, dark leafy greens and bone broth. 600 milligrams per day from food (approximately two servings of dairy products or bone-in fish) is plenty to maintain adequate levels of calcium in the body. Healthy bone formation also depends on vitamin D and vitamin K2, both of which regulate calcium metabolism. There are also other minerals besides calcium involved in supporting bone health, such as silica and magnesium.

Last week I posted about bioavailability and explained that LIVING NUTRITION, (REAL WHOLE FOOD) is always optimum because of living nutrients science has just began to scratch the surface. When you take out nutrients and put them into a pill bottle, you lose the living nutrients and cofactors that allow the body to use it. In fact, synthetic vitamins can be harmful, bioaccumulating in your body and producing tumors. If you have adequate levels of these nutrients from eating REAL FOOD, and regularly perform weight-bearing exercise and daily walking, there is no need for calcium supplementation, which will likely do more harm than good.

The truth is, there is no replacement for REAL WHOLE FOOD. It is essential for us and science is no closer in understanding it, than we are getting a man to mars. Animal research like rat science is an anamorphic lens of reality, like your kiddos playing with a kaleidoscope. Can you understand why science is stuck in the year 1650? Promising… But I think I’ll focus on getting and staying well for a lifetime by following a regime that humans have been doing since creation while living in the current time.

A 2012 study published in the British Medical Journal showed that those who took calcium supplements had a 139% higher risk of heart attack, though this increased risk was not present when the same amount of calcium was consumed from whole food sources.
Other studies have shown the same correlation:
• A 2010 meta-analysis showed that calcium supplementation increased the risk of stroke, heart attack and death from all causes.
• A study published in JAMA in 2013 showed that supplementation in excess of 1,000mg/day was associated with a 20% increase in risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
• Other studies, like a recent one published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that calcium supplementation increased risk of kidney stones and prostate cancer
• The risk is even higher in women “Additionally, a recent Swedish study reported a 40% higher risk of death among women with high calcium intakes (1400 mg and above), and a 157% higher risk of death if those women were taking a 500 mg supplement daily, compared to women with moderate daily calcium intakes (600-1000 mg).”