Health Buzz: Calcium Supplements May Boost Heart Attack Risk

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I agree with Frederick Schurger. If you are going to spend money on vitamins, make sure they are whole food sourced, NOT just the cheapest bottle you can find!!! The following article, "Coral Calcium is Not Part of the Human Food Chain" will make you sure never to buy cheap vitamins again! Go here:
http://www.kerrycoates.com/blog/coral-calcium-is-not-part-of-the-human-food-chain/

Kerry Coates of NM 10:59PM August 07, 2010

One of the biggest problems I face as a clinician who sells good vitamins is the misnomer that you can get good vitamins from most any store. Sam's, Cosco, Walmart etc. all have the mega packs of vitamins, but the nutritional quality is poor at best. We should be getting more of our vitamins from foods, but too many people eat processed foods, and think this is good for them. It simply isn't the way we're made.
The worst part about this article is it suggests all calcium supplements equal, and they simply are not. There are calcium supplements such as calcium lactate (and this has nothing to do with dairy products of any sort) that are readily absorbed by the body. But most calcium supplements are no better than chalk, and not bio-available to the body. Whole food nutrition, whether it be from food, or supplements that are whole food based is the answer. Your local health food store has some good products (ask them), or you can call around to your local chiropractors and find an office that sells Standard Process supplements. The price isn't higher (sometimes lower), your body can use them, and the products are food, so you benefit on multiple levels. We need to be better informed about all of this.
Our new website is starting to address these issues:
http://homehealthreform.com

Frederick Schurger, DC of IL 8:11PM August 01, 2010

Author meant small in the sense that it is 30% of the baseline, which was 130 heart attacks out of a sample of 11,000. So it meant an extra 30 or so attacks. So it's superhuman.com that doesn't know any math!

J of AL 12:01PM August 01, 2010

I have been diagnosed with osteopenia and my doctor, too, recommended a higher dosage of calcium. Couldn't do Fosomax or Boniva. Still haven't tried Actonel and really don't want to. I've heard with increased calcium and weight-bearing exercise bones should remain fairly strong. Now this about heart attack risk which I have in my family. Pick your poison. For me, and for now, I'll stick with the calcium/D3 regimen I'm on and check with my doc. He's no idot.

Kathy Maixner of OR 4:57PM July 31, 2010

Here we go again. More blather from ignorant journalists whose only source of insight is mainstream propaganda trying desperately to discredit alternative medicine.
"supplements appear to increase the risk of heart attack by as much as 30 percent (the risk is still small)", writes the clueless Megan Johnson.
If calcium supplements increased the risk of heart attack by as much as 30%, the risk would hardly be small. It would be highly substantial. This alone shows the writer hasn't a clue to what she is saying, and is just rehashing garbage from ignorant mainstream sources.
Supplements must never be taken singularly as they are intended by nature to work in synergy with thousands of other substances. Yet mainstream medicine continues to try and discredit natural healing by publishing ill-conceived studies of single-source supplements.
Still, such studies have shown Selenium, for example, to be highly effective in fighting cancer. Yet the writer dismisses such studies with a simple wave of her hand, and without citing a single source, except the word of a fellow propagandist.
"Clinical trials suggest that supplements of single nutrients like vitamins B, C, and E and the mineral selenium do not, as once thought, prevent chronic or age-related diseases including prostate and other kinds of cancer, U.S. News contributor Katherine Hobson wrote last year."
Gosh, if Katherine Hobson wrote it last year, it must be true. After all, she mush know more than the hundreds of scientists and thousands of studies cited on websites such as LEF.org. (Life Extension Foundation).
Even John Cleland, "author of an editorial accompanying the report in the British Journal of Medicine", says "It is not clear whether [calcium supplements] really increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes".
So this journalist takes a single study with unclear results and tries to stir up controversy against natural supplements. Sound like big pharma at work?
www.NewSuperHuman.com

New SuperHuman of FL 3:16AM July 31, 2010

of course calcium is a problem without D3... they forgot to mention that... and of course it needs to be balanced with magnesium.

esh of GA 1:21AM July 31, 2010

I agree with the past 2 responses. My question: how do we know that some of the big drug companies didn't pay these researchers to do these experiments? Big Pharma has enough lawsuits to prove that they are money motivated. Further, just go to a website askapatient.com and look at the responses to drugs like Boniva and Actonel. Personally, I had a devastatingly horrible reaction to Boniva that I filed a complaint with the FDA. I decided to take 3 doses of my calcium and magnesium per day instead of the recommended 2 doses. Guess what? My bone density went from osteoporosis to osteopenia in 2 years. Still not perfect, but improving without drugs. My doctor told me to continue with the extra dose. I'd like to see a study performed by some other researchers.

Elaine of CO 8:39PM July 30, 2010

Oh come on.........Obviously the best source of vitamins and minerals is food but all Americans know that we don't eat correctly so therefore we supplement with nutritional supplements. Pharmaceutical drugs on the other hand are lethal. The list of side affects and reactions are a mile long and all could lead to death and we are worried about nutritional supplements.
I don't think so....

Jill of OH 7:19PM July 30, 2010

ON VITAMINS AND HEALTH AS THEY SELL THEIR POISONS THAT ARE THE FIFTH LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE USA. MORE AMERICANS DIE FROM DRUGS AND MEDICAL ERRORS EACH YEAR THAN IN THE ENTIRE CIVIL WAR AND WW2 COMBINED. WHERE IS THAT STORY. HOW COME NO ONE IS MARCHING AND CARRYING SIGNS PROTESTING THE DRUG COMPANY AMA GENOCIDE.

RON BENEFIELD of FL 6:46PM July 30, 2010