Have your doctor compare and contrast these pros and cons. Hopefully your doctor already knows about these research trials, but I highly doubt it. If not they should be fired.
The latest here:
Taking calcium and vitamin D can help prevent broken bones in older
women. However, this benefit may be cancelled out by an increased risk
of heart attack and stroke.
With the highest reported risk of hip fractures in the word, Norway
has good reason to consider the benefits and risks of calcium
supplements. The challenge is that too little calcium and vitamin D in
your diet leads to an increased risk of osteoporosis and broken bones,
which taking supplements has been shown to help prevent.
However, some studies have also shown that taking supplemental calcium may also increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.
"We conclude that
the moderate effect of supplemental calcium and
vitamin D on the risk of fractures is not large enough to outweigh the
potential increased risk of cardiovascular disease, specifically in
women who are at a low risk of bone fracture," said Gunhild Hagen, a PhD
candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's
(NTNU) Department of Public Heath and General Practice who was first
author of an article recently published in Osteoporosis International.
Analytical model of health effects
Researchers at NTNU and the University of Oslo used an advanced
analytical model to investigate the total health effect of taking a
combined calcium and vitamin D supplement, compared to taking no
supplements, based on a group of healthy women aged 65 with a BMI of 24
kg/m2.
"Our analysis shows that if 100 000 65-year-old women take 1000 mg
calcium every day, 5890 hip fractures and 3820 other fractures would be
prevented. On the other hand, as many as 5917 heart attacks and 4373
strokes could be caused. So for women of this age, the risks outweigh
the benefits," the authors of the study wrote in an article in
Aftenposten, one of Norway's national newspapers.
Recent studies of the effect of calcium supplementation on the risks
of heart attack and stroke differ in their conclusions, so the
researchers used three different scenarios based on results from
previous studies.
The high-risk model predicted that more than 10 000 heart attacks and
strokes would be caused by supplemental calcium and vitamin D in a
group of 100 000 65-year-old women, whereas the medium-risk model
predicted about 5000.
Both models showed that the number of years of high-quality life lost
by taking calcium was higher than the number of years of high-quality
life saved by preventing broken bones.
Benefits are nullified
The study also investigated the cost-effectiveness of offering
65-year-old women supplemental calcium and vitamin D, assuming that the
women were at low risk of cardiovascular problems. In this case, the
authors concluded that providing supplements is cost-effective and good
for public health, given that the benefits outweigh the risks.
If the supplement increases the risk of heart attack and stroke,
however, both the savings and the public health benefits are lost.
Hagen says one possible solution is to prescribe medicines that help prevent osteoporosis along with vitamin supplements.
"If we provide a preventative osteoporosis medication in addition to a
supplement, it will increase the effect of preventing bone fractures,
and have a positive risk/gain ratio, resulting in reduced costs," says
Hagen.
Don't know if calcium increases risk of heat disease
The researchers point out that it isn't possible to conclude that
calcium increases risk of cardiovascular disease, and that the analysis
needs to be seen in light of this uncertainty.
At the same time, their models are simplifications that can't replace studies done on actual people.
"We don't know for sure if calcium has this negative effect, but to
be careful, we should choose to give another treatment to help prevent
broken bones in older women," says Hagen.
Reference:
The predicted lifetime costs and health consequences of calcium and
Vitamin D supplementation for fracture prevention--the impact of
cardiovascular effects. Published in Osteoporosis International, 4
February 2016 (online) Hagen, G., Wisløff, T., & Kristiansen, I. S.
(2016).
http://gemini.no/en/2016/05/calcium-supplements-can-increase-risk-of-heart-attack-stroke/
