Calcium Lowers Cardiovascular Risk in People On Weight Loss Diet
A number of people I know go on a weight-loss diet in an effort to do their heart some good. If you are, too, you might want to watch your calcium intake. Researchers observed greater drops in LDL (bad cholesterol) and increases in HDL (good cholesterol) in women on a low-calorie diet who also received 1,200 mg of calcium with vitamin D, in comparison to those who did not.
It’s difficult enough to meet the daily dietary allowance for calcium, going on a diet makes it even more a challenge, especially if you just depend on food-derived sources. And particularly for women, calcium is very important in maintaining bone health, as well.
Tags: calcium, cardiovascular-disease, cholesterol, diet, functional-food, health, health-food, Healthy Eating, healthy-diet, heart-health, nutraceuticals, nutrition, weight-lossRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Healthy Eating, ~Cardiovascular Health, ~Dietary Supplements, ~Muscles and Bones
1 opinion for Calcium Lowers Cardiovascular Risk in People On Weight Loss Diet
Fred Colbourne
Mar 5, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I no longer try to lose weight because I have achieved the weight goals set out in my website.
However looking back, this study fits my xperience. As my waistline dropped from 37 to 31 inches (hips 35), LDL dropped into the low 70’s (1.9) and HDL rose to over 60 (1.6). Blood pressure also dropped about 15 points, to 115/65.
(Non-US lipid values in brackets)
The good news is that it’s possible at any age to change your lifestyle your waistline and clinical markers of heart health. But what about bones? Isn’t calcium famous for bone health?
High levels of calcium and weight-bearing exercise may not be enough to maintain bone mass. Why? Because bone turnover depends as much or more on hormones, including thyroid and sex hormones.
Vitamin D3 is a potent hormone and a key to bone health, but most people don’t get enough and their bodies use it less efficiently as they age. Other hormones decline with age. Let me relate my experience.
About five years ago, I started to monitor bone density. Recently, I learned that my bone mass has dropped but not yet to the level of osteoporosis. I asked my bone specialist if I should wait until I developed osteoporosis before beginning medication. He said, “that’s an option, but if it were me, I would start now”. I hemmed and hawed for two minutes before I agreed that keeping bone mass has to be easier than regaining it after it has been lost. The medication leaflet says that calcium and vitamin D3 are needed together with the medication. So medication is not enough: all it does is overcome the loss of testosterone with age. Calcium and vitamin D3 are still needed.
Beware vitamin ***D2*** as a supplement. (Reference: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
URL: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/4/694)
D2 is not the form of the vitamin that the body uses and conversion to D3 may be only 25%. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is the way to go.
A prescription form of D3 is packaged in capsules of 0.25 mcg (10 IU). In my opinion, this formulation is too expensive because you would have to take too many capsules to meet the ***minimum*** required dose of 400 IU/day. Better buy a good quality over-the-counter version of D3.
A dose of 400 to 800 IU/day may be enough for people over 65, depending on location, season and ethnic origin. Look for good quality over-the-counter preparations. (Some sources claim that a dose of 1000 IU/day D3 is safe.)
We can save money by getting D3 from the sun. To judge how much D3 is generated in the skin by the sun we have to take into account: season, summer or winter; distance north or south of the equator; age; and natural skin pigmentation.
In summer, around midday between the latitudes of Toronto and Melbourne, short exposure to the sun may generate enough D3 in the skin for people who do not have much natural pigment. People further north or south or people with more natural pigment may need longer exposure to the sun or higher doses of D3 supplement.
People like me, with natural skin pigment more like a southern European, need more sun, but I live near the equator, so 10 minutes a day would be enough. In Indonesia and Malaysia, dark-skinned people who work outdoors may not need any supplementation. The same people, if they work in offices all day may, need as much D3 supplement as I do.
African Americans living in Seattle may need to supplement by 800 IU/day 12 months per year. Everyone living in Alaska should supplement the full amount for 12 months per year, unless following the traditional fish diet with its high level of vitamin D.
Most people will find it easier to take a D3 supplement than to calculate time needed in the sun and then arrange the time. Some people get careless and take too much sun, risking damage to the skin and heat prostration, more reasons to pop D3 tablets.
Yes, calcium is important, but without D3, the body cannot use the calcium.
(I did not mention magnesium, manganese and zinc because the original article did not mention them. All are necessary, otherwise the calcium and D3 cannot do their jobs.)
(My web site URL: http://www.Combat-Aging.com)
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: