Do calcium supplements increase the risk of heart disease?
Recent media reports reviewed a study from New Zealand that concluded calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attacks among subjects. To verify the link between calcium supplements and heart attacks, researchers at the University of Auckland studied the records of 12,000 people, both male and female, who had previously joined 11 separate clinical trials. Participants (all over age 40) in this study from the British Medical Journal were given at least 500 mg of elemental calcium per day. The researchers concluded that calcium supplements increase the risk of myocardial infarction by about 30% over five years.
This new study contradicts many previous studies that showed increased calcium intake did not affect cardiac health. In fact, a study released in the July/August, 2010 Journal of the North American Menopause Society concluded that moderate doses of calcium plus vitamin D did not seem to alter the risk of future cardiovascular disease. This study was part of the Women’s Health Initiative, and was a prospective study in which data was collected over seven years. In contrast, the New Zealand study was meta-analysis type of study, which is considered an inferior type of study compared to a prospective study. Read more…