New analysis means that taking calcium and vitamin D dietary supplements collectively could also be each helpful and dangerous for postmenopausal ladies.
The research, printed within the Annals of Inside Drugs, discovered that whereas ladies who took each dietary supplements on the identical time decreased their threat of dying from most cancers, in addition they elevated their probabilities of loss of life resulting from heart problems.
Based on Holly Thacker, MD, an internist at Cleveland Clinic who focuses on menopause and girls’s well being circumstances, postmenopausal ladies have a excessive threat of growing osteoporosis as a result of bones lose density when estrogen drops throughout this time. Osteoporosis has been linked with low calcium ranges, and vitamin D helps with calcium absorption, so many postmenopausal ladies take each dietary supplements.
Nevertheless, specialists mentioned the research highlights the necessity to focus on particular circumstances with a healthcare supplier earlier than taking dietary supplements.
“I feel what we’re beginning to admire is that extra shouldn’t be at all times higher,” Anuradha Lala-Trindade, MD, a heart specialist at Mount Sinai, instructed Well being. “Supplementation must be warranted and individualized primarily based on baseline threat and potential for profit.”
Right here, specialists clarify how calcium and vitamin D dietary supplements may have an effect on postmenopausal ladies and what to think about earlier than taking them.
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For the research, researchers analyzed data from greater than 36,000 postmenopausal ladies enrolled within the Girls’s Well being Initiative, a program funded by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies that is been working since 1992.
For about seven years, roughly half of the members took 1,000 milligrams (mg) of calcium carbonate (which included 400 mg of elemental calcium) and 400 worldwide items (IU) of vitamin D3, a type of vitamin D that people produce naturally. The remaining took a placebo.
The research resulted in 2005, and researchers then tracked the members till December 2020.
The staff discovered that the members within the complement group had a 7% decrease threat of dying from most cancers than the placebo group. Nevertheless, they’d a 6% larger likelihood of dying from heart problems than individuals who didn’t take calcium and vitamin D.
Researchers famous that the research has a couple of limitations. For one, it didn’t present that dietary supplements induced the elevated and decreased mortality threat however merely revealed an affiliation between the 2. It additionally did not uncover which method had essentially the most very important hyperlink to mortality: calcium, vitamin D, or a mixture of the 2.
Thacker instructed Well being that the quantity of calcium and vitamin D members took may have influenced the research’s outcomes.
“This research used an excessive amount of calcium if one was additionally ingesting it within the eating regimen, and certain not optimum vitamin D consumption for many grownup ladies,” she mentioned. “Calcium dietary supplements don’t must be taken if one ingests sufficient from the eating regimen and has ample vitamin D ranges.”
Based on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, the really useful dietary allowance (RDA) of calcium for ladies aged 51 to 70 is 1,200 mg, and the RDA of vitamin D for ladies on this age group is 600 worldwide items.
The research builds on earlier analysis analyzing how the dietary supplements have an effect on coronary heart well being individually.
Some research have linked vitamin D supplementation with decreased most cancers threat, Lala-Trindade mentioned.
Whereas observational research have linked low vitamin D ranges with an elevated likelihood of growing heart problems, she added, “supplementation has by no means been proven to lower cardiovascular threat in randomized managed trials, [which are] the gold customary of testing efficacy of a given intervention.”
Calcium, alternatively, has been related to elevated cardiovascular threat in each randomized trials and observational research, in accordance with Lala-Trindade.
The brand new analysis underscores the necessity to communicate with a healthcare supplier earlier than including new dietary supplements to your routine. Even should you’ve began taking dietary supplements with out recommendation, specialists say it’s nonetheless price checking in with a medical skilled.
Although calcium and vitamin D are generally really useful for postmenopausal ladies, your healthcare supplier could determine they’re not essential for you.
Lala-Trindade mentioned that healthcare suppliers contemplate a affected person’s threat of growing circumstances and issues earlier than making suggestions.
“I feel the cardiovascular neighborhood has appreciated that vitamin D and calcium supplementation on a broad scale could, in truth, enhance cardiovascular occasions, particularly for these at a heightened threat,” she added.
Nonetheless, Lala-Trindade mentioned the findings of this research is probably not vital sufficient to shift present suggestions.
“Whereas the research is necessary,” she defined, “I have no idea if this research will probably be practice-changing.”