A recent study published in the British Medical Journal has put to rest any lingering belief that calcium supplements are good to take. The study found that the bones of people over 50 do not get stronger by taking calcium supplements, nor from eating calcium-rich foods like dairy products.
Researchers found that, not only are calcium supplements a waste of money, they could be harmful. The extra calcium doesn’t go to bone, but instead can build up in the arteries causing arteriosclerosis and heart disease, or in the kidneys causing painful kidney stones.
This is not good news for the 54 million Americans who are currently at-risk for fractures due to bone-thinning osteoporosis. Nearly half of all women over 50 will experience a broken bone caused by osteoporosis.
What can people do? Rather than from a lack of calcium, osteoporosis is primarily due to deficiencies in testosterone (yes, testosterone), and secondarily due to deficiencies in vitamin K and vitamin D, and lack of weight-bearing exercise. By taking such an approach, over the years, I have able to reverse countless cases of osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis) and osteoporosis.
