Calcium supplements increase risk of heart attack

More and more people are turning to supplements to acquire the amounts of vitamins and minerals they can not achieve through diet. This is the case, for example, of calcium-containing supplements to combat age-related bone deterioration, products that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) consume 43 percent of US adults – and more Of the 60% of North Americans over 60 years old. But beware: as a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, the calcium contained in supplements may increase the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, thus increasing, and Much, the probability of suffering a myocardial infarction. A negative effect, on the contrary, is not observed in the case of calcium from the diet.

As Erin Michos, director of this research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, explains, «when it comes to taking supplements with vitamins and minerals, and especially in the case of calcium supplements for bone health, Most Americans think the more the merrier. But our study reinforces the evidence that excess calcium in the form of supplements can damage the heart and vascular system.
Incorrect destination

Studies published so far have found that calcium from supplements, and especially in the case of the elderly, is not completely integrated into the bones nor is it totally excreted in the urine. That is to say, not all this calcium is taken advantage of ‘properly’ by the organism. And what does not accumulate in the bones or is undone with urine, where does it go? As John Anderson, co-author of the study says, «must be accumulating in the soft tissues of the body. In addition, we know that as a person grows older, calcium plaques accumulate in the main blood vessels, such as the aorta and other arteries, hampering normal circulatory flow and increasing the risk of heart attack.

Therefore, in order to see where this calcium is directed, the authors analyzed the medical records of 2,742 women and men who, aged between 45 and 85 years, had responded to an extensive questionnaire about their dietary habits and had Were subjected to separate imaging tests -computed axial computed tomography (CT) -for a decade during their participation in the NIH Multi-Ethnic Atherosclerosis Study.