shuttrbg222 wrote:
I’m afraid of the research about supplementation but I’m also concerned that maybe my levels are normal because my body is sequestering calcium from my bones or teeth. Is that possible?
I would say it's possible. I just came across this
explanation of how the body handles its detection of low and high calcium. Basic biology but very interesting to someone like me
Because my coronary calcium scan was zero, and I have osteopenia, plus I eat quite a lot of oxalate and fiber (which bind to calcium), I've decided to start taking some calcium citrate along with my other bone health measures. I think my body needs it more than not. ConsumerLab's pick (effective and cheap) is Soloray Calcium Citrate 1000 mg, which works well for me because it takes four 250 mg tablets to reach 1000. This allows me to take it up to four times a day depending what I'm eating.
I have often heard people sometimes avoid high oxalate foods because they bind calcium (if not for other reasons), but when I looked into that, quite a few are high in both oxalate and calcium, and the calcium apparently may help avoid absorption of the oxalate. I'd rather not lose all the great nutrition in the high oxalate foods, so rather than lower my rather high oxalate consumption, I'm adding calcium to keep those nutrients in
and supply my bones. Essentially I probably just won't count the calcium in my vegetables, since I often consume a fair amount of oxalates and fiber at the same time.
Of course I wondered how calcium might play a role in brain health, and no surprise it depends. You don't want it too high (calcium deposits in the brain!) or too low, but it is critical to neurotransmitter production and memory to have enough.
So I think my fear of calcium supplementation in the context of low dietary intake has been unwarranted if not harmful. If anything I probably have been deficient for quite a long time. I increased my goat milk keifer from two ounces a day to 6-8 ounces a day. 8 ounces has 300 mg of calcium (not to mention more probiotics than my two ounces). I find two ounces of goat milk keifer and one 250 mg calcium citrate three times a day may be a good approach. That's 975 mg calcium before what's in food, much or all of which will combine with oxalates and fiber. I eat three eggs in the morning, which adds another 100 or so mg, and I don't eat fiber or oxalates with my breakfast, keifer and 250 mg calcium anymore.
So we'll see how long I keep this up. I'm interested in any thoughts about this.