Study: Calcium Can Extend Women’s Lives

A team of Canadian researchers has found that taking a calcium supplement of up to 1, 000 mg per day can help women live longer. The work was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

The lead author was Lisa Langsetmo, a Ph.D. research associate at McGill University, and the senior author was Professor David Goltzman, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and researcher in the Musculoskeletal Disorders axis at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), Montreal.

Past studies have linked calcium supplements to heart disease risk. The researchers, located at universities across the country, analyzed data from the large-scale Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos) seeking to determine whether calcium and vitamin D intake were associated with overall increased risk of death.

“We found that daily use of calcium supplements in women was associated with a lower risk of death, irrespective of cause, ” said Professor Goltzman, director, Calcium Research Laboratory at McGill. “The benefit was seen for women who took doses of up to 1, 000 mg per day, regardless of whether the supplement contained vitamin D.”

The longitudinal study of participants living in or near nine cities across Canada monitored the health of 9, 033 Canadians between 1995 and 2007. During that period, 1, 160 participants died. Although the data showed women who took calcium supplements had a lower mortality risk, there was no statistical benefit for men. The study found no conclusive evidence that vitamin D had an impact on mortality.

“Higher amounts of calcium were potentially linked to longer lifespans in women, regardless of the source of the calcium, ” says Goltzman. “In other words, the same benefits were seen when the calcium came from dairy foods, non-dairy foods or supplements.”

Dr. Goltzman told OTW, “Calcium is essential for a normal skeleton and calcium supplements of up to a gram a day, as well as dietary calcium, do not increase mortality.”

Asked what he would say to those concerned about the past studies linking calcium supplements to heart disease risk, Dr. Goltzman commented, “We did not examine heart disease risk specifically, but we did not find an increase in all-cause mortality in those participants consuming up to a gram a day of calcium supplements. This is consistent with the results of the Women’s Health Initiative in the U.S.”