Calcium supplementation can help women live longer

A new study shows that women who regularly take calcium supplements have a 22% lower risk of death over a 10-year period than women who do not take calcium supplements regularly.

Prior to this, some studies have suggested that large amounts of calcium supplements would increase the risk of death from heart disease, but the Canadian researchers who conducted this latest study explicitly recommended that women with low calcium intake should increase their intake. Their study found an association between daily calcium supplementation and a reduced risk of death in women, and saw benefits in women who took up to 1,000 mg of calcium per day (regardless of whether the supplement contained vitamin D).

Researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed health data collected from 1995 to 2007 on 9,033 Canadians. During this period, 1,160 people died.

The results showed that women who took calcium supplements had a 22% lower risk of death compared to women who did not take calcium supplements. However, the data does not show that calcium supplementation is beneficial to men's health.

The researchers found no conclusive evidence that taking vitamins reduces the risk of death, and calcium supplements of more than 1,000 milligrams a day do not appear to benefit users because too much calcium in the bloodstream can create a "flooding effect" that can lead to hardening of the arteries and heart disease.

Researchers point out that people can achieve the effect of prolonging life through a variety of calcium supplements. Calcium supplementation helps better balance blood lipids, reduce the risk of hypertension, improve bone metabolism, and benefit intestinal health. Getting more calcium through a healthy diet, including dairy products and fish, can also help.