Osteoporosis, despite what may be thought, is not stopped by higher intakes of calcium, new research suggests.
Moderate amounts of calcium remain essential, but increases provide no extra benefit in combating bone disease.
According to Fox News, Swedish researchers analyzed data for over 60,000 women who were followed for up to 19 years. Twenty-four percent of them suffered some sort of fracture while one in five of a subset of about 5,000 women developed osteoporosis.
Women who consumed about 750mg of calcium daily had a similar risk of fracture or osteoporosis as those who had the highest amounts (about 1135mg), researchers found.
“The highest quintile of calcium intake did not further reduce the risk of fractures of any type, or of osteoporosis,” said the experts, writing in the British Medical Journal.
Those taking the most amounts of calcium actually had a slightly higher risk of hip fracture, although this needs further research.
A spokeswoman for the National Osteoporosis Society said, “The paper adds additional weight to a strong argument - that low dietary intake of calcium increases the risk of fracture. We encourage those with low calcium levels to look to their diet and improve their intake of foods like dairy (low fat often contain the most calcium), leafy greens, almonds and dried apricots.”
