Calcium Intake and Health

Increasing calcium intake has been encouraged because of its beneficial effect on bone health. Recent evidence has, however, raised concern about the potential adverse effect of high calcium intake, in particular the intake of supplemental calcium on cardiovascular health.

Researchers have found in a new study that habitual use of calcium supplements was significantly associated with higher risk of CVD events and mortality in people with diabetes but not in people without diabetes.

Study Overview

The original article, "Associations of Habitual Calcium Supplementation With Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality in Individuals With and Without Diabetes", by Zixin Qiu et al. and colleagues, examined the associations between habitual calcium supplementation and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and mortality in individuals with/without a history of diabetes. The study is published in Diabetes Care.

The team investigated this association with 434,374 participants from the UK Biobank. Out of these, 21,676 participants had diabetes. The median follow-up duration was 8.1 years (incident events) and 11.2 years (mortality events).

Study Summary

• 26,374 had incident CVD events.
• Researchers documented 20,526 deaths, including 4,007 CVD deaths.
• Habitual calcium supplementation is associated with higher risks of CVD incidence, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality in diabetic patients with HR of 1.34, 1.67, and 1.44, respectively.
• There was no significant association in those without diabetes with HR of 0.97, 1.05, and 1.02, respectively, for CVD incidence; CVD mortality and all-cause mortality.
• They found no interactions between dietary or serum calcium and diabetes status.

Based on our study's findings, they said that habitual use of calcium supplements increased the risk of CVD events and mortality in diabetes patients but not in non-diabetics. Further investigations are warranted regarding the risks and benefits of calcium supplements among patients with diabetes.

The study has highlighted an important consideration regarding the cautious use of long-term calcium supplements in people with diabetes.

Further Reading

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