Good morning everyone,
Could anyone recommend a calcium supplement or the appropriate kind for osteoporosis? I am taking 900mg Magnesium and 8000 IU of Vit D. New to the game and need everyone thoughts on calcium needs for osteoporosis and micro colitis. I know the Mag and Vit D are the key but would feel comfortable with some Calcium supplement.
Thanks to all! If it wasn't for this site, I would be worse off than I am.
Calcium for osteoporosis
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Calcium for osteoporosis
Janie
Hi Janie,
Almond Milk is a good source of calcium, but if you prefer to take a pill, any source of calcium carbonate is generally considered to be the best type of supplement. An example is Caltrate. Caltrate 600 contains 600 mg of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is 40 % elemental calcium. Therefore Caltrate 600 contains 240 MG of elemental calcium per tablet.
But you can do the same thing with plain old Tums. Tums is also calcium carbonate, and regular strength Tums contains 500 mg of calcium carbonate. Therefore it contains 200 mg of elemental calcium per tablet. Tums extra contains 750 mg of calcium carbonate, so it contains 300 mg of elemental calcium per tablet. Tums ultra contains 1,000 mg of calcium carbonate, so it contains 400mg of elemental calcium per tablet.
900 mg is a lot of magnesium. Are you sure that you're taking that much? Look at the back label on your magnesium bottle to see whether a "serving" is considered to be 1 tablet or 2. If it is 2, then you are probably only taking half as much magnesium as you think you are. In this country, the front label on magnesium typically shows the amount per serving, but you have to look at the back label to see how many tablets the manufacturer considers to be a "serving".
If you are actually taking 900 mg of magnesium, then a good match would be 2 or more of the Tums Ultra tablets or 3 or more of the Tums Extra, etc. But if you are going to take over a 1,000 mg of calcium supplement, don't take it all at once — split it up during the day because research shows that too much calcium in the bloodstream at any given time can increase the risk of heart attack.
Tex
Almond Milk is a good source of calcium, but if you prefer to take a pill, any source of calcium carbonate is generally considered to be the best type of supplement. An example is Caltrate. Caltrate 600 contains 600 mg of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is 40 % elemental calcium. Therefore Caltrate 600 contains 240 MG of elemental calcium per tablet.
But you can do the same thing with plain old Tums. Tums is also calcium carbonate, and regular strength Tums contains 500 mg of calcium carbonate. Therefore it contains 200 mg of elemental calcium per tablet. Tums extra contains 750 mg of calcium carbonate, so it contains 300 mg of elemental calcium per tablet. Tums ultra contains 1,000 mg of calcium carbonate, so it contains 400mg of elemental calcium per tablet.
900 mg is a lot of magnesium. Are you sure that you're taking that much? Look at the back label on your magnesium bottle to see whether a "serving" is considered to be 1 tablet or 2. If it is 2, then you are probably only taking half as much magnesium as you think you are. In this country, the front label on magnesium typically shows the amount per serving, but you have to look at the back label to see how many tablets the manufacturer considers to be a "serving".
If you are actually taking 900 mg of magnesium, then a good match would be 2 or more of the Tums Ultra tablets or 3 or more of the Tums Extra, etc. But if you are going to take over a 1,000 mg of calcium supplement, don't take it all at once — split it up during the day because research shows that too much calcium in the bloodstream at any given time can increase the risk of heart attack.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Yes Tex,
I am taking that much Magnesium. I will back off if you feel it is more than I need. I am waiting for my labs to be back to see if I was that depleted. I am guessing here, by how much my arms were burning without any magnesium for a couple of months. I am not sure what to do, so any help would be beneficial from everyone. Most of the Docs. here think I can cure this with budesonide. So I take any information from Docs. with a grain of salt. I also am going to a Naturopath Dr. she has all the labs. I see her this week. I am not sure about her either?
My diet is coming along with meat and cooked to death veggies! I drink coconut milk. I will check calcium on label and I have tums.
So lower mag some?
I am taking that much Magnesium. I will back off if you feel it is more than I need. I am waiting for my labs to be back to see if I was that depleted. I am guessing here, by how much my arms were burning without any magnesium for a couple of months. I am not sure what to do, so any help would be beneficial from everyone. Most of the Docs. here think I can cure this with budesonide. So I take any information from Docs. with a grain of salt. I also am going to a Naturopath Dr. she has all the labs. I see her this week. I am not sure about her either?
My diet is coming along with meat and cooked to death veggies! I drink coconut milk. I will check calcium on label and I have tums.
So lower mag some?
Janie
That's a tough question, but I have a hunch that it's not easy to move that much magnesium into storage on a daily basis. We are probably all different in how we're able to handle magnesium, but personally I'm more comfortable with supplementing in the 500–600 mg range, especially when using magnesium glycinate or one of the other easily-absorbed forms of magnesium.Janie wrote:So lower mag some?
If I were taking magnesium oxide for example, I wouldn't be concerned about high blood levels of magnesium, because even if I took 2,000 mg per day, I doubt that I could absorb enough of it to get my blood level up to a decent level, let alone absorb enough to reach an excessive level. And of course that much magnesium oxide in the intestines would cause D, big time.
But magnesium glycinate is easily absorbed, so it is going to get into our bloodstream. If you are taking 900 mg and not having D as a result, that means that you are absorbing it very well (and that's the reason for using magnesium glycinate of course), but it also means that your blood level of magnesium may be high enough that if you are not able to move most of it into storage, you could be imposing an extra load on your kidneys as they try to get rid of the excess. As long as they are working normally there shouldn't be any problems.
IOW the problem is that there is no easy way to monitor exactly what our body is doing with all that magnesium. Hopefully it is going into our reserves, and if we don't have any insulin resistance issues then everything should be working as planned.
Do you see what I'm saying? With poorly-absorbed forms of magneisum the only risk is D. With easily-absorbed forms of magnesium there can be a risk of getting more into our bloodstream than we are capable of transporting into storage. That said, when physicians administer magnesium by IV they apparently use up to 1,500 mg per session (if my memory is reliable), so compared with that, 900 mg of oral magnesium (even if absorbed 100 %) should be relatively safe. This is assuming of course that your kidneys are functioning normally so that excess amounts are purged so that they are not carried over from day to day. So as long as your kidney function is normal, you should be fine.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
