Calcium and Vitamin D Reduces the Risk for Breast and Colon Cancer

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Diets high in salt could deplete calcium in the body

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2012) — When sodium leaves a body, it takes calcium along with it, creating risk for kidney stones and osteoporosis.

See Also:Health & MedicineOsteoporosisFood AdditivesWomen's HealthPlants & AnimalsBiologyMolecular BiologyBiotechnologyReferenceElectrolyteDietary mineralKidney stoneSaliva

The scientific community has always wanted to know why people who eat high-salt diets are prone to developing medical problems such as kidney stones and osteoporosis.

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta may have solved this puzzle through their work with animal lab models and cells.

Principal investigator Todd Alexander and his team recently discovered an important link between sodium and calcium. These both appear to be regulated by the same molecule in the body. When sodium intake becomes too high, the body gets rid of sodium via the urine, taking calcium with it, which depletes calcium stores in the body. High levels of calcium in the urine lead to the development of kidney stones, while inadequate levels of calcium in the body lead to thin bones and osteoporosis.

"When the body tries to get rid of sodium via the urine, our findings suggest the body also gets rid of calcium at the same time," says Alexander, a Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry researcher whose findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal American Journal of Physiology -- Renal Physiology.

"This is significant because we are eating more and more sodium in our diets, which means our bodies are getting rid of more and more calcium. Our findings reinforce why it is important to have a low-sodium diet and why it is important to have lower sodium levels in processed foods."

It's been known for a long time that this important molecule was responsible for sodium absorption in the body, but the discovery that it also plays a role in regulating calcium levels is new.

"We asked a simple question with our research -- could sodium and calcium absorption be linked? And we discovered they are," says Alexander.

"We found a molecule that seems to have two jobs -- regulating the levels of both calcium and sodium in the body. Our findings provide very real biological evidence that this relationship between sodium and calcium is real and linked."

In their research, the team worked with lab models that didn't have this important molecule, so the models' urine contained high levels of calcium. Because calcium was not absorbed and retained by the body, bones became thin.

A journal editorial written about this research discovery noted the molecule could be a drug target to one day "treat kidney stones and osteoporosis."

The primary funder of the research was the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

"We are proud to support the research of Dr. Todd Alexander," said Wim Wolfs, National Director of Research of The Kidney Foundation of Canada. "Data in the United States shows that nearly 10% of adults will have a kidney stone at least once in their life. The prevalence of kidney stones also seems to be increasing in the U.S., which may be attributed to high rates of obesity and diabetes, along with possibly increased salt intake."

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Calcium supplements linked to significantly increased heart attack risk, study suggests

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2012) — Calcium supplements might increase the risk of having a heart attack, and should be "taken with caution," concludes research published in the online issue of the journal Heart.

See Also:Health & MedicineOsteoporosisWomen's HealthNutritionMind & BrainNutrition ResearchDieting and Weight ControlStrokeReferenceDietary mineralNutrition and pregnancyOily fishHormone replacement therapy

Furthermore, boosting overall calcium intake from dietary sources confers no significant advantage in terms of staving off heart disease and stroke, the findings indicate.

Previous research has linked higher calcium intake with a lowered risk of high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, all of which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

And calcium supplements are commonly recommended to elderly people and women who have gone through the menopause to prevent bone thinning.

The authors base their findings on almost 24,000 participants of one of the German arms of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study in Heidelberg.

All the participants were aged between 35 and 64 when they joined the study in 1994-8.

Normal diet for the preceding 12 months was assessed using food frequency questionnaires and they were quizzed about whether they regularly took vitamin or mineral supplements.

Their health was tracked for an average of 11 years, during which time 354 heart attacks, 260 strokes, and 267 associated deaths occurred.

After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, those whose diets included a moderate amount (820 mg daily) of calcium from all sources, including supplements, had a 31% lower risk of having a heart attack than those in the bottom 25% of calcium intake.

But those with an intake of more than 1100 mg daily did not have a significantly lower risk. There was no evidence that any level of calcium intake either protected against or increased the risk of stroke, which backs up the findings of other research, say the authors.

But when the analysis looked at vitamin/mineral supplements, it found that those who took calcium supplements regularly were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than those who didn't use any supplements.

And this risk increased further among those who used only calcium supplements. They were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who didn't take any supplements.

The authors conclude: "This study suggests that increasing calcium intake from diet might not confer significant cardiovascular benefits, while calcium supplements, which might raise

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Calcium Supplements May Be Bad for Your Heart: Study

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