Calcium supplements damaging?

voraciousreader

Here's some food for thought from today's New York Times...Notice in the article that the patients who lowered their cholesterol (through diet manipulation) had a  greater chance of dying:

March 7, 2013, 12:01 am

Eat Your Heart Out

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

"Over the last several decades, it has become accepted wisdom that consuming saturated fat, the type found in meat and butter, is bad for you. Starting in the 1960s, studies showed convincingly that saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and that these elevated levels, especially of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL (the so-called bad cholesterol), increase heart disease. Studies also showed that consuming polyunsaturated fats — safflower, corn and soybean oils — reduced people’s levels of overall cholesterol and LDL and should be encouraged.

But new studies may be upending those assumptions. Researchers with the National Institutes of Health and other organizations recently resurrected the results of a long-overlooked Australian study conducted from 1966 to 1973, in which one group of men with heart disease increased omega-6-rich polyunsaturated fat intake to 15 percent of calories, while reducing saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent. Another group of men with heart disease continued their normal diets.

The men were followed for an average of 39 months, and those on the polyunsaturated-rich diet lowered their cholesterol levels by an average of 13 percent. But they also were more likely to die, and in particular to die of a heart attack, than those who stuck with their usual diet, which consisted of about 15 percent saturated fat....."

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/eat-your-heart-out/

ruthbru

Going out for supper tonight: I think I will order beer cheese soup, sirlion steak, garlic mashed pototoes, a glass of wine and have Creme Brulee for dessert!

voraciousreader

Ruth....And top the night off by reading a good book too!

sam52

These studies about calcium supplements are not new.Almost three years ago my endocrinologist advised that for a postmenopausal woman, calcium supplementation posed an increased risk of atherosclerosis.This was headline news in the UK about 2 years ago.

I have osteoporosis (from a combination of sudden menopause due to chemo,aromasin and parathyroid disease).I last saw her after having my (benign) parathyroid adenoma removed surgically; she considered that calcium derived from the diet was the best way to go.However, as I do not eat much dairy, she advised that I do not take the prescribed amount, but only supplement 'occasionally.'I had a DEXA scan a few days ago, which I am hopeful will show some improvement in bone density, since the parathyroid issue is now resolved.I take magnesium, vitamin K and 2,000iU vit D daily, and every other day a calcium +vit D supplement.