Calcium supplements do not help men cut cholesterol or trim fat, but they do help those who don't get enough calcium in their diet to keep their blood pressure under control.
Calcium supplements do not help men cut cholesterol or trim fat, but they do help those who don't get enough calcium in their diet to keep their blood pressure under control.
Calcium supplements are widely recommended to women after menopause to maintain bone health, and can keep men's skeletons' strong too. Studies have shown a small beneficial effect of calcium on cholesterol levels in women after menopause, but this link in older men has not been studied in detail.
To investigate so, researchers randomly assigned 323 healthy men over 40 years in New Zealand to take either 600 milligrams of calcium daily or 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day or a placebo for two years. It was found that the calcium supplements didn't change the ratio of good to bad cholesterol, body weight, fat or muscle mass, triglyceride levels or total cholesterol levels.
While there were downward trends in blood pressure among the men who took calcium, these weren't statistically significant. But when the researchers looked separately at the men who consumed the least calcium (below 785 milligrams a day), there were borderline effects on blood pressure among men taking 1,200 mg of calcium in supplements; these men showed a four-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top reading), and a three-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom reading). Similar effects were seen among the men who consumed the least magnesium at the study's outset (less than 392 milligrams per day).
The therapeutic value of calcium in managing high blood pressure is likely to be small and is insufficient to justify its routine use in patients whose calcium intake is average.
Calcium supplements are widely recommended to women after menopause to maintain bone health, and can keep men's skeletons' strong too. Studies have shown a small beneficial effect of calcium on cholesterol levels in women after menopause, but this link in older men has not been studied in detail.
To investigate so, researchers randomly assigned 323 healthy men over 40 years in New Zealand to take either 600 milligrams of calcium daily or 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day or a placebo for two years. It was found that the calcium supplements didn't change the ratio of good to bad cholesterol, body weight, fat or muscle mass, triglyceride levels or total cholesterol levels.
While there were downward trends in blood pressure among the men who took calcium, these weren't statistically significant. But when the researchers looked separately at the men who consumed the least calcium (below 785 milligrams a day), there were borderline effects on blood pressure among men taking 1,200 mg of calcium in supplements; these men showed a four-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top reading), and a three-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom reading). Similar effects were seen among the men who consumed the least magnesium at the study's outset (less than 392 milligrams per day).
The therapeutic value of calcium in managing high blood pressure is likely to be small and is insufficient to justify its routine use in patients whose calcium intake is average.
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