HOW MUCH CALCIUM DO YOU NEED?
While the body at any age needs calcium, there are stages in a person’s life when calcium requirements increase.
Here are the daily requirements at various stages in your life:
* Pregnancy: 1,500-2,000 mg. a day
* Lactation: 1,200-1,500 mg. a day
* Infants (birth to one year): 400 to 600 mg.
* Children (1 to 10): 800 mg.
* Preteens and teens: 1,200-1,500 mg.
* Adults: 1,200 mg.
* Seniors: 1,500 mg. a day
How does calcium work?
As with other minerals, the body has an efficient system for keeping the concentration of calcium in the blood and tissues in balance.
This is needed because if calcium concentrations fall too low or get too high, certain organs will fail to function.
The first checkpoint is in the intestines. If you eat too much calcium, or already have enough calcium in your blood, the intestines simply absorb less of the calcium in the food you eat. If your body needs calcium, the intestines absorb more.
Bones are the second checkpoint. If you don’t get enough calcium in your diet, your body may borrow what it needs from your bones. This works for a time, yet continuing withdrawals of calcium from the bone bank can lead to osteopenia and osteoporosis.
A hormone called parathyroid oversees all this calcium activity like a vigilant bank manager, keeping the calcium concentration just right. When your calcium levels fall, this hormone stimulates vitamin D to increase absorption of calcium from the intestines, and to release calcium from the bone bank until a proper balance is restored.
It is an efficient system, but even if you are eating a fair amount of calcium, there are some other factors in your diet and lifestyle which can interfere with the calcium you consume being utilized by your body. We will deal with these factors in a later section of this article.
Other functions of calcium in your body
Besides promoting healthy tooth enamel, calcium helps muscles. Muscles can cramp, and heart muscles can even FAIL, if these muscles are not supplied with just the right amount of calcium.
Nerve impulses, the transmission of information between nerve fibers, will not function properly without just the right amount of calcium.
For example, muscles twitch (called tetany) when the calcium supply to neuromuscular cells is insufficient.
Calcium is one of the most vital minerals for optimal functioning of your entire body, so you need to eat a balanced diet a la the food pyramid every day in order to get enough calcium and other vitamins and minerals in your diet.
Osteopenia and osteoporosis
There are a variety of reasons for osteopenia, some hormonal and some related to the fact that calcium absorption lessens in elderly intestines.
Also, certain medications decrease the body’s ability to absorb calcium, including antacids. Soda with phosphates in it and smoking are also notorious bone health stealers.
Senior citizens need to be particularly conscious about the level of calcium in their diet and about which medications interfere with calcium absorption.
Women of white descent are most prone to osteoporosis. If you are at risk it’s best not to wait until you’re fifty-something to start preventing osteoporosis.
Building stronger bones with a calcium-rich diet and weight-bearing exercise such as light weights in your twenties and thirties is more likely to prevent osteoporosis than preventive measures in your fifties.
Calcium is one of the most important minerals in your body for a variety of reasons.
WHY DO YOU NEED CALCIUM?
We all know that calcium is necessary for strong bones and teeth.
What you may not know is that calcium is required for EVERY cell of the body to function in a healthy way.
Besides acting as a cellular ‘cement’ for bones, calcium is used by your nerves and muscles, and it also contributes to proper blood clotting.
Here’s an overview of the good things calcium does for your body:
Calcium promotes healthy bones and teeth for life.
Just as lime is necessary for strong concrete, calcium is needed for strong bones.
We think that bone is something solid and permanent, but it is a living, changing component or our bodies. Bone is constantly breaking down and being built back up again.
Calcium is continually deposited into multiplying bone cells, like the cement that holds together the particles of stone and sand in a chunk of concrete.
Your bone health through your life
The stronger the bone development during childhood, the healthier those bones will be in adulthood. That is, the stronger the foundation, the sturdier the eventual building.
During adolescence bones grow rapidly, so teens need a lot of calcium in their diet. Once a person reaches full growth (usually at the age of 26/27 when your leg bone finally reaches its full size and solidity), your nutritional need for calcium will stabilize.
But there are periods when calcium needs increase, such as during pregnancy, lactation, and healing from injuries.
In old age, the bones begin to lose some of their sturdiness (this is called osteopenia, “bone poverty”, a thinning of the bones, and its most severe form is calle osteoporosis or “fragile bones”).