What should you look for in a supplement?
- Perfect Calcium and Magnesium in 1:1 ratio
- Highest absorbable form of Calcium & Magnesium
- Calcium citrate: More expensive. Doesn’t matter if you take with meal or not, it can be well absorbed. Good for people experiencing acid rebound from taking calcium carbonate and those with history of stomach ulcers1
- Calcium malate: Easy to absorb and high tolerance level. Absorption is increased by 40%. Magnesium amino acid chelate, Magnesium taurinate, Magnesium glycinate
Why is Magnesium essential?
- 80% of the population are deficient in Magnesium, which leads to increased risk of osteoporosis and heart attack
- Magnesium activates vitamin D to its most potent form
- Magnesium is needed to build new bone
- Critical for maintaining proper electrical conduction in the heart
- Decreases the risk of sudden death-especially in women
- Decreases the risk of heart attacks
- Lowers blood pressure-it is nature's own calcium channel blocker
Other health benefits include:
- Improves asthma
- Helps alleviate migraine and tension headaches
- Improves muscle cramps and spasm
- Improves insulin sensitivity and diabetic control
- Decreases risk of preeclampsia in pregnancy
Supplementing calcium by itself doesn’t do any good if you don’t have enough Vitamin D
- Key for calcium absorption 2
- Vitamin D3 is the most active form
- Helps build up bone density
- Body can’t even absorb calcium without vitamin D
- It doesn’t do any good to supplement calcium if your vitamin D levels are low
- Cancer risk of all cancers is reduced by nearly 77%
- Decreased risk of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Decreased risk of developing multiple sclerosis
- Improves Rheumatoid Arthritis and Congestive Heart Failure as it decreases the risk of stroke
Acting as the calcium commander is Vitamin K2
- Ensures that your calcium supplements are deposited in the bone and not your arteries. This is the key in making your calcium supplements safer
- Activates factors (osteocalcin) in the bone to grab and hold onto calcium to help build stronger bone – helps to decrease fractures by 81%
- Vitamin K1 does not accomplish this goal
References:
1 http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/What_you_need_to_know_about_calcium.htm
2 New England Journal of Medicine July 7, 2007