| Calcium is an essential mineral that your body needs every day. Calcium plays a number of important roles in the body and if deficient, can cause numerous health issues. First, calcium is the major constituent of bones and teeth. Over 98% of body calcium resides in those structures. In the rest of the body calcium supports heart function, circulation, nerve function and muscle tone. If insufficient calcium results from a poor dietary intake of this nutrient, the body can "rob" calcium from the bones to make up the shortage. When this happens, low peak bone mass can result which is a low amount of bone mass present at maturity. Low peak bone mass can be a contributing factor to the development of a potentially crippling disease of weak, thin and fragile bones called osteoporosis. In excess of 25 million people in the United States have this disease which is a multifactorial disease, also affected by race, sex, heredity, body stature, diet, exercise level, and life style. Excess alcohol consumption and smoking are also considered risk factors in osteoporosis. Building and maintaining good bone health through adequate calcium intake throughout life is linked to a reduced risk of osteoporosis by optimizing bone mass. Calcium intake exceeding 200% of the recommended daily intake (2000 mg.) has no further known benefit. |
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