My doctor just told me I should be taking 1,500 mg of calcium per day, along with 1,000 IU of vitamin D. My question is can I still take OsteoPhase?
Thank you,
Mary
My doctor just told me I should be taking 1,500 mg of calcium per day, along with 1,000 IU of vitamin D. My question is can I still take OsteoPhase?
Thank you,
Mary
Dear Mary,
It is not clear that taking that much calcium daily will be of benefit to you. The Women’s Health Initiative Calcium with Vitamin D trial of 36,282 postmenopausal women ages 50-79 found only that women older than 60 had a significant 21% reduction in hip fracture when taking 1000 mg. of calcium carbonate and 400 IU of vitamin D per day. For other women in the study there was no significant benefit. I have certainly also not seen studies indicating any benefit from higher doses of calcium than used in this study.
However excess calcium intake can contribute to kidney stones and potentially calcification of the arteries and heart valves, contributing to heart disease.
On the other hand an analysis of Vitamin D by the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health indicates that vitamin D supplementation of between 700-800 UI per day reduces the risk of hip and other fractures in the elderly. The analysis concluded that 400 IU per day is not enough for fracture prevention. There is also a much stronger correlation between physical activity improving bone strength and reducing fracture risk than with calcium intake.
In healthy homeostasis, calcium should be stored and released from bone storage depots for balancing all of the calcium mechanisms in all tissues of the body. It also should be a component of bone tissue structure as measured in bone density testing.
If you have osteoporosis, your body is not regulating calcium use properly.
OsteoPhase appears to help correct three mechanisms involved in building bone density – systemic calcium regulation/homeostasis, circulation deficits to and within bone tissue, and bone metabolism required for bone tissue building. The product contributes about 40 mg. of calcium per capsule. A typical regimen of four capsules per day would give you about 160 mg. of supplemental calcium.
We think that the calcium-regulating function of OsteoPhase will assist you in properly using up to 600 mg. of supplemental calcium per day, but do not feel that higher levels of supplementation are required or healthy. So, yes you can take OsteoPhase with plenty of Vitamin D3, but watch out for taking too much extra calcium.
John Steinke, L.Ac.
VP of Product Development