Added Calcium Does Not Enhance Bone Gain in Low-Calcium Diets

Added Calcium Does Not Enhance Bone Gain in Low-Calcium Diets

OMAHA, Neb.--Researchers from Creighton University, Omaha, found no additional bone gain benefit from calcium supplementation in young women whose normal diets are low in the mineral. Published in the Journal of Nutrition www.nutrition.org (135:2362-66, 2005), the double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study involved 152 healthy women aged 20 to 26 whose dietary intake, as assessed by a seven-day food diary, was low in both calcium levels and calcium-to-protein ratio, which has been directly associated with bone accrual in healthy post-adolescent women. The women were randomized to receive either 500 mg calcium or a placebo three times daily; all participants also took a daily multivitamin.

Researchers followed the subjects for 36 months, using bone densitometry to measure bone density at six-month intervals. They found significant mean rates of increase in total bone mineral density (BMD) and lumbar spine BMD in all subjects, but no change in hip BMD. However, none of the rates of change differed between the supplemented and placebo groups. Also, by mid-study, calcium levels in the subjects’ usual diet had increased by 15 percent. Researchers concluded the combined effect of increased dietary calcium intake and a multivitamin increased mean calcium intake to near the level at which supplemental calcium has no further effect on bone accrual.

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