Chris van Tulleken

Can we start by you simply explaining what is calcium and what does it do in our body?

Yes.

Okay, so carbon dioxide.

Let me just try and remember this.

Carbon dioxide is an acidic gas when it's dissolved in your blood.

So when you hyperventilate, you blow off all the acid and your blood becomes alkali.

Right.

So calcium, almost all of it in the body is structural, it's in our bones, but this remaining 1% has all these different effects on our nerves firing, on our muscles contracting, on the function of every single cell.

Is it right that we can think of our bones almost as a calcium reservoir?

To keep this exact level of calcium in our blood and in our cells, we've got this big pool of it in our bones that we can draw on, is that right?

Listeners, I think when we raise the subject of calcium, a lot of people go calcium, vitamin D. Those two things are kind of linked in our minds.

What is the link between calcium and vitamin D?

Okay, so if you're vitamin D deficient, no matter how much calcium you eat, you won't be able to get it from your gut to your bones.

So in the scale of elements in the body, how important is calcium?

But it is vital.

And it's not just doing one straightforward thing.

So it's very important.

We need it.

How do we know if we're getting enough?

So are we getting enough calcium?