Dr. Sagen Zac-Varghese

And then you've got active vitamin D.

And that vitamin D helps you to absorb calcium and phosphate through the gut.

So you can almost think of it as pushing calcium and phosphate through the gut into the blood and then helping that calcium mineralize the bone.

Some will go in, but probably not enough.

You need calcium to be alive.

You can't live without calcium.

But you also need sodium and potassium, magnesium.

So I feel like you can't say which is more important.

It's an essential mineral.

Yeah.

That's a great question, Sand.

For my work in my clinic, I see people with thin bones.

So in people who have osteoporosis, you need around 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day and around 1,000 units of vitamin D a day.

If you don't have thin bones, if you don't have osteoporosis, then it's different.

It's about 700 milligrams of calcium and about 400 international units of vitamin D a day.

And calcium is found in dairy products, so things like milk and cheese, and also eggs, meat, fish, tofu.

Lots of products have calcium in them.

There's a really good calculator called the Edinburgh Calcium Calculator.

So if you're not sure, and I would definitely encourage everyone to do this, if you're not sure if you're getting enough calcium in your diet, you can put in your weekly diet into this calculation.

It will tell you if you're getting enough calcium.