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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. From an Ipswich fish and chip shop to the epicentre of Australian politics.
Please explain. One Nation's Rise.
This is the unlikely story of One Nation.
Well, I'm back.
Is it a passing protest vote or a permanent realignment of Australian politics? Whether you love her or hate her, truth is stranger than fiction. The Making of One Nation. To hear the full series, search for The Making of One Nation on ABC Listen.
Norman, do you have a favourite calcium source?
You mean apart from chewing on chalk?
That's your favorite way of getting calcium?
No, no. My favorite way of getting calcium is Greek yogurt.
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Chapter 2: What are the calcium needs for different age groups?
That's our entire audience. What are you going on about? Exactly. Every single one of What's Up Russia's listeners is desperate to know about calcium supplementation. Kay, Kasia and Ashley are asking about calcium supplements in general. Are they helpful? What's with the different types of calcium supplements?
Louise, Paula, Alison and Susan are asking about calcium supplements and the risk of calcium buildup in the arteries. So Paula shared her attempts at getting more calcium in her diet last
By keeping a food diary and wants to know if you can overdo calcium, Paula says, mostly I get between 600 and 900 milligrams from my diet, but on one latte-fueled deadline day, I hit a whopping 3,600 milligrams from dietary intake alone. So my question is this, is too much calcium from food sources as bad for you as too much calcium from supplements?
Paula says, I'm hearing a lot of conflicting advice about calcium. I recently listened to the ice cream episode of Science Friction, and it turns out I'm not the only one utterly perplexed by dairy and calcium requirements. So yeah, lots of calcium questions today, Norman.
There are, and it's an important issue. We need calcium.
We do.
I will actually add a little asterisk on the Science Friction episode on ice cream, which Paula mentions. I have to say, if you want to listen to it, it's from a 2025 series called Cooked in the Science Friction feed.
And while you are there, hit follow because Shelby Traynor, our producer for What's That Rash, actually has a brand new Science Friction series that's going to drop in that same feed in just a couple of weeks. And it's all about quantum computing. Yes, don't miss that. But yeah, the people yearn for information about calcium, Norman.
They do. You know, I throw in a remark, we need calcium. So calcium is in our bones, but we actually need calcium for the healthy functioning of our nervous system and indeed our heart. And calcium in our blood needs to be finely tuned in order for that to happen efficiently and not aberrantly.
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Chapter 3: Are calcium supplements beneficial for bone health?
I mean, for starters, it sounds delicious and sign me up.
But it does require some thought.
So let's talk about supplementation. Calcium as a mineral, as a chemical, isn't something you can take on its own. There's a couple of different forms that calcium can take in supplements. Does it make a difference which one you have?
It probably does, because the different supplements have different amounts of free calcium in them, of actual calcium in them. So there's calcium carbonate supplements, which contain the most calcium, about 40% by weight. but it requires stomach acid for absorption. You need to take them with food, and some people complain of mild constipation or feeling bloated taking calcium carbonate.
Calcium citrate supplements are absorbed more easily than calcium carbonate, and they can be taken on an empty stomach, and they're more likely to be absorbed by people who are taking acid-reducing heartburn medications. A lot of people are reducing the acid in their stomach to prevent reflux, acid reflux, and that would make it difficult to absorb calcium from calcium carbonate.
But calcium citrate is only 21% calcium. And then there's also calcium gluconate, which is only 9% elemental calcium. And then there's calcium lactate, which is 13% elemental calcium. So some of these supplements don't contain a huge amount of calcium. or you've got to take more. But, you know, that'll be on the bottle.
You sort of sounded a bit dim on it before, Norman, as to whether supplementation was relevant to most healthy midlife adults.
Yeah, you can go back through old health reports, our sister podcast, and look at the coverage we've done of calcium over the years, particularly with Professor Ian Reid at the University of Auckland, whose studies suggested that if you take calcium supplementation, you increase your risk of a heart attack and certainly making coronary artery disease worse.
There have been a lot of studies on this now and a lot of studies which have brought together the available evidence. And it's confusing. It goes backwards and forwards on this. And if I were to summarise what the evidence seems to point to is that If you're a healthy postmenopausal woman, you probably are increasing your risk of a heart attack a little bit by taking calcium supplements.
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Chapter 4: What risks are associated with calcium supplementation?
Not a lot, but a little bit. But equally, there are some studies which suggest calcium and vitamin D might reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. So it goes backwards and forwards. There's evidence that if you've got existing coronary heart disease, that taking calcium supplements might increase your risk of a coronary event.
And the point here to be made is these are studies done on people who tend to be younger, they tend not to be frail, and they tend not to be living in residential aged care homes. And so the jury's out on that group who probably would benefit, and it's an important caveat at this point in the discussion, is that people who are frail and at high risk and who are likely to be malnourished
All bets are off in terms of the risks of calcium supplementation and vitamin D supplementation. There may well be benefits. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is quite positive about calcium and vitamin D supplementation, particularly in that group. But there is a documented risk that does go to and fro in the literature.
So you mentioned this is something that you've reported about on the health report for years and years now. Well, Alison, one of our question askers, said specifically more than a decade ago, I think, I stopped taking calcium supplements because Norman said on the health report that they wouldn't really help bone density and could lead to a buildup of calcium in the arteries.
Alison said, this was good given my coronary artery calcium score five years later reflected my family history of high cardiac risk. But my urgent question that I've emailed you in my head about all year is, can you please tell me if the current evidence still recommends against calcium supplements? And if so, what the studies are?
My partner is 71 and last year was told their actual arteries are okay, despite a coronary artery calcium score of over 1000. Yes, three zeros. Then she discovered that on her bone density score, she has one area which is showing signs of osteopenia. The GP blithely recommended calcium supplements, but this doesn't sound great to me.
Alison says, I even cheated on you and listened to a foreign podcast where Norman's- Oh, shame on you, Alison. No, okay. I think that we are open to ethical non-monogamy when it comes to podcasts, Norman, because I listen to other podcasts too.
And what does this podcast tell her?
Alison says, Norman's perspective was reiterated in June of this year, but they cited no specific evidence against supplements. So we've got this sort of push and pull between Alison's experience and her partner who has been told that their calcium score is high in their coronary arteries, but also osteopenia. Norman, please explain.
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