Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials (double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs) have reported controversial findings regarding the associations between calcium supplements on the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Do calcium supplements increase risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)?
Study design:
This review article included 13 RCTs with 28,935 participants in an intervention group (group with calcium supplements) and 14,243 in a control group (group without calcium supplements).
The mean age of the study participants was 66.3 years (range: 35 to 97 years) and 92.8% of those were women.
Publication bias was not observed.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found calcium supplements significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular disease with 15% in healthy postmenopausal women [RR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.06 to 1.25, I2 = 0.0%, n = 14].
The investigators found calcium supplements significantly increased the risk of coronary heart disease with 16% in healthy postmenopausal women [RR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.28, I2 = 0.0%, n = 9].
The investigators found in the subgroup meta-analysis, dietary calcium intake of 700-1000 mg per day or supplementary calcium intake of 1000 mg per day significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease.
The investigators concluded that the use of calcium supplements (1000 mg per day) is significantly associated with the increased risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease by 15%, specifically in postmenopausal women. These findings should be explicitly confirmed by conducting further RCTs with cardiovascular disease outcome measures as well as the incidence of osteoporosis or fractures as the primary endpoints.
Original title:
Calcium Supplements and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials by Myung SK, Kim HB, […], Oh SW.
Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33530332/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on calcium consumption, elderly and cardiovascular diseases right here.