Should you take Calcium Supplements? Ask the Swedes!

How much Calcium is good for you? You might want to know about a recently published Swedish study by Karl Michaëlsson, MD, PhD, professor in medical epidemiology and senior consultant in orthopedic surgery at Uppsala University in Sweden. Dr. Michaëlsson and his colleagues report in an article published online February 13 in the BMJ, that “high rates of calcium intake were associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular death rates but not with deaths from stroke”. This is the latest in a series of controversial studies connecting calcium intake and cardiovascular events. A National Institutes of Health–sponsored study, published early February 2013, reported that a high intake of supplemental calcium resulted in an increased risk for death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in men, but not women. This Swedish study suggests that in Swedish women, calcium intake of >1400 mg/day was associated