Yesterday a new study published in the journal Heart rocked the world of "natural" medicine by declaring that people who rely on calcium supplements instead of calcium-rich foods may also be upping their chances for a heart attack. The study looked at data on 23,980 European adults who had previously not had any major cardiovascular problems and followed up on that data 11 years later. Ultimately the study's authors concluded that folks who got their calcium from supplements were much more likely to have suffered a heart attack than study participants who got their calcium from foods.
In a follow-up article, printed as an editorial in the same journal, the study's authors urged caution for people who take calcium supplements. And they stressed that pills--no matter how "natural" they may be--are not substitutes for a healthy diet. In fact, they put it this way, "It is now becoming clear that taking this micronutrient in one or two daily [doses] is not natural, in that it does not reproduce the same metabolic effects as calcium in food."
As you might expect, the criticism isn't sitting well with the companies that make calcium supplements. Almost immediately after the study hit the newswires the Council for Responsible Nutrition went ballistic and issued a press release criticizing the study and encouraging supplement users to think for themselves.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition sounds like it belongs in a university somewhere but it's actually just a trade group that represents the interests of companies which make supplements and the companies that manufacture the raw ingredients for such products. In its press release the "council" criticized the study, pointing out that the study wasn't specifically designed to look at heart attacks and stressing that calcium has long been recognized as a mineral vital to strong bones.
The problem with the CRN's position, though, is that this is by no means the first study to link calcium supplements to poorer heart health. Just last year these same authors linked calcium supplements to higher rates of heart problems in post-menopausal women.

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