Vitamin D appears more important than high calcium for bones

Consuming more than 800 mg of calcium per day may be unnecessary for bone health if the body has enough vitamin D, say Icelandic researchers.

Using food consumption records from more than 900 adults, the researchers determined that sufficient vitamin D levels can ensure an ideal level of parathyroid hormone (PTH) - a measure of calcium metabolism - even when calcium intake is less than 800 mg per day.

But consuming more than 1200 mg of calcium daily is not enough to maintain ideal PTH if the vitamin D status is insufficient.

The study is part of a growing body of work that points to the important role of vitamin D, and not just calcium alone, in bone health.

The new study, published in today’s issue of JAMA (vol 294, no 18, pp2336-2341), underlines the need to do further work on the RDA for this vitamin.

Courtesy of nutraingredients.com