New Research Indicates That Calcium Supplementation with or without Vitamin D is Far More Dangerous than Previously Thought

This post is a brief update to more extensive material found here, here, and here.

Previous research has indicated that calcium supplementation alone, ostensibly to prevent osteoporosis, caused a 17% increase in heart attacks. It was thought that adding Vitamin D would tend to offset the heart attack risk. New research seems to indicate that this is not the case. In a large experiment in Norway, reported here, people supplementing with calcium and vitamin D experienced a significant decrease in fractures, but a commensurate increase in strokes and heart attacks. Specifically, for 100,000 healthy women in their sixties, there were around 8000 fewer fractures, but about 8000 more strokes and heart attacks.

Which would you prefer? Of course you don’t have to choose. There is an easy way to avoid both.

How to Avoid Osteoporosis and Reduce Heart Attack and Stroke Risk

This is so simple and effective it is practically a crime that it is not universally prescribed. There are two steps:

• Throw the calcium pills away. Unless you get a fair amount of sun, you may need the vitamin D. If the pills contain both, throw them away and get pills that have only vitamin D.
• Twice a week, do squats and deadlifts with weight. How much weight? As much as you can manage and still maintain 100% correct form. Do something like three sets of ten squats on Monday and three sets of ten deadlifts on Friday.

For something like 95% of the population, the above prescription will not only prevent osteoporosis, it will reverse it. (The calcium pills only slow it down.)

The net effect is you will end up with far fewer fractures.

Look at this video here to see the perfect form for squats. And this one for deadlifts.

It is best to do this at a gym, and best to get a trainer to show you how to do them correctly. Learn the form absolutely perfectly, as these exercises should be done for the rest of your life.

The reason this works is that these exercises slightly compress and distort the big bones. That signals the body to grow new bone, and that is exactly what happens. Detail on that can be found here.

An extensive case study can be found here.

And of course, exercise, especially the “right exercise,” sharply reduces the incidence of stroke and heart attack. And squats and deadlifts are both charter members of the “right exercise” club.

You can get a lot more benefit with more exercise, say two 45 minute intense session per week. But, you can prevent and reverse osteoporosis with squats and deadlifts alone. This can be done in about 10 minutes a week. No pain, lots of gain.