"Doctor, do you need to eat vitamin D in addition to calcium tablets?"
There is a patient in the outpatient clinic who consults this problem, she usually likes to watch health TV programs, and often reads popular science articles on her mobile phone, and is interested in the knowledge of calcium supplementation, so she specially comes to consult the precautions for calcium supplementation. She asked this question very well, many patients know that calcium supplementation is important, but do not know to supplement vitamin D, in addition to vitamin D, in fact, there are 2 kinds of vitamins are also very important for calcium supplementation.
In an aging society, the problem of osteoporosis is prominent
As the mainland enters an aging society, almost every family or everyone will have one or two elderly people around them. The elderly will be prone to illness when they are old, and one of the diseases that threatens the health and quality of life of the elderly is osteoporosis, so how to prevent osteoporosis is becoming more and more important in the mainland today. Once osteoporosis occurs, any fall can lead to fractures, which is likely to be a disastrous consequence for the elderly.
When it comes to the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, it is naturally inseparable from calcium supplementation, calcium supplementation is the most basic measure for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, in reality, although many elderly people insist on eating calcium tablets for a long time, they still suffer from osteoporosis, or the original osteoporosis is still further aggravated. In fact, many people in the calcium supplement at the same time, ignored the following 3 vitamins, so will make calcium supplementation half the work, today we come together to see what it is.
Calcium supplementation is inseparable from vitamin D
Careful friends should find that most calcium tablets now have a D in their names, such as calcium D, calcium carbonate D3, etc., in fact, this D is vitamin D. A large number of studies have found that vitamin D has an important impact on calcium and phosphorus metabolism and bone health, the main role of vitamin D in the human body is to promote the absorption of calcium and phosphorus in the intestine, its active metabolites in vivo also directly act on osteoblasts, promote bone formation and inhibit bone resorption.
If vitamin D is deficient, even if the body has more calcium supplemented by exogenous sources, it is difficult for the body to absorb and utilize it. In daily life, 80% of the body's vitamin D can be obtained through sun exposure, so it is not a bad thing to properly expose the skin to ultraviolet rays. Nowadays, many people always like to stay at home, or apply a lot of sunscreen to avoid sunscreen when going out, which can easily lead to vitamin D deficiency.
In addition to vitamin D, calcium supplementation also requires vitamin K2 and vitamin C
1. Vitamin K2
Vitamin K2, also known as menaquinone, is a member of the vitamin K family. The main physiological role of vitamin K2 is to participate in bone metabolism, which can make the calcium absorbed in the body deposited in the bone, and promote the differentiation and formation of osteoblasts, improve the function of osteoblasts, and also inhibit osteoclasts and reduce bone resorption.
If vitamin K2 is deficient, there is also a risk of osteoporosis, which can also lead to hardening of the arteries and calcification of the heart valves. In daily life, vitamin K2 is mainly supplemented by food, such as yogurt, natto and other fermented foods, because the intestinal flora can also synthesize vitamin K, so maintaining intestinal health is also an important measure to prevent vitamin K deficiency.
2. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is well known for many physiological effects, such as improving the body's immunity, correcting anemia, detoxification, antioxidant aging, etc., but at the same time vitamin C also has an impact on bones. Although vitamin C does not directly promote the absorption of calcium, it is an important reducing agent, which plays an important role in bone salt metabolism and bone production, vitamin C can promote the deposition of calcium salts in bones and stimulate the growth and development of osteoblasts.
In addition, vitamin C is also recognized as an important element in the formation and maintenance of bone collagen, which can maintain the normal movement of human joints, avoid abnormal noise and pain during joint movement, and prevent joint degeneration. There are many sources of vitamin C in the calendar life, and fresh vegetables and fruits are all important sources of vitamin C.
epilogue
Therefore, those who need to prevent and treat osteoporosis and other patients who need calcium supplementation, please be sure to pay attention to whether the body will lack the above three vitamins, otherwise it will go into the misunderstanding of simple calcium supplementation, resulting in no effect of calcium supplementation.
bibliography:
[1] Consensus on clinical application of vitamin D and its analogues
Zhou Jianlie,Chen Jiepeng,Duan Lili,et al. Research progress on the mechanism of action of vitamin K2 (MK-7) in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis[J].Chinese Journal of Osteoporosis,2019,25(4):539-544.
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