"You are deficient in calcium, just eat more calcium tablets."
This morning, Uncle Zhang used to go downstairs in the community to play tai chi, during which he told his old friend Uncle Liu that he had been having leg cramps in the middle of the night recently, and he was often woken up by pain, and he couldn't sleep after waking up, which made him troubled.
After listening to it, Uncle Liu directly said that he must be deficient in calcium, and it would be good to buy some calcium tablets to supplement it. Then the uncle followed the advice and went home to supplement calcium, and after eating for a period of time, not only did the symptoms of cramps not ease, but he got urinary stones. This made Uncle Zhang very uncomfortable, how did he supplement calcium and make up new problems?
01
Research: blind calcium supplementation,
or increase the risk of multiple vascular pathologies
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand published a study in BMJ, in which researchers randomly surveyed 1472 women aged >55. Participants were divided into calcium supplementation and placebo groups, and participants were followed for 5 years, with an average of semi-annual examinations and adverse events recorded.
The results found that 31 participants in the calcium supplement group had a heart attack and 21 in the placebo group, with the former having a higher chance of heart disease, stroke and sudden death. In this regard, researchers believe that blind intake of calcium may cause damage to vascular health.
Similarly, Johns Hopkins University in the United States has previously done a similar study, researchers surveyed more than 2700 men and women for 10 years, and found that taking calcium supplements may increase the accumulation of plaque in the coronary arteries, hinder blood flow, and increase the risk of heart attack.
Xu Dingli, chief physician of the Department of Cardiology of Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University, also said that for people suffering from cardiovascular disease, blind calcium supplementation may lead to an increase in calcium content in vascular smooth muscle cells, which in turn will induce problems such as arteriosclerosis and arterial vasospasm, and even induce myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction in serious cases.
02
Sudden cramps when sleeping, indicating that the body is deficient in calcium?
I believe that many people have experienced cramps, and the sourness is beyond words! Some people say that sudden cramps in sleep are due to calcium deficiency, is this really the case?
Clinically, cramps are referred to as leg muscle spasms, which refer to the involuntary tightening of muscles, inducing severe pain.
When the body is deficient in calcium, it does cause cramps, but calcium deficiency is not the only cause of cramps. We cannot conversely say that cramps must be caused by calcium deficiency, which is unscientific. There are many causes of cramps, such as improper sleeping position, cold, overwork, etc., and may also be related to diseases.
If the frequency of cramps in sleep is too high and the pain is long, it may be a sign of the following 3 diseases and need attention:
- Arteriosclerotic occlusion of the lower extremities
Patients have atherosclerosis or occlusion of the arteries of the lower extremities, and symptoms of leg cramps in the early stage, and more frequent attacks during activity. As the course of the disease progresses, the number of seizures will gradually increase and last longer and longer. Along with cramps, there are numbness, chills, and intermittent claudication.
- The disc at the waist is prominent
Lumbar disc herniation can easily lead to compression of nerve roots in the lower extremities, which in turn causes spasms of the calf muscles.
- Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's patients may frequently experience muscle spasms due to brain lesions that give wrong instructions to cause muscles to contract abnormally.
So how do sleep cramps ease quickly? Teach you 2 methods:
- Stretching: When cramping, the calf muscles will spasm and shrink into a ball, at this time, you can endure the pain to straighten the calf and straighten the muscles in the opposite direction;
- Massage: Pain can also be relieved by massaging contracted muscles, massage can help expel excess creatine, lactic acid, promote blood circulation, and relieve cramps.
03
Reasonable calcium supplementation, starting from these 4 details
Speaking of calcium supplementation, many people's first reaction is to drink bone broth, but in fact, the effect of bone broth calcium supplementation is not good. Most of the calcium in bone broth exists in the form of hydroxyapatite crystals that are insoluble in water, which need to be released with various hormones in the human body. Studies have found that some calcium in bone broth is less than 1/10 of milk, and also contains a lot of fat, drinking a large amount of bone broth not only can not supplement calcium, but also may cause the body to gain weight. Therefore, drinking bone broth does not supplement calcium at all. To supplement calcium reasonably, we must start with these 4 details.
1. The amount of calcium supplement meets the standard, do not exceed the standard
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents, adults should consume 800mg of calcium per day; Women should consume 1000-1200 mg of calcium per day in the second trimester. All populations did not consume more than 2,000 mg of calcium per day.
2. Scientific calcium supplementation is the preferred dietary supplement
Many of our common foods are rich in calcium, such as milk, eggs, spinach, oil wheat and broccoli, etc., you can eat more of these foods every day, and you can also appropriately increase the intake of soy products, fish and shrimp foods.
3. Different groups of people choose different calciums
Under the premise that dietary supplements cannot meet the body's needs, calcium supplements can be selected. Infants and young children are recommended to choose calcium with vitamin D supplementation; Children are advised to choose sugar-free calcium; Pregnant women are advised to choose calcium containing sorbitol, which can help prevent constipation; Middle-aged and elderly people can choose calcium supplemented with vitamin D and vitamin K to help prevent osteoporosis.
4. Go outdoors and exercise
Exercise promotes calcium deposition in the bones and allows the body to supplement vitamin D, which is a great help for the body to absorb calcium.
Calcium is indeed important for the human body, but it cannot be supplemented blindly. Under normal circumstances, calcium can meet the daily intake of the human body through food supplements, in fact, there is no need for additional calcium supplementation. If you really don't know whether your intake is sufficient, whether to take extra calcium to supplement calcium, it is recommended to go to the hospital for an examination first, and then supplement as appropriate for calcium deficiency, do not blindly supplement.
Resources:
[1] "Everyone who supplements a lot of calcium should beware: your cardiovascular system may be "overwhelmed". Life Times.2020-07-12
[2] "Pain Hurts! Calves often cramp, don't be careless! Beware of the "warning" that the body emits...". Popular Science China.2021-09-18
[3] "Calcium supplementation is easy to absorb and difficult, if you don't understand these, you are wasting!" Calcium supplement: Remember these points! 》. Health Times.2021-04-08
Source: From 39 Health Network WeChat public account
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