what does too much calcium do to your body

Calcium can accumulate in our bodies where it doesn't belong. Is too much calcium intake to arraign?

Calcium is the most plentiful mineral in the human trunk. Almost all of it — 99% — is stored in the skeleton, where information technology serves to maintain healthy bones and teeth. But that'south non all it does. Calcium is also essential for the normal operation of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. Tiny amounts are dissolved in the fluid within and outside every cell in the body. Besides much or as well little calcium tin can be deadly to those cells, so the body carefully controls its blood levels.

Occasionally, however, calcium buildup in soft tissues can cause medical problems or skew test results. For example, even if your claret calcium levels are normal, calcium deposits called calcifications may accrue at the site of tissue damage. Women who develop these deposits or other calcium accumulations (kidney stones, for instance) may wonder whether they've been taking in too much of the mineral — in the form of supplements for bone health, amid other things. Do they have skillful reason to worry nigh that?

In general, the answer is "no." Researchers oasis't identified whatever direct links betwixt calcium intake (via food or supplements) and soft tissue aggregating. So how does calcium become deposited beyond the bones? Here'south what nosotros know and so far.

Breast calcifications

Calcifications in chest tissue are found in about l% of women over age fifty and 10% of younger women. In that location are no symptoms; you become aware of them but when mammography reveals white spots or flecks of diverse shapes and sizes. Virtually are beneficial, but some occur in conjunction with breast cancer, and then a radiologist must determine whether a biopsy or further testing is needed.

Beneficial breast calcifications can class every bit a response to injury. When any part of the chest is damaged — by surgery, radiation, trauma, infection, or a cyst — fat cells dice, releasing fatty acids that combine with calcium to class deposits. For example, calcification may occur along the seat chugalug line after an accident (see photo) or in an area that has been irradiated to treat breast cancer.

Breast calcification due to injury

This mammogram shows benign calcifications in the breast of a woman who was in a machine accident and sustained a seat chugalug injury.

Photograph courtesy of Dr. Tanya W. Stephens, M.D., Anderson Cancer Heart

Calcifications tin can also occur in the glandular tissue where milk is produced (the lobules) and in the ducts that acquit milk to the nipple. Even when you lot're not pregnant or breastfeeding, the lobules secrete small amounts of calcium-containing fluid. If that calcium crystallizes, information technology may show upward on a mammogram. Calcifications in the lobules are sometimes widespread, but almost always benign. Calcifications in the ducts, on the other hand, are occasionally a sign of preinvasive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

There are several reasons for the connexion between calcifications and breast cancer. In DCIS, for example, cancer cells in the heart of the ducts can die because they lack access to blood and nutrients, leaving a calcified line along the path of the duct. Calcifications may also be associated with invasive cancer in areas where cancer cells take died, in damaged connective tissue between cancer cells, and in places where DCIS calcifications are present likewise.

In general, microcalcifications (less than 1 mm across) are more suspicious than macrocalcifications (more than than 2 mm beyond), and tightly clustered deposits more then than more dispersed ones. If your md believes there's whatsoever chance of malignancy, she or he will recommend a biopsy. (The vast bulk turn out to be beneficial.) Other imaging techniques are of express value in visualizing calcifications.

Consumption connection? Calcium intake through diet and supplements is not associated with benign breast calcifications. Moreover, a 2009 study of more than threescore,000 Swedish women found that greater calcium intake did not raise the take chances of breast cancer.

Milk-brine syndrome: Return of an erstwhile problem

Decades ago, ulcer patients were told to eat lots of milk and cream and take sodium bicarbonate (an alkali) to neutralize acid and protect the tum lining. Some of these patients (2% to 18%, depending on the study) developed a life-threatening status called milk alkali syndrome, characterized by high blood calcium, high blood pH, kidney dysfunction, and calcifications of the cornea, lung, and lymph nodes.

The syndrome pretty much disappeared when this ulcer treatment was abandoned, just information technology has re-emerged, mainly amongst women taking loftier doses of calcium carbonate in supplements every bit well as antacids such as Tums, which comprise calcium carbonate. In ane written report, Texas researchers examined the charts of all patients admitted to a university hospital for high calcium levels between 1998 and 2003. After excluding patients with kidney disease and hyperparathyroidism, they institute that milk alkali syndrome was the culprit in 9% of cases overall and 26% of those involving very high blood calcium levels. The syndrome is more probable to occur in people who swallow more than than 2,000 milligrams (mg) per solar day of elemental calcium — that is, the amount of calcium in the supplement rather than the amount of the supplement itself, which is unremarkably calcium carbonate. (A 500-mg tablet of calcium carbonate typically contains 200 mg of elemental calcium.) Also at risk are women who combine loftier-dose calcium with vitamin D to increase its absorption. Dehydration, a chance for women with bulimia or chronic morning sickness, tin as well raise calcium levels by upsetting the blood's acrid-base balance. Read the characterization on your supplement and brand certain you're taking no more than the recommended amount: 1,200 to 1,500 mg of elemental calcium per solar day.

Cardiovascular calcification

Calcium can accumulate in the arterial plaque that develops after an injury to the vessel wall. The plaque is commonly soft to brainstorm with, but eventually tends to harden and become calcified. In addition, blood vessel cells themselves sometimes convert into bone-forming osteoblasts, producing actress calcium on the spot.

Coronary arteries. People with arterial calcifications are more likely to develop middle disease, just it's unclear whether calcified plaque is more than likely than soft plaque to rupture and crusade a centre attack.

The take a chance of coronary avenue disease tin can be predicted past the amount of calcium in the coronary arteries, as measured by CT scanning — fifty-fifty subsequently correction for other heart illness risk factors. Only the American Heart Association does not recommend these heart scans if you tin can tell by your medical history or other chance factors that you are at depression or high gamble for eye illness. If you are at intermediate risk (a 10% to twenty% chance of a center attack in the side by side 10 years), a coronary artery calcium scan may help your doctor decide how aggressively to pursue therapies such as statins.

If y'all develop chest pain, scanning for coronary artery calcium may assistance decide whether heart disease is the cause. Echocardiography — a procedure that uses sound waves to create moving pictures of the chirapsia eye — may reveal calcification of the aortic valve, which profoundly raises the adventure for coronary artery affliction.

Brain-related arteries. In most patients who undergo brain CT scans, for whatever reason, the carotid (neck) and vertebral (spine) arteries prove signs of calcification. These calcifications may exist an independent run a risk gene for stroke: a 2007 study found that calcifications are peculiarly mutual in people who take had a jell-related (ischemic) stroke.

Consumption connexion? Prove is limited, just calcium intake doesn't appear to increase the risk of calcification in coronary arteries. In fact, a high level of calcium in the diet is usually thought to be beneficial to center health, considering it's associated with lower blood pressure and lower weight. Nevertheless, there have been some worrisome findings. Some studies (but non all) have found an increased risk of eye attacks amidst women taking calcium supplements. Researchers involved in xv randomized trials of calcium supplements for various conditions are pooling their information on adverse events among most 12,000 people to look for whatever association.

Vascular calcification in the breast

Breast arterial calcifications (BACs) are common findings on a mammogram (encounter photo) and do not raise the risk of cancer. But could they betoken calcification in other claret vessels, raising the chance of heart disease?

Vascular calcifications in the chest

Calcium lining the claret vessel walls typically has a tracklike advent (see cerise arrows); it'south commonly associated with arteriosclerosis (structural changes in the arterial wall, oftentimes due to historic period).

Photograph courtesy of Dr. Tanya Due west. Stephens, 1000.D., Anderson Cancer Center

Women with BACs do have a higher risk of heart illness, simply research at the University of Connecticut indicates that the presence of BACs does not predict the development of center affliction. Instead, it appears that aging is the common cause of both BACs and heart disease.

Kidney stones

The kidneys are key players in controlling calcium residue. Each 24-hour interval, nigh 10 grams of calcium filter through your kidneys; nearly 1.5% of information technology is excreted in urine and the residuum is reabsorbed. Kidney stones develop when crystals divide from liquid in the urine and form a hard mass. The most common blazon is made of calcium oxalate. According to inquiry at Harvard, people prone to kidney stones excrete about one-3rd more of their calcium intake in urine than people who don't have kidney stones. They may be absorbing more dietary calcium and thus excreting more, or they may be losing calcium from their bodies, which raises their risk for low bone density besides every bit kidney stones.

If yous develop kidney stones and your urine shows high levels of calcium, you may be prescribed a thiazide diuretic to promote the retentiveness of calcium in bone and decrease its release into the urine. If there are loftier levels of calcium in both your claret and your urine, you may be tested for hyperparathyroidism, a disorder that disrupts calcium regulation and raises the risk of kidney stones.

Consumption connection? Many consumer Spider web sites and even some physicians suggest that people who have had kidney stones should lower their calcium intake to prevent a recurrence. They are incorrect. In fact, dietary calcium really appears to reduce rock formation. Researchers at Harvard Medical Schoolhouse reported that women who prefer a DASH-manner diet — a calcium-rich regimen best known for helping to lower blood pressure — have a 40% lower gamble of developing kidney stones. "We're really excited well-nigh the Dash diet every bit a treatment for kidney stones," says Harvard's Dr. Eric Taylor. Dietary calcium has this effect because it binds with oxalic acid (found in spinach, tea, chocolate, and other establish foods) and prevents its absorption in the intestine. This means less oxalic acid for the kidneys to process and a lower risk of developing calcium oxalate kidney stones.

Calcium in joints and tendons

The synovial fluid inside your joints contains calcium, and so does the cartilage lining the joints. When that calcium crystallizes, the resulting tiny shards clothing away the articulation surface and spur the release of enzymes that further suspension downward cartilage. Calcium-containing crystals are found in 60% of knee joints undergoing replacement surgery for osteoarthritis.

Calcium can besides accrue in tendons — particularly the rotator cuff tendons of the shoulder — creating a status called calcific tendinitis. The accumulation seems to occur where in that location is some kind of tissue impairment or cellular alter, although traumatic injury or overuse is non necessarily involved. The effects depend on the number, location, and size of the calcifications. Sometimes they cause no symptoms at all, but they can get inflamed, causing considerable shoulder pain and limited range of move. Calcific tendinitis is treated with anti-inflammatory medications, moist heat, or water ice to relieve hurting and physical therapy to maintain range of move.

Unlike calcifications in other parts of the torso, tendon deposits are occasionally broken up and removed with a needle or by surgery (arthroscopic or open).

Consumption connection? Except in certain rare metabolic disturbances that heighten claret calcium, calcification of joints and tendons is a local process that'due south not influenced by calcium intake.

As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides admission to our library of archived content. Please note the appointment of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your md or other qualified clinician.

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Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/calcium-beyond-the-bones

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