Calcium and Vitamin D: The Dynamic Duo Of Bone Health

Why Taking the Right Combo Of Vitamins and Minerals Is Important

It is not just about taking dietary supplements. To get optimum health benefits from your supplementation regime, you need to take them the right way. For example, while taking calcium is good for your bones, calcium and vitamin D combo is often advised by health experts. Why?

Because, you need vitamin D to help your bones hold on to the calcium. Some like to call it synergy: the effect of individual ingredients working together. A recent study found that calcium and vitamin D supplementation can cut fracture risks in older adults.

A new analysis on the effects of vitamin D on bone health shows that it cuts fracture risk in older adults, but only when taken with calcium supplements.

The review of nearly 50 studies on vitamin D -- present in a small number of foods and produced naturally in the skin with sun exposure -- by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) also indicates that it's too soon to tell if vitamin D supplements can help prevent cancer.

Report author Mei Chung, assistant director of the Evidence-based Practice Center at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said she wasn't able to advise specific recommended doses based on the review, which concluded that a daily vitamin D regimen of between 300 and 1,100 international units (IUs) combined with 500 to 1,200 milligrams (mg) of calcium reduces fracture risk in those over 65.

"I think vitamin D likely has more benefits than we currently know and also [presents] little harm," said Dr. Robert Graham, a vitamin D researcher and internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who did not participate in the USPSTF report, published Dec. 20 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. See original story

Another example of synergy in nutritional supplements is that of calcium and magnesium. In fact, for calcium and vitamin D to work properly, you also need magnesium. Magnesium is essential because it helps your body absorb calcium and absorb vitamin D. Yes, it can sound like trying to put together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. You can simplify it all just by choosing a high quality bone supplement.

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