Calcium Intake Does Not Improve Bone Health in Older Adults

Increasing calcium intake—whether through dietary calcium or calcium supplements—does not improve bone density and fracture risk in older adults, according to 2 recent studies.

Current guidelines advise the consumption of 1000-1200 mg of calcium per day in older men and women, both for the prevention of fractures and the improvement of bone density, but little data is available on the effects such supplementation actually has on bone health.
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In order to evaluate the efficacy of calcium supplementation, researchers analyzed data from randomized controlled trials and observational studies including men and women over 50 years old.

In the first study, including data from 59 trials and 13,790 participants, researchers found that increasing calcium intake from dietary sources improved bone mineral density by 0.6% to 1.0% in the hip and total body after 1 year and 0.7%-1.8% at the hip, total body, lumbar spine and femoral neck at 2 years.¹ Calcium supplements increase bone mineral density by 0.7%-1.8% at all 5 skeletal sites at 1 and 2 years.

“Increasing calcium intake from dietary sources or by taking calcium supplements produces small non-progressive increases in BMD, which are unlikely to lead to a clinically significant reduction in risk of fracture,” the researchers concluded.¹

In the second study, researchers examined data from 2 studies of dietary sources of calcium (n=262) and 44 studies of dietary of the relationship between dietary calcium (n=37), milk (n-14) or dairy intake (n=8) and fractures. ²

Overall, “dietary calcium intake is not associated with risk of fracture, and there is no clinical trial evidence that increasing calcium intake from dietary sources prevents fractures,” they concluded. “Evidence that calcium supplements prevent fractures is weak and inconsistent.”²

“Collectively, these results suggest that clinicians, advocacy organizations, and health policymakers should not recommend increasing calcium intake for fracture prevention, either with calcium supplements or through dietary sources.”²

—Michael Potts

References:
1. Tai V, Leung W, Grey A, et al. Calcium intake and bone mineral density: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2015;351:h4183.

2. Bolland MJ, Leung W, Tai V, et al. Calcium intake and risk of fracture: systematic review. BMJ. 2015;351:h4580.