The Nugent Report is hosted by Dr. Steve Nugent, a renowned psychologist, author, public speaker and expert on science, health, wellness and nutrition. Dr. Nugent’s mission with this podcast is to provide objective information about a variety of topics in wellness and nutrition, as well as to increase public awareness of health and nutrition in relation to the realities of the modern diet and dietary needs vs. 21st Century stresses and the environment. He got his start in radio during his days as a Marine and has trained in electronic journalism, television, technical direction and more.
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The Nugent Report is hosted by Dr. Steve Nugent, a renowned psychologist, author, public speaker and expert on science, health, wellness and nutrition. Dr. Nugent’s mission with this podcast is to provide objective information about a variety of topics in wellness and nutrition, as well as to increase public awareness of health and nutrition in relation to the realities of the modern diet and dietary needs vs. 21st Century stresses and the environment. He got his start in radio during his days as a Marine and has trained in electronic journalism, television, technical direction and more.
Are calcium supplements dangerous?
Hello, my friends welcome to another episode of The Nugent Report, I’m Dr. Steve Nugent.
This episode is dedicated to calcium but it’s an entirely different approach than what you expected. For more than half a century people all over the world have been told “women need more calcium”. It is true that women need more calcium than men, however it is not universally true that women need calcium supplementation, in fact the majority of women consuming the modern diet don’t need calcium supplementation.
All of my subscribers know that the Nugent report is objective reporting about science and health and that means no bias and we don’t care about groupthink. The phrase “Everybody knows” is not science. Scientific knowledge is growing at such tremendous speed that it’s impossible for any single human being to keep up with. On the Nugent report we simply try to eat this elephant one bite at a time.
In this episode of the Nugent report you’re going to learn some things about calcium that may not only surprise you, they may shock you.
Here are just a few of the questions that we will address in this episode…
Are you getting too much calcium?
How is calcium absorbed and utilized?
Is calcium just for bones?
Are there foods rich in Calcium besides dairy?
Do calcium supplements prevent weak bones and fractures?
What are the risks with excess calcium supplementation?
People have been told for more than a century that you need calcium for strong healthy bones. This statement is correct. The average person however does not that healthy bones require much more than calcium, and the average person does not know that if you have too little magnesium or vitamin D that calcium will either calcified in your body or be excreted in urine which can lead to kidney stones.
Both the food and food supplement industries have been pushing the idea that women need more calcium. Once again it is true that women require more than men but only about 30% of women have a need for calcium supplementation above and beyond what’s in the modern diet. Too much calcium presents potential health problems. That’s the kind of thing that I want to convey to you. Under the heading of integrative health is a psychologist I also need to point out that human beings have a need to have virtually any topic reduced to the simplest common denominator. The one-size-fits-all approach is always more welcome than an approach that requires complex analysis. The fact is, the one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to calcium supplementation is not accurate and not a good idea.
For more details on how magnesium and vitamin D play a role in the absorption and utilization of calcium I would invite you to listen to my podcasts from my series on magnesium and vitamin D. “Science marches on” as I’m so fond of saying and things change.
When I first learned the basics of clinical nutrition it was many decades ago and unfortunately the overwhelming majority of practitioners today are still putting that decades old information and are not aware of more recent scientific study that contradicts some of what we used to believe was true.
Let’s begin with what calcium is needed for before we go on to the other questions. Calcium is an essential mineral meaning that your body must have it but cannot make it within your body, so it must be supplied to your body from an external source. The most preferable source would be food and in some cases food supplements. Science is showing us that some nutrients need to be supplemented because the modern diet supplies insufficient levels whereas with some nutrients this is not yet the case.
Even before the food industry began fortifying foods with calcium in order to sell more pr...
The Nugent Report
The Nugent Report is hosted by Dr. Steve Nugent, a renowned psychologist, author, public speaker and expert on science, health, wellness and nutrition. Dr. Nugent’s mission with this podcast is to provide objective information about a variety of topics in wellness and nutrition, as well as to increase public awareness of health and nutrition in relation to the realities of the modern diet and dietary needs vs. 21st Century stresses and the environment. He got his start in radio during his days as a Marine and has trained in electronic journalism, television, technical direction and more.
