Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group medication alert

Okay, so I had a visit with my Rheumy the other day. The first thing he says to me is "are you still taking calcium"? STOP!! New alert, no more calcium suppliments, they have been proven to cause hear attacks. Have you noticed lately the suppliments and vitamin companies pushing big sales on calcium???? That's why, they want to sell as much as they can before it hits the news and calcium should be pulled off the shelves.

Cindy

Wow are you for real?
Scary if that is so.

Cindy, thank you for this information. My friend has been stating to her doctors for years now that her high calcium is causing heart problems - my levels is also high (but near as bad as hers). They put a pacemaker in to try and control her heart rate (last week I thought she was having a heart attack - her BP and heart rate were so aratic). As we both suspect M.E.N.s (Multiple Endrocrine Neoplasia for her type 1 and a doctor's suggestion for me of M.E.N. type 2a), and having multiple cysts on different Endocrine system organs our Calcium is already elevated. Adding more calcium is causing our problems to worsen. With this info I am hoping my friend and I, with her info, she has collected, I hope we can get the help we need from our respective doctors.

Hugs
Gerri & Makaylah

I had heard years ago that you had to be careful with calcium, as well as magnesium and another mineral (can't remember which) because if you got the balance wrong with them, then one could end up leaching out and replacing another in your body. I know the calcium-magnesium balance is particularly important to keep the ratio right. My mother was also warned about not overdoing calcium while she was taking bis drugs.

I think its like any supplements - you do need to be careful if you are taking in more than your body needs and can deal with. Some things just get excreted if you don't need them, but other things do damage in too large a quantity. Even the things you excrete put unnecessary extra workload on kidneys.

Cindy,

I'm not sure which study your doctor was referring to. The one that came out around last October talked about the dangers of vitamins. I found the following article helpful in sorting through the ins/outs of the study.

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n10.shtml

I rely on my calcium/magnesium/zinc combo supplement and my vitamin C/potassium powder to keep my muscle cramping at bay. I no longer have to take my Rx muscle relaxer "cyclobenzaprine" because these vitamins have helped me so much. The cyclo was causing muscle fatigue in my large muscles as a negative side effect the morning after taking it. The vitamins have shown no ill side effects for me. There is a positive side effect of keeping my digestion more regular though. I believe the magnesium helps with this.

I have had such bad luck with conventional prescription drugs (nsaids-shredded guts, steroids-high bp, enbrel-stopped my heart) that I have had to research and rely on vitamin therapy. I continue to do research on the vitamins and supplements that I take because they are very powerful and can be very dangerous if taken at incorrect levels. Too little and you get no benefit, too much and bad things can happen. My advice: do your research. And get information from several different sides of the spectrum to balance out the "everyone has an agenda" issue.

Hoping you all have a wonderful day.
-Donette

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for posting this, used to take long time ago. Not anymore.

Seems there is always something new popping up, and then sometimes changes afterwards.

Take care,

Tim

Your right Tim! Something changes everyday.

interesting? do you have any links to articles that we can read?

last visit with my rheumy, he told me that a bit less calcium may be better than what they originally were thinking. too much causing the same problem as too little. but he didn't have specifics, had just seen the info.

then i go to the endocrinologist. she flips out at how much vitamin D the other doctors have been telling me to take. tells me stats that sound wrong from everything i've read, from what all my other doctors have said.

so i had to go research this on my own. the information both doctors were referring to came out of this report. its over 1000 pages long, so obviously i didn't read the whole thing. but did read the chapters to decide how much of each to take and for the D, what blood levels were good. after reading this, i did knock back my calcium a little, and am more cautious about overdoing the vit D, but i did get the impression that both are important, just at lower doses perhaps.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13050&page=R1

here's a short summary: http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2010/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Calcium-and-Vitamin-D/Vitamin%20D%20and%20Calcium%202010%20Report%20Brief.pdf

but maybe more information will come out still and i'll have to continue to rethink things.

as donette said, its all a balancing act!

thanks for the information cindy.


i'm also researching vit E (and vit C) more again. new info coming out making me reconsider. the book, "the end of illness" is making me question what i am doing . not to the point of not doing it, but its always good to be made to think and decide. maybe for people in good health, maybe diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation alone is enough. but for me, i may need the supplements. its just not so cut and dry. the human body is complex, thus not surprising that this is a complex topic.

PS as i suspected, even this correlation between calcium and heart attacks not so cut and dry. that simple statement just doesn't seem to be that simple. its more complicated than that. and not a one size fits all solution:

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20110419/calcium-supplements-may-increase-heart-risk

Thanks for the info. I never take calcium My old dr told me to eat 2 tums a day and that would give me enough calcium .

Just wanted to let you guys know, there is no articles out yet that's how new these findings are. As you know the drug companies have to be able to unload as much as they can before findings are made public.