I have mild osteoporosis, and my doctor has prescribed that I take at least 1200 mg of calcium per day. She also wants to see me taking at least 800 IU of vitamin D along with it. However, I have been aware for some time that other minerals are instrumental in maintaining bone health. Magnesium is an important mineral that most people are deficient in, and without magnesium, calcium is not properly absorbed. Vitamin K is also needed in small quantities for bone health, along with zinc and boron. Phosphorus is a very important mineral associated with bone mineralization, but it is so abundant in the foods we eat that it is not necessary to supplement it. A quick study of essential minerals for bone health on the Internet has confirmed these findings to me. Common knowledge would have it that calcium citrate as well as other formations of calcium are superior to calcium carbonate, but studies published on the Internet tell me that this is not necessarily true. For most people, all forms of calcium are metabolized OK.
From reading other peoples' commentaries, it seems that people take calcium for many different reasons, and have different reactions to the calcium they take. In general, the body will not absorb more than 500 mg of calcium in one dose. So, when taking doses of calcium, it is well to split it into several doses per day, taken with food. Most adults only require 1000 mg of calcium per day, but aging women need at least 1200 mg of calcium per day. Magnesium is dosed at about one half the number of milligrams of calcium that you take. So if you take 500 mg of calcium, it should be accompanied by vitamin D as well as 250 mg of magnesium. Vitamin K and the other micronutrients are well to have combined with your calcium supplement if you are taking it for bone health. While I am on the subject of osteoporosis, although it is prevalent in women, men also get it. If you are a man, I would suggest that you have yourself tested for bone density from time to time, especially if you suffer from spinal pain. I have one male friend who developed osteoporosis at a young age: 35 years old. My father suffered greatly from bone disintegration in his spine during his old-age, and when it was too late to do anything about it, it was found that he had osteoporosis.
With this in mind, I picked out four different cocktails of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D from what Amazon had to offer, and in this review I will discuss the pros and cons of each one.
Nature Made brand has a supplement called Calcium Magnesium Zinc with Vitamin D in a jar containing 300 tablets. This bottle costed $16.95. I would require 4 tablets per day to get sufficient calcium for my osteoporosis, making the cost per day of this supplement to be $.23. The serving size for calcium is 333 mg per tablet, which is within the recommended dose for adequate absorption. The ratio of calcium to magnesium is less than 2:1, so there is less magnesium per tablet then I would like to see. Each tablet also contains 200 IU of vitamin D3, so if I took four of these I would receive 800 IU of vitamin D, which is just what the doctor ordered. As far as composition goes, the calcium is in carbonate form, the magnesium is in oxide form, and in addition there is 5 mg of zinc sulfate.
Magnesium and calcium are both VERY bulky minerals. That is why there is not a sufficient amount of these minerals in your daily vitamin. You have a choice: in order to get enough of these minerals you need to either take several very large tablets daily, or lots of little ones. Nature Made opted for offering their supplement in very large tablets, which would result in doses that are hard to swallow. I would rate this supplement as being sort of average. It does not offer extra micronutrients, and the calcium and magnesium are in their cheapest forms. It would certainly be adequate as a daily supplement, but you would have to choke down the large pills, and live without the extra bells and whistles that some of the other brands might provide.
Country Life brand has a supplement called Calcium Magnesium Complex in a 90 tablet bottle. This costs $7. To achieve my target of 1200 mg of calcium per day I would need to take three tablets, making the cost per day out to be $.23 per day. Country Life also chose to compound their supplement into a small number of large tablets per day. One tablet provides 500 mg of calcium, which is within the limit that your body can absorb in one meal, and the calcium is in the form of hydroxyapatite, citrate, aspertate, and a couple of less common compounds. It also contains phosphorus, which is unnecessary, and magnesium in the form of oxide, citrate, taurinate, and a couple of other compounds. There is no vitamin D included, so an additional vitamin D supplement would need to be taken at the same time. There are no micronutrients in the supplement, which may or may not be a good thing. Micronutrients in the form of minerals can pile up in your system if you get too many, and cause an unusual poisoning. So, you need to calculate carefully how many micronutrients you get not only from your calcium supplement but also from your daily vitamin. You really do not want to exceed 100% of your daily value. Since this supplement lacks vitamin D, I am not sure if it is a good one to take. If you decided to take it, you should shop carefully for vitamin D in a very small dosage so that you could take one of them every time you took one of the mineral supplements. By the way, there is some evidence that vitamin D is good for you at even higher dosages than 800 mg per day. I am not sure where the top is, so I would not recommend taking multiple supplements of vitamin D at a very high level, but perhaps 1600 IU of vitamin D per day would be beneficial, but I wouldn't take any more than that.
Schiff brand supplements offer Super Calcium Magnesium with 800 IU vitamin D in 90 softgels. This bottle costs $5.99. It requires three softgels to achieve 1200 mg of calcium per day, making the cost per day out to be $.20 per day. This brand also has opted for several large doses rather than many small doses. However, it comes in the form of softgels, that may be easier to swallow. The calcium and magnesium ratio is 3:1, and I would prefer to see more magnesium so that the ratio would be 2:1. The three softgels provide 800 IU of vitamin D, which is just what the doctor ordered. Also included is 3 mg of boron. The calcium is in the form of calcium carbonate, the magnesium is in the form of magnesium oxide, and the boron is a glysinate. There is no vitamin K or Zink, so I would rate this supplement as being adequate but not fantastic.
Jarrow Formulas offers a supplement called Bone-Up, that has a number of vitamins and minerals in it. 240 capsules costs $16.95. To reach my target of 1200 mg of calcium per day I would have to take seven capsules, making the cost per day to be $.50. This is the most expensive of the supplements I have examined by far. On the other hand, the supplements break the dosages down to smaller sizes so that the individual capsules that you take would be easier to swallow. Because of the large number of capsules that you would need to take per day, it would be well to apportion them out between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is also the most aggressive supplement that I have looked at, since it holds doses of vitamin C, vitamin K, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, and boron in addition to the calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D that I am looking for. The calcium is in the form of microcrystalline hydroxyapatite, the magnesium is in the form of an oxide, and the trace minerals account for 67% to 3% of your daily value, so you might want to have a look at your daily vitamin constituents to make sure that you are not overdosing on trace minerals. One thing of note is that the vitamin D is in a larger dose than in the other vitamins, coming in at 1000 IU per day. The ratio of calcium to magnesium is 2:1, which is ideal from my point of view.
Taking all these points into consideration, which supplement would I be happiest with?
Although it is the most expensive, the Jarrow formula seems to have the most to offer, at $.50 per day.
Next up would be the Country Life, combined with a low dose formula of vitamin D. This formula would cost me $.23 per day, though I would have to factor in the cost of the vitamin D supplements.
After that, the most sensible choice would be Nature Made because it lists zinc in addition to the calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D. It does not have as much magnesium as I would like to see. The cost per day of this supplement would run me $.23 per day.
The runner-up, Schiff, is still a decent supplement, though in my mind it does not have enough magnesium, and it offers boron instead of zinc as a trace mineral. The cost for this would be $.20 per day.
I will keep and take all of these supplements now that I have acquired them, because there is really nothing wrong with any of them. I think when I go to replenish my supply eventually, I would probably choose the Country Life supplement because it costs half the price of the Jarrow formula. The pills are large, but I have no trouble swallowing large pills. But if you do, I would recommend the Jarrow formula. I screened a number of mineral combos in the process of choosing these four, and I picked these particular four to try out because they seemed to be the best of the lot. I hope you find this dissertation helpful when choosing yourself a mineral supplement
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