Why Do You Need Calcium?
How Much Daily Calcium Do You Need?
What are the Best Dairy and Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium?
12 Ways to Boost Your Calcium

We all know that calcium is necessary for strong bones and teeth. What you may not know is that calcium is required for every cell of the body to function in a healthy way. Besides acting as a cellular cement for bones, calcium is used by nerves and muscles, and it also contributes to proper blood clotting. Here's an overview of the good things calcium does for your body:

Calcium promotes healthy bones and teeth. Just as lime is necessary for strong concrete, calcium is needed for strong bones. Calcium is continually deposited into multiplying bone cells, like the cement that holds together the particles of stone and sand in a chunk of concrete. The stronger the bone development during childhood, the healthier those bones will be in adulthood. That is, the stronger the foundation, the sturdier the eventual building.

During adolescence bones grow rapidly, so teens need a lot of calcium in their diet. Once a person reaches full growth, calcium needs stabilize, but there are periods when calcium needs increase, such as during pregnancy, lactation, and healing from injuries. In old age, the bones begin to lose some of their sturdiness (this is called osteoporosis or "fragile bones"). There are a variety of reasons for this, some hormonal and some related to the fact that calcium absorption lessens in elderly intestines. Also, certain medications decrease the body's ability to absorb calcium, including antacids . Senior citizens need to be particularly conscious about the level of calcium in their diet and about which medications interfere with calcium absorption.

It's best not to wait until you're fifty-something to start preventing osteoporosis. Building stronger bones with a calcium-rich diet and weight-bearing exercise in your twenties and thirties is more likely to prevent osteoporosis than preventive measures in your fifties.

Other functions of calcium. Besides promoting healthy tooth enamel, calcium helps muscles. Muscles can cramp, and heart muscles can even fail, if these muscles are not supplied with just the right amount of calcium. Nerve impulses, the transmission of information between nerve fibers, will not function properly without just the right amount of calcium. For example, muscles twitch (called tetany) when the calcium supply to neuromuscular cells is insufficient. Calcium is one of the most vital minerals for optimal functioning of your entire body. To start your child out right try Little Champions Multivitamins which contains 50mg of calcium per soft chew.

How does calcium work? As with other minerals, the body has a marvelous system for keeping the concentration of calcium in the blood and tissues just right. This is needed because if calcium concentrations fall too low or get too high, certain organs will fail to function. The first checkpoint is in the intestines. If you eat too much calcium or already have enough calcium in your blood, the intestines simply absorb less of the calcium in the food you eat. If your body needs calcium, the intestines absorb more. Bones are the second checkpoint. If you don't get enough calcium in your diet, your body may borrow what it needs from your bones. This works for a time, yet continued withdrawals of calcium from the bone bank can lead to osteoporosis. A hormone called parathyroid oversees all this calcium activity like a vigilant bank manager, keeping the calcium concentration just right. When calcium levels fall, this hormone stimulates vitamin D to increase absorption of calcium from the intestines and to release calcium from the bone bank until a proper balance is restored.

While the body at any age needs calcium, there are stages in a person's life when calcium requirements increase. Here are the daily requirements at various stages in your life:

• Pregnancy: 1,500-2,000 mg. a day
• Lactation: 1,200-1,500 mg. a day
• Infants (birth to one year): 400 to 600 mg.
• Children (1 to 10): 800 mg.
• Preteens and teens: 1,200-1,500 mg.
• Adults: 1,200 mg.
• Seniors: 1,500 mg. a day

Various factors affect how much of the calcium you ingest really gets into your blood. Here are facts you should know to make the most of the calcium in your diet or any calcium supplements you take:

1. Stress from tension and worry can decrease calcium absorption. The calcium in the diet is excreted rather than used.

2. Labels on calcium supplements can be misleading. The figure that is important is the amount of elemental calcium provided by the supplement. This is the actual amount of useable calcium. The rest of the calcium in the tablet is coupled with a salt that makes it unavailable to the body. For example, calcium glutamate is only 9 percent elemental calcium. A 500 milligram tablet of calcium glutamate may contain only 45 milligrams of elemental calcium, even though you may have been led to believe that you are taking 500 milligrams of calcium. Calcium carbonate, on the other hand, is 40 percent elemental calcium; 500 milligrams of calcium carbonate would provide 200 milligrams of useable calcium. Labels on some supplements make this distinction, listing both the type of calcium compound in the supplement and the amount of elemental calcium provided. Other products are not as carefully labeled. Read labels carefully and compare several brands when you shop.

3. Calcium is best absorbed when taken in smaller amounts more frequently and with meals. For example, your body absorbs more calcium if you take one 250 milligram tablet twice a day rather than one 500 milligram tablet once a day. If a higher dose calcium tablet is a better buy, break it in half.

4. Dairy products are a rich source of calcium, and lactose, the sugar contained in milk, facilitates calcium absorption. However, chocolate milk is not a good source of calcium. Because chocolate contains calcium-binding oxalates, it can interfere with calcium absorption.

5. Soft drinks that contain citric and phosphoric acid can decrease the absorption of calcium. A 12-ounce cola may rob the body of 100 milligrams of calcium.

6. Vitamin C improves the absorption of calcium, which is why calcium-fortified orange juice makes sense.

7. High-fiber diets can interfere with calcium absorption, so best not to mix a high fiber meal with a high calcium one. If you do mix them, boost your calcium as you increase your fiber.

8. The calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of a food or supplement determines how much of the calcium is absorbed. The ideal calcium-phosphorus ratio is 2 to 1, close to the proportion found in human milk, which has an almost perfect calcium-to- phosphorus ratio of 2.3 to 1. The ratio in cow's milk is 1.3 to 1. The higher the phosphorus content of the food, the more calcium is excreted in the urine, leading to a loss of calcium. Foods high in phosphorus (such as meat, poultry, corn, potatoes, beer, buckwheat) can interfere with calcium absorption.

9. The presence of estrogen facilitates calcium absorption, so women after menopause are at increased risk of calcium deficiency and therefore need to increase their daily intake of calcium.

10. You may read that vegans run the risk of calcium deficiency because the calcium in vegetables, like iron, is bound by the fibers and phytates (mineral-building chemicals in plants) in the vegetables and may interfere with calcium absorption. The theoretical worry may be balanced out by the lower phosphate content of vegetables, which improves calcium absorption, and by the fact that most people have the enzyme phytase, which breaks down the phytic acid in vegetables.

11. Couch-potatoism, or lack of exercise, may contribute as much, or more, to osteoporosis than lack of calcium. Weight-bearing exercise (just about any exercise except swimming or cycling) not only builds muscle, it builds bone.

12. Ignore what you read about losing bone mass while breastfeeding . After weaning, breastfeeding mothers regain the bone mass they may have lost. Some even get a perk by regaining more.