When I founded the nutrition company OsteoNaturals 8 years ago, one of my major goals was to make sure that people understood that supplements should be exactly that... added nutrients to help "SUPPLEMENT" a healthy diet...not taken as a way to get nutrients in place of a healthy diet. We should all strive to obtain the majority of our required daily nutrients though food. The problem is, when we have a health issue such as low bone density, we may not be able to obtain everything we need simply from our diets. We are probably "in a hole" nutritionally speaking. We may, for example, benefit from higher doses of specific nutrients to "push" a sluggish enzymatic action or stimulate the synthesis of complex molecules in a less-than-optimal metabolism. In other words, the proper use of supplemental nutrition can often be of great help in regaining health.
But, over supplementing with any nutrient can potentially be a problem, and in some cases, such as with calcium, the safety of supplementation has come under question. In response to the concerns of cardiovascular events when taking supplemental calcium (initially researched by New Zealand's Bolland and Reid in 2008) and the subsequent intense medical debate that followed, we limited the amount of calcium in each caplet of our OsteoNaturals formulas. We understand the extreme need for safety when designing nutritional health care products and even though the research by Bolland and Reid came under intense criticism for their research design, and other researchers, such as Dr Robert Heaney, a world renowned clinical endocrinologist at Creighton University specializing in nutrition, studied their findings and determined that there was "no significant effect of calcium supplements on cardiovascular disease", we lowered the amount of calcium in each caplet of OsteoSustain and OsteoMineralBoost. Our goal was, and continues to be, to design the highest quality products possible and make sure they were effective and meet the therapeutic needs of our customers. It is important to obtain adequate calcium for optimal skeletal health, but this can be difficult to achieve through diet alone. At OsteoNaturals we feel that supplementing with calcium in a safe manner (i.e. in small milligram doses as in our suggested serving sizes for our OsteoSustain and OsteoMineralBoost products), is important, especially for individuals suffering from osteopenia or osteoporosis and in need of extra calcium.*
In an effort to be cautious, but also to provide effective dosages, we have chosen what we consider an optimal amount of calcium to put into our products. OsteoSustain contains only 166 mg calcium per each caplet and our OsteoMineralBoost caplets contain 140 mg. OsteoSustain also provides bioavailable magnesium, vitamins C, D, and K, and trace minerals to enhance calcium uptake and utilization. In addition to calcium in the form of microcrystalline hydroxyapatite, OsteoMineralBoost contains highly absorbable magnesium, trace minerals from Aquamin seaweed, and betaine hydrochloric acid (HCL) for improved mineral absorption. As we age, the production of HCL in the stomach often declines leading to poor digestion and under-assimilation of nutrients. By taking OsteoMineralBoost you can be assured of improved absorptiblity.*
(In my next blog, I will write more about the importance of taking the right amount of calcium....not too much, and not too little, but JUST right!)
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.