While calcium is well-known as being essential to bone health, its value with respect to cardiovascular health has only recently been hypothesized. That hypothesis was put to the test in a very large cohort study conducted in Japan, lasting from 1990 to 2003 and involving 41 526 Japanese men and women aged 40 to 59 years without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. The study’s results (based on food consumption questionnaires) were evaluated and recently published in the medical journal Stroke.
These results revealed that higher dietary calcium intake was associated with a 30% reduction in the risk of a stroke. Furthermore, calcium originating from dairy, in addition to the 30% reduction in the risk of a stroke, was also associated with more modest reductions in other cardiovascular conditions as well.
Source: Umesawa M, Iso H, Ishihara J, Saito I, Kokubo Y, Inoue M, Tsugane S; for the JPHC Study Group. Dietary Calcium Intake and Risks of Stroke, Its Subtypes, and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese. The JPHC Study Cohort I. Stroke. 2008 Jul 17. [Epub ahead of print].
For more information see Bone-Basics and Ortho-Bone
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