The seven-year study of 36,282 women ages 50 to 79 gave half the participants 1,000 milligrams of calcium and 400 units of vitamin D, while the other half took dummy pills.
However, many were also taking their own supplements before the research began, and they were allowed to keep doing so, whether they were assigned to the test group or the comparison group. These extra supplements may have helped the women stay healthy but ironically diluted the findings, since any benefit is harder to show against a backdrop of fewer fractures. Also, women in the study were taking hormone pills, likely further cutting the number of fractures.
The study showed better hip bone density in the group given supplements, but they ranked no better statistically in avoiding fractures of all kinds.
However, some benefit seemed apparent. Women over age 60 reduced their chances of hip fracture by 21 percent with the supplements. And those who took their supplements most regularly lowered their risk by 29 percent.
As stated, there is some benefit to taking the supplements, especially for women over sixty. But the lack of concrete numbers is not an indication of the efficacy of calcium supplementation.
Because the study is longitudinal, the researchers relied on self-reporting, which is notoriously inaccurate. In addition, there is no mention of controlling for other lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, smoking, drinking, and so on. All of these factors might influence the positive effects of taking additional calcium.
So here is the bottom line: Keep taking your calcium. Until there is a double-bind, placebo-controlled study that refutes older information about the benefits of calcium supplementation, there is no reason to stop taking it.
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