POSITIVE LIVING WITH CALCIUM INTAKE

Port Moresby General Hospital. What is Calcium?

The National 16 July 2015

All newspapers in Papua New Guinea are taking up a Positive Living health message written by doctors. These have enriched our blog.

Calcium is one of the essential ingredients to take care of your bones and teeth. Most of the body’s skeleton is found in the bones and teeth.

The rest is stored in the tissues and blood and essential for building and maintaining bone. Calcium combines with other minerals to form hard crystals to give bones strength and structure and to strengthen muscles and functioning of nerves.

A small amount is absorbed into the blood which is essential in functioning of heart, muscles and nerves. Bones act like a calcium bank from which calcium may be withdrawn.

If your body withdraws more calcium than it deposits, your bone density will decline and you will risk developing osteosporosis or brittle bones.

Good sources of calcium include dairy foods, such as milk, yoghurt and cheese and calcium fortified products such as soy milk and breakfast cereals.

People with special needs

Babies: Formula fed babies need more calcium than breast fed babies.

Young children: Skelton continues to grow so children have high calcium requirements.

Pre-teens and teenagers: This group needs more calcium to build peak bone tissues. This will protect against later osteosporosis.

Pregnant women: A developing baby needs calcium. Check with the doctor.

Breast feeding women: There is an increased need for calcium

Elderly people: As we age the skeleton loses calcium. Both men and women lose bone mass as they age. A diet with calcium will slow down bone loss.

Lifestyle can reduce the calcium in bones and lower bone density.

These include a high salt diet, excessive alcohol intake, very low body weight, high intake of fibre, low levels of physical activity, low levels of vitamin D and smoking.

An effective diet is as follows:

Include dairy products.

Eat more leafy green vegetables.

Eat more fish.

Replace meat in some meals with tofu or tempeh.Snack on calcium rich nuts,

Reduce your intake of caffeine.

Use sesame seeds in your meals.

Eat more calcium fortified foods.

It is better to get calcium from foods than calcium supplements. Talk to your doctor.