Calcium Supplements Raise Heart Attack Risk 30%, Study Says

Patients who took calcium increased their risk of a heart attack by about 30 percent, according to researchers who said the use of dietary supplements for preventing and treating osteoporosis should be reviewed.

In five studies with more than 8,000 patients, half of whom were on calcium, the supplement users had 143 heart attacks during the research compared with 111 for people on placebo, scientists from New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. wrote today in the British Medical Journal. The risk was greatest when calcium intake from food was above average, regardless of patients’ age or sex, according to the analysis.