Calcium

Calcium is one of the most important minerals for a healthy body. Calcium supplementation performs a variety of significant functions in the body, like strengthening bones and teeth, regulating hormone function and supporting the health of new mothers. Calcium plays a part in stimulating contraction of the uterus during childbirth and in milk production. Nearly all calcium in the body is found in the bones and teeth. However, a portion of the calcium we intake also circulates in the bloodstream to perform a number of other roles in maximizing bodily health.

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Benefits:
*Strengthens bones and teeth
*Supports cardiovascular functions
*Regulates hormone functions and blood pressure
*Encourages proper nerve and muscle functions

Calcium being present in the body helps to regulate the contractions of heart muscles, while also performing an essential function in the transmission of nerve impulses. A deficiency in calcium can lead to hypertension and high blood pressure, as your body automatically releases a hormone that raises blood pressure when calcium levels are low. Calcium supplementation is also important in terms of muscle health, especially for the most important muscle, the heart. Calcium helps to control the contracting and relaxing of the muscles, and also benefits your nervous system by regulating blood pressure in the arteries.

Around 99 percent of the body’s calcium is found in the bones and teeth, while the remaining 1 percent circulates in the blood stream. Based on the body’s needs, calcium is continually deposited and broken down, so that when your diet or supplementation is low in calcium your body takes it from your bones to meet the necessary demand. Calcium makes up around 70 percent of bones, and gives bones their strength and rigidity. When your body is low in calcium, though, bones may become brittle and weak, potentially leading to easily broken bones and eventually osteoporosis.

High calcium supplementation can also help to regulate body weight. High levels of calcium may lower the concentration of fat cells by decreasing the production of certain hormones in the body. By doing so, fat cells are stimulated to breakdown. Calcium supplementation can also bind to dietary fat in order to prevent its absorption in the digestive tract. Once calcium is attached to fat cells, it is released through the bowels and discarded from the body.

Calcium deficiency is a condition in which the body fails to intake or to metabolize an adequate supply of calcium. When calcium is ingested, it is absorbed in the small intestine and passes to either the bloodstream or ultimately into the bones. Maximizing calcium absorption is dependent on the presence of vitamin D in the body, which is a fundamental ingredient in the various hormones that enable calcium to pass from the digestive system into the blood or bones.

Just like vitamin D, phosphorus levels in the body play a role in permitting calcium to be fully utilized. Hormonal secretions of the parathyroid and thyroid glands are also recognized as being able to maintain calcium equilibrium in the blood. The regulatory mechanism that phosphorus and vitamin D perform can help to prevent a deficiency in calcium from developing in the bloodstream. Such a deficiency can cause the parathyroid hormone to transfer calcium from the bones in order to maintain calcium’s crucial presence in the blood stream, thereby making bones brittle and subject to breakage.