Excess of calcium supplements may up cancer risk: Study

If you’ve been counting on calcium supplements for your intake of calcium, listen up. According to a group of scientists, excessive calcium tablets have a risk of increasing the risk of cancer. The scientists go on to say, naturally consuming your calcium requirements is a far healthier thing to do.
The study also said that adequate intake of certain nutrients can also help in reducing the risk of death from any cause when they consumed from food items and not supplements. The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine went to have to negative perspective over nutritional supplements.
The research team said that they found supplemental doses of calcium exceeding 1000 mg per day linked to an increased risk of cancer death.
"As potential benefits and harms of supplement use continue to be studied, some studies have found associations between excess nutrient intake and adverse outcomes, including increased risk of certain cancers," said Fang Fang Zhang, associate professor at Tufts University in the US.
"It is important to understand the role that the nutrient and its source might play in health outcomes, particularly if the effect might not be beneficial," Zhang said.
For the study, the research team used data from more than 27,000 US adults aged 20 and above to evaluate the link between dietary supplement use and death from all causes, cardiovascular and cancer.
The researchers were able to conclude that adequate levels of vitamin K and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of death and adequate intakes of vitamin A, K and zinc had an association with a low risk of death from CVD.
The team also said that excess intake of calcium had a link with cancer. After the sources of nutrients were evaluated, the researchers found that lower risk of death associated with adequate nutrient intakes was limited to nutrients from foods, not from supplements.
Additionally, the team also found that dietary supplements had no effect on the risk of death in individuals with low nutrient intake.
"Our results support the idea that, while supplement use contributes to an increased level of total nutrient intake, there are beneficial associations with nutrients from foods that aren't seen with supplements," said Zhang.