SynthesisOsteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA2011
Cardiovascular effects of calcium supplementation.
Synthesis in Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- The effect of calcium plus vitamin D supplementation on the risk of venous thromboembolism. From the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial.Thrombosis and haemostasis · 2015Trial
- Clinical, Echocardiographic, and Socioeconomic Predictors of Progression and Outcomes in Patients With Moderate Aortic Stenosis.Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Calcium and vitamin D supplementation impact on survival in patients with moderate concomitant aortic and mitral valve disease.Cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy · 2025Article
- Calcium Supplementation: To Do or Not to Do.Journal of bone metabolism · 2025Article
- Role of nutrition and healthy lifestyle, for individuals in primary prevention: recent data, gaps in evidence and future directions.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2024Article
- Genetic insights into the effect of trace elements on cardiovascular diseases: multi-omics Mendelian randomization combined with linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Article
- Association between latent profile of dietary intake and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs): Results from Fasa Adults Cohort Study (FACS).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Longitudinal Effects of Serum Calcium and Phosphate Levels and Their Ratio on Incident Ischemic Heart Disease among Korean Adults.Biomolecules · 2022Article
- The Influence of Dietary Interventions on Chronic Kidney Disease-Mineral and Bone Disorder (CKD-MBD).Nutrients · 2021Review
- Borderline high serum calcium levels are associated with arterial stiffness and 10-year cardiovascular disease risk determined by Framingham risk score.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2019Article
- Higher Serum Calcium Levels Are Associated with Preclinical Peripheral Arterial Disease among the Apparently Healthy Individuals.Korean journal of family medicine · 2018Article
- Serum magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium levels and subclinical calcific aortic valve disease: A population-based study.Atherosclerosis · 2018Article
- Intake of Different Dietary Proteins and Risk of Heart Failure in Men: The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study.Circulation. Heart failure · 2018Article
- Are more trials of calcium supplements really needed?Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2017Article
- Association between Lumbar Bone Mineral Density and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Korean Adults: a Cross-sectional Study of Healthy Twin Study.Journal of Korean medical science · 2017Article
- Calcium intake: good for the bones but bad for the heart? An analysis of clinical studies.Archives of endocrinology and metabolism · 2016Review
- Lack of association of oral calcium supplementation with coronary artery calcification in rheumatoid arthritis.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2015Article
- New strategies for osteoporosis patients previously managed with strontium ranelate.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Trials in normal older women and in patients with renal impairment suggest that calcium supplements increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. To further assess their safety, we recently conducted a meta-analysis of trials of calcium supplements, and found a 27-31% increase in risk of myocardial infarction and a 12-20% increase in risk of stroke. These findings are robust because they are based on pre-specified analyses of randomized, placebo-controlled trials and show consistent risk across the trials. The fact that cardiovascular events were not primary endpoints of any of these studies will introduce noise but not bias into the data. A recent re-analysis of the Women's Health Initiative suggests that co-administration of vitamin D with calcium does not lessen these adverse effects. The increased cardiovascular risk with calcium supplements is consistent with epidemiological data relating higher circulating calcium concentrations to cardiovascular disease in normal populations. There are several possible pathophysiological mechanisms for these effects, including effects on vascular calcification, on the function of vascular cells, and on blood coagulation. Calcium-sensing receptors might mediate some of these effects. Because calcium supplements produce small reductions in fracture risk and a small increase in cardiovascular risk, there may be no net benefit from their use. Food sources of calcium appear to produce similar benefits on bone density, although their effects on fracture are unclear. Since food sources have not been associated with adverse cardiovascular effects, they may be preferable. Available evidence suggests that other osteoporosis treatments are still effective without calcium co-administration.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.