I haven't talked to my surgeon's office yet , but I'm wondering what other post ops think about this article?


http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/calcium-supplement-linked-higher-heart-attack-risk. 

I think the study is flawed.

First, they did not control for the type of calcium study subjects took.  There is a big difference between calcium citrate and calcium carbonate.  It is possible that one type of calcium would increase the risk for heart attacks but another would not, just like calcium carbonate increases the risk of kidney stones while calcium citrate actually decreases the risk of kidney stones.

As far as I can tell, they also didn't control for the health of the subjects.  I am wondering if people with health problems are more likely to take supplements than those without health problems.  It would make sense to me that people with health problems would be more likely to have heart attacks, so if the group taking supplements had poorer health in general, the results would be skewed.

One thought that occurred to me is that people that have been told they have osteoporosis may be more likely to take calcium supplements.  Vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis, and it can also cause heart disease.  I wonder if that might have been a factor.

Funny I read about this today and was curious what we will hear about calcium from within the weight loss surgery world.  I am going to continue to take my calcium as directed (1200 mg // 600 twice a day), but I will definetly talk to my family doctor and the hospital at my next appointment to get their takes on this. There will be more research done no doubt and to weed through it half informed doesn't help us. 

I think the takeaway, for now, is to assess the amount of calcium we get from food, add however much supplement we need to get a total of 1000-1200 mg, and take supplements with meals so they are absorbed more slowly. 

That's not what I take away from it.  The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says RNY patients need 1500-2000 mg calcium citrate IN ADDITION TO whatever we get from our diet and VSG patients need 1500 mg calcium citrate IN ADDITION TO whatever they get from their diet.  Nothing I read in this article convinced me that WLS patients really only need 1000-1200 mg total, counting what they get from food.  The study discussed in this article did not address the needs of WLS patients at all, or the fact that especially RNY patients do not absorb much calcium at all from food.