Proving a point -- Quick calcium survey.

Twin Lab Wafers

I have some NSI calc. citrate + D+magnesium capsules but 3 capsules equals 1 serving ugh

 what point are you trying to prove?  That some people take carbonate after RNY when they should take citrate?

1000 mg UpCalD when I wake up, added to my protein shake, and 1000 mg on my tongue.
630 mg generic Calcium Citrate, plus 250 mg magnesium, and 4000 iu vitamin D3 in the morning and again in the evening.
500 mg Citrical at midday.

Building Blocks chewables.  Citrate with Vit D and Magnesium.
Jane

Are you guys doing OK on swallowed whole pills?   I am tempted to take them and see what happens...then again reading that there is no way to tell if I am Ok by blood test alone I am scared to.  Has anyone taken swallowed whole type citrate tablets (solely) and had that bone density test Andrea was talking about?  I am just wondering.  My Dr and Nut  are adamant that I will never be able to absorb  whole pills properly and that taking them rather than chewables would be risky.  I would really like to do the petites though, they are so much cheaper & it seems like everybody else takes them.  So much conflicting info.  Wouldn't it be nice if all the dr's had the same (and hopefully correct) information? 

My doc does not allow the calcium pills/tablets that you swallow (citrical).  He said they have a coating that requires stomach acid to break them down completely, so we cannot get a decent amount of calcium from them.  Sooo, I take Bariatric Advantage chewables. 

April

Your doc is wrong.

I did an experiment with *plain tap water* and they dissolved fine.

In fact, I put my results on OH.


Post Date 9/3/08 7:42 pm
Topic: OK, so I'm a geek! Calcium Citrate vs. Citrical Petites testing

So it was brought up that a surgeon has stated to a patient that the citrical petites do not dissolve fast enough for us to absorb.  And of course, I take *nothing* at face value.  So I saw a challenge.

Now, keep in mind I did this in my kitchen, at home, under less than ideal cir****tances.  Is it scientific?  Hell no.  But it does give us some basic info about these pills that I think helps alot of us out.

To start with, there were 4oz of luke-warm (around 97 degrees -=- I *tried* for 98.6, but it just didn't work out after 30 min.. sorry) in both glasses.  The water is tap, and is silightly alkaline (thanks to the City of Wilson, NC water district).  I did not modify the water in any form, or fashion.

Given it's slight alkalinity (and I do mean slight), this technically would be a disadvantage as comparing to our slightly acidic digestive systems (speaking to RNY and DS'ers here.. sorry banders, you guys kept all your acid).

The total test took 10 minutes.

Still shots were taken ever 30 seconds using a remote control on our camera, which was on a tripod (so no movement at all, these pills *sat* there and just did their thing without a single bit of intervention.. even kept the toddler at bay.. I deserve a medal for that feat!).

Pill on the left is Target's house brand of calcium citrate -- each pill has 315mg of elemental calcium.  The pill on the right, of course, is the Citrical Petite, with 200mg of elemental calcium.



Action is *immediate*



10 minutes later



After stirring and the particulate has settled.  Notice more *stuff* in the water to the right and more "stuff" at the bottom of the left glass?

Want to see this in animation?



After the pills were completely dissolved, we stirred the glasses.  After the movement stopped in the glasses, we noticed some interesting things:

1) The regular citrical left more particulate at the bottom of the glass versus what was suspended in the liquid portion of the concoction;
2) The citrical petite had a much finer consistancy of it's leftover particulate in the bottom of the glass.. and there was a significant amount less than the other pill.. even more than what could be accounted for size of pill initially.


So what do I take away from this experiment?  Both pills will dissolve easily in the virtually pH neutral RNY and DS digestive system in a very short period of time.  Of the two, I would say the petite dissolves more thoroughly than the regular pill, but again, have no true way to test this.. it was only my perception (and my hubby's).

Thanks to my hubby for putting together the slide show and uploading all of this for me.  He thought it was great fun to do mad science experiments in the kitchen.  Must be a guy thing.  BTW -- those photos *are* copyrighted to hubby (who is a photographer).. if you want to use them, please ask first.

Hey Stella.

I took the Citrical Petites for a while, but I was ending up with stomach pains.

I switched to the UNCOATED Cal+D from BJs Wholesale club, and I would just split them in half before I took them, and the pains disappeared.

I have since switched to UpCalD, but when I run out of my current supply,  I will be going back to the pills from BJs and splitting them again (I also split my Centrum vitamins - I think it aids in the dissolving and digesting... but I'm probably wrong  LOL)

Hope this helps a bit.

~wendy

PS... Andrea has posted in the past about testing pills by letting them sit in room temp water to see how long they take to dissolve.  If they are gone in a short amount of time, you can be confident that you should be able to absorb them well.

Citrical Citrate Petits with vitamin D.  Two tablets contain 400 mg of calcium and 4  IU of vitamin D.

2 tablets 5 times per day.

Total calcium ~ 2000 mg
Total vitamin D ~ 2000 IU

In addition, I take an extra tablet of vitamin D that contains 2000 IU.

Twinlab Calcium Citrate chewable wafers.