[cobluegirl]

Just ran across this post from Allisonintx in 2007

THE CALCIUM COMPENDIUM


Here is a compendium of Cal/Mag threads I've typed in the last year or so....I'm happy to answer any questions that might springboard from it....


Benefits include: Good bone health (this includes teeth,) lowered risk of cardio-vascular disease (heart attack is the number one killer of women in America) Sound sleep (even when you aren't getting much, the quality of sleep is better, and you fall asleep faster) decreased or eliminated swelling/water weight gain associated with pregnancy or PMS, decreased or eliminated leg cramps at night. Those are just off the top of my head.

Vegetarians need less cal/mag supplementation (as long as they are not "Potato Chip Vegetarians") because a diet lower in protien allows for easier absorption of calcium, but for a meat eater in her childbearing years, 1200mgCalcium and 400mg of magnesium is a healthy target.

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Anyway, take your Calcium and Magnesium, because they will help your blood pressure stay low even when you're stressed and because the benefits are legion including:
the little sleep you get will be more restful sleep
it will keep you from retaining water
it will keep you from having bone loss
it helps with weight loss
it will help keep your teeth healthy
it will help your emotions be on a more even keel.

1500mg of Calcium and 500mg of Magnesium EVERY SINGLE NIGHT before bed, no excuses.

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know I sound like a broken record when I say this, but Cal/Mag can help, especially with a girl in her tween/teens who is putting on the bone density that will get her through her childbearing years. 1200mgCalcium/400mgMagnesium is what they need. It will help her sleep, keep her from retaining water, help her muscles fully relax through the night so she doesn't wake up irritable from a bad night's sleep where she never fully slept. Drinking milk won't cut it, the Calcium is too poorly absorbed to be terribly useful.

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Restless Leg Syndrome can be helped by taking a good hefty dose of Calcium and Magnesium at bedtime. Sometimes it is caused by buildup of acid in the muscles of the legs over the day and the body's inabilty to neutralize them. Calcium will bind the acid and the magnesium is a smooth muscle relaxer. It can take as much as 3000mg calcium and 1000mg magnesium to make a difference. This is safe to take in pregnancy.

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I recently learned that for treating RLS, the recommendation is EQUAL PARTS Calcium/Magnesium learn something new every day!!!

Even the *chronically underinformed* AMA recommends 1200mgCal400mgMag daily for women from menarche to menopause.

Here are the RDA's broken down by age

http://www.acu-cell.com/acn2.html

I recommend any calcium supplement that won't choke a horse, and doesn't require dozens of pills daily. Calcium Citrate is better IMO than Calcium Carbonate, but they will all work in the proper ratios.

There are different kinds of calcium. I never recommend Calcium Carbonate (most kidney stones are made out of this) Calcium Citrate doesn't make stones for most people like the Carbonate does.