Calcium and other vitamins are essential for human and disease It is important to remember that it is difficult if not impossible to discuss calcium alone. Calcium metabolism is a collaborative effort between calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and protein. Just like a musical orchestra, all of these nutrients are needed to create the end product whether it is a beautiful song or a perfect bone matrix.
Calcium comprises a complex interactive dependency on the actions of other nutrients. Dietary calcium must move across the intestinal lumen during normal digestion to provide a calcium pool to maintain serum levels. However, dietary protein is required to provide serum IGF-1 which in turns interacts with the renal system to transform vitamin D to an active form. The resulting vitamin D receptor transcription provides the necessary substrates to move the calcium across luminal, basolateral, or intercellular compartments as needed to maintain serum levels. Without these interval steps, calcium would not be available to replace and maintain serum pools. Each step requires an interaction with another nutrient [
Calcium metabolism interacts with phosphorus in healthy adults
A recent meta-analysis by Fenton and colleagues illustrated the dependent relationship between phosphate and changes in calcium balance that occur primarily in the kidney. This research showed an inverse correlation between decreases in urinary calcium with increasing phosphate doses while demonstrating that calcium balance increases proportionately with phosphate. Particularly during periods of growth, foods that contain both calcium and phosphorus can lead to positive effects on bone health
so how can we correlate trace calcium and diet to heart disease?