The Star (Saturday), also carried this news from Reuters, Calcium supplements may raise risk of Heart Attacks which reported a definitive study covering 12000 patients who were given calcium pills or placebos for their osteoporosis problems. The study concluded that there was a 30% increase in heart attacks for those patients randomized to receive calcium supplements.
This report from a reputed medical source has raised pertinent questions in our treatment of elderly patients with real or perceived porous bones or osteoporosis. I have seen many elderly friends who have been diagnosed with such problems, inevitably issued with those pills as a standard procedure. Some of my friends have also been asked to take an expensive annual injection, which besides being very painful, has also bad side effects like vomiting. In view of the questionable benefits that can be derived from the taking of such supplements whether orally or intravenously, and with the current report that such 'medication' can definitely increase heart attacks, should we not consider a change in the standard procedure of hospitals issuing such supplements? Even if they are given free of charge to retired civil servants, it can represent a waste of money, and a drain on the Health Ministry's budget, as also, some patients just discard the medicine on reaching home.!
It should be incumbent on doctors to encourage patients to take calcium rich foods like milk in any form or sardines and to take more load bearing exercises, like walking up slopes and stairs.
It would also be good, in light of such research results that the Ministry take appropriate action to instruct doctors and hospitals to warn patients of the risks of taking calcium pills, and the alternatives available, and to also counsel the public on the risks of naively accepting anything told to them by doctors and pharmacists
Consume Calcium rich foods
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