How should I take calcium? “Who needs to take calcium tablets?” This is the most common question people ask, in fact, in a person’s long life, “two heads and a middle period” are most vulnerable to calcium deficiency. “One is during the newborn period, infancy and adolescence, when children have a greater need for calcium intake due to growth and development; the other is during old age, when calcium loss increases significantly and therefore more calcium needs to be added exogenously. The “middle period” refers to women during pregnancy and lactation, when one person is responsible for the nutritional burden of “two people” and needs additional calcium intake. In addition, calcium supplements should be given to patients who suffer from malabsorption or increased excretion of calcium due to various diseases (such as gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes, etc.), as well as active treatment of the primary disease. So how to choose calcium tablets? 1. Look at the calcium content of the product. Regular calcium preparations and calcium supplements should indicate how much calcium is contained in a unit dose. Calcium preparations are labeled in two ways: one is the amount of calcium compound contained, and the other is the amount of elemental calcium contained. The latter is the amount of calcium actually consumed. The amount of calcium in the calcium compound is expressed as a percentage, so when choosing a calcium tablet you should not just look at the dose on the instructions, but should understand the amount of calcium it contains. 2. Look at the solubility of the product. Oral intake of calcium must be in the form of calcium ions to be absorbed in the intestine, so calcium preparations may be absorbed more completely if the solubility is high. For example, the same calcium carbonate, ordinary calcium carbonate and some ultra-micro-dissolved calcium carbonate compared to the latter digestion and absorption will be more complete. However, it should be noted that the absorption of calcium in the human body is not as simple as a simple chemical reaction, and there are many factors that affect the absorption of calcium in the human body. Therefore, the solubility can only be used as a reference indicator, but not based on the solubility alone to determine the absorption rate. 3, look at the absorption rate of the human body. Calcium preparations with high calcium content and high solubility do not necessarily have a high absorption rate. Usually when the body is deficient in calcium (in the calcium starvation state) absorption rate is high, while the body is not deficient in calcium absorption rate is poor. According to scientific research results in the same conditions, the absorption rate of various calcium preparations on the market is not very different, generally in the range of 20% to 40%. 4. Product price. Calcium supplementation should not become an economic burden in life, because the cost of calcium preparations is not high. Calcium supplementation is a long-term behavior, and the high price of the product is not necessarily much better than the low price of the product. 5, the safety of calcium preparations. Calcium supplementation is a long-term or even lifelong process, so the safety of drugs or health products should attract the attention of consumers. This must be used in addition to products that meet national or international health standards, but also to understand the extent of its side effects on the human body. There are individual products that contain a lot of calcium but alkaline, easy to stimulate the stomach, some elderly people with reduced stomach function, gastric acid secretion is not suitable for application. Some products contain more sodium, potassium, sugar and preservatives, which are not suitable for long-term use by people suffering from diabetes or hypertension or kidney disease. How to take calcium tablets scientifically? Improving absorption efficiency and reducing adverse reactions are two aspects that should be taken into account when taking calcium tablets. When taking calcium, if you can take it together with three meals, the gastric juice can be secreted in large quantities, which is conducive to dissociating more calcium ions; at the same time, calcium is mixed with food and stirred together, which can play a certain neutralizing effect on some alkaline calcium (such as active calcium) to reduce the stimulation of the gastric mucosa. Therefore, in order to achieve the most effective calcium absorption, it is recommended that calcium should not be taken on an empty stomach, but preferably at the same time as eating, or half an hour after a meal. When taking calcium tablets, chew them up and feed them with water to improve the absorption rate of calcium; dividing a calcium tablet into several small tablets and taking them in small doses can also improve the efficiency of calcium supplementation. Generally speaking, calcium is a very safe nutrient and the human body has a very complete self-regulatory mechanism to excrete the excess calcium. Therefore, oral calcium supplementation will not cause excessive accumulation of calcium in the body, and moderate application of calcium supplements will not interfere with the absorption of other nutrients. Some people use both food and medicine in the treatment of osteoporosis, taking milk and calcium at the same time in order to achieve better absorption. This does not make sense. Milk is a common food rich in calcium and well absorbed, containing about 120 mg of calcium per 100 ml of milk, and the protein and fat content of milk is also high. Moreover, if calcium is mixed with milk, it may lead to the denaturation of the macromolecules in the milk and the formation of flocculent precipitates, which may also affect the organoleptic properties of the milk. The best combination of calcium and food is to take it together with rice, noodles and other foods rich in starch, lactose and glucose, which is more conducive to the absorption of calcium. Scientists have researched the physiological role of calcium metabolism in the human body and have found that the best time of day to take calcium is every night before bedtime. Therefore, the best time of the day to take milk or other calcium supplements is before going to bed. The absorption of calcium preparations depends on the solubility of the calcium and the source of the calcium. Many calcium preparations are slightly soluble or soluble calcium salts, so if you increase the amount of water, you can increase the solubility of calcium to a certain extent, thus increasing the absorption rate. Therefore, people who take calcium supplements should drink more water. People who suffer from chronic gastritis and lack of stomach acid will feel stomach discomfort, bloating and constipation when taking certain calcium preparations. This is because calcium preparations enter the body and need to be separated into calcium ions under the action of stomach acid. As food enters the stomach, it can stimulate the stomach to secrete a large amount of stomach acid to digest food, so people who lack stomach acid or take antacids can take calcium preparations after meals to reduce stomach discomfort. You can also choose calcium supplements adjusted by citric acid or fruit acid, or take calcium preparations with a glass of acidic juice drink.