If you’re avoiding dairy, make a habit of incorporating some of these other calcium-rich foods in your diet:

Muscle problems A person with a calcium deficiency may experience: muscle aches, cramps, and spasms. pain in the thighs and arms when walking or moving. numbness and tingling in the hands, arms, feet, and legs, as well as around the mouth.

An extremely low calcium level may cause tingling (often in the lips, tongue, fingers, and feet), muscle aches, spasms of the muscles in the throat (leading to difficulty breathing), stiffening and spasms of muscles (tetany), seizures, and abnormal heart rhythms.

Low blood calcium or magnesium: Low blood levels of either calcium or magnesium directly increase the excitability of both the nerve endings and the muscles they stimulate.

If your body doesn’t get enough calcium and vitamin D to support important functions, it takes calcium from your bones. This is called losing bone mass. Losing bone mass makes the inside of your bones become weak and porous. This puts you at risk for the bone disease osteoporosis.

1. Canned sardines.
2. Fortified soy, almond and rice milk.
3. Fortified orange juice.
4. Tofu made with calcium sulfate.
5. Canned pink salmon with bones.
6. Fortified cereals and English muffins.
7. Greens.
8. Beans.

These include:

1. Drinking plenty of water. Staying hydrated may lower blood calcium levels, and it can help to prevent kidney stones.
2. Quitting smoking. Smoking can increase bone loss.
3. Exercising and strength training. This promotes bone strength and health.
4. Following guidelines for medications and supplements.

Hypercalcemia is usually a result of overactive parathyroid glands. These four tiny glands are situated in the neck, near the thyroid gland. Other causes of hypercalcemia include cancer, certain other medical disorders, some medications, and taking too much of calcium and vitamin D supplements.

Intravenous bisphosphonates are the treatment of first choice for the initial management of hypercalcaemia, followed by continued oral, or repeated intravenous bisphosphonates to prevent relapse.

Depending on what your doctor says, you may need to reduce your intake of foods high in calcium such as dairy, tofu, fortified cereals, and green leafy vegetables.

Calcium

1. milk, cheese and other dairy foods.
2. green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage and okra, but not spinach.
3. soya beans.
4. tofu.
5. plant-based drinks (such as soya drink) with added calcium.
6. nuts.
7. bread and anything made with fortified flour.
8. fish where you eat the bones, such as sardines and pilchards.

Caffeine leaches calcium from bones, sapping their strength. “You lose about 6 milligrams of calcium for every 100 milligrams of caffeine ingested,” Massey says. That’s not as much of a loss as salt, but it’s worrisome, nonetheless.

Slow-Mag Capsules: take one to two capsules daily. Slow-Mag Fizzies: take one fizzy tablet daily, dissolved in water.

A good rule of thumb is a 2:1 calcium-to-magnesium ratio. For example, if you take 1000mg of calcium, you should also take 500mg of magnesium. The recommended amount of magnesium is 300mg to 500mg daily.

Side effects. At normal doses, calcium supplements may cause bloating, gas, and constipation. Very high doses of calcium can cause kidney stones. Some studies show taking calcium supplements in addition to a diet high in calcium could raise your risk of heart attacks and strokes, but other experts disagree.

For this reason, there are daily Recommended Adequate Intakes set for calcium: 0 to 6 months – 210 mg. 7 to 12 months – 270 mg. 1 to 3 years – 500 mg.

Calcium is absorbed best when taken in amounts of 500 – 600 mg or less. This is the case for both foods and supplements. Try to get your calcium-rich foods and/or supplements in small amounts throughout the day, preferably with a meal.

You need to take calcium carbonate with food, because it’s easier for your body to absorb that way. You can take calcium citrate on an empty stomach or with food. To maximize your absorption of calcium, take no more than 500 mg at a time. You might take one 500 mg supplement in the morning and another at night.

Calcium carbonate should be taken with food. Stomach acid produced while eating helps your body absorb calcium carbonate. Total daily dose. Calcium is best absorbed when it’s taken in smaller doses (typically less than 600 milligrams at one time).

“The truth is, the research is inconclusive. But there is a growing body of evidence that suggests no health benefit, or even worse, that calcium supplements may be harmful.” Multiple studies have found that there’s little to no benefit to taking calcium supplements for the prevention of hip fractures.

They found that dietary calcium supplementation produced a dose-related diminution in weight gain and fat mass. In these studies, high calcium intakes were found to be associated with reduced adipocyte fatty acid synthase activity and increases in lipolysis (28).

Calcium carbonate and calcium citrate are the two most recommended forms of calcium supplements. Calcium carbonate is cheaper and more common. It can be found in most antacid medicines. It needs to be taken with food in order for it to work well.