Calcium supplementation

The weight of the pills is not the same as calcium dose.

I had a patient who had low calcium level in the blood. We call it hypocalcemia. I asked her to increase calcium intake to 500 MG twice daily.

She states she is already on 1200 of calcium twice daily! Hmm I wonder if she is not reading a label correctly.

I asked her what type of calcium supplement she is taking. She says calcium citrate.

Hmm it is very unlikely she is taking 1200 MG twice daily because often 1 tablet of calcium citrate contains only 200 MG of elemental calcium.

She brought her bottle from home and voila! She was only taking 200 MG twice daily.

She upped it to 400 MG thrice daily and her calcium was optimal for osteoporosis treatment!

Lesson: you need to look at the label on the back of the bottle. You then look at elemental calcium per serving and see how many tabs or gel or milliliter of liquid is in one serving!

Thanks for reading!