Role of dietary calcium and its possible mechanism against metabolic disorders: A concise review

Abstract

The global prevalence of metabolic disorders including hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, nonalcoholic fatty liver, and cardiovascular diseases seemed to affect people of all ages cutting across the national, economic, and demographic barrier. Therefore, the prevention of metabolic disorders is considered of paramount importance. The dietary role of nutrients including vitamins and minerals is one of the recommended preventive measures against metabolic disorders in modern society. Recently, dietary calcium, a common nutrient not only showed a beneficial effect against obesity through weight management, but also gained great attention against the risk of metabolic disorders. Though dietary calcium shows several beneficial effects against metabolic disorders but some inconsistent results were also reported.So, the present review aims to extract recent knowledge as well as their possible underlying mechanisms regarding the role of dietary calcium against metabolic disorders. The present review also discusses the negative impact as well as prospect of calcium intake on health issues. In summary, high calcium diet prevents the harmful consequences of metabolic disorders by regulating hormonal actions, alteration in intracellular calcium level, renin-angiotensin system, intestinal fat absorption, fecal fat excretion, lipid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, inflammation, and oxidative stress which together improve the metabolic health of an individual. Practical applicationsMetabolic disorder is a global health issue across all sections of society and is growing rapidly in spite of several attempts by the scientific community to prevent it.Recently dietary calcium gained great attention in the last few years for its role in the management and treatment of metabolic disorders. The current review highlights the beneficial role of dietary calcium against several metabolic complications by exploring their underlying mechanisms at cellular level. This study will provide valuable information regarding the recommendation of dietary calcium in health policy as well as its inclusion in the dietary chart through calcium-rich foods and/or taking calcium supplements which can be a useful approach in preventing the risk of metabolic disorder depending on the health status of an individual.

Calcium for pre‐eclampsia prevention: A systematic review and network meta‐analysis to guide personalised antenatal care

“…Although concern has been raised that calcium may mask pre-eclampsia until presentation as HELLP, through its effect in lowering blood pressure, 59 the fact that blood pressure control with antihypertensive therapy may actually reduce the development of low platelets and elevated liver enzymes would argue against this, and lowering blood pressure does not reduce the risk of developing proteinuria. 60 Other potential mechanisms include the mitigation of metabolic changes associated with low dietary calcium intake, including: an increase in parathyroid hormone (that increases intracellular calcium in vascular smooth muscle cells and leads to vasoconstriction), 56 an increase in the synthesis of calcitriol that stimulates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the expansion of intravascular volume, 61,62 or low-grade systemic inflammation and insulin resistance. 61 Few trials included aspirin in the intervention or control arms, yielding insufficient evidence to evaluate the additive or comparative effects of calcium and aspirin.…”

“…60 Other potential mechanisms include the mitigation of metabolic changes associated with low dietary calcium intake, including: an increase in parathyroid hormone (that increases intracellular calcium in vascular smooth muscle cells and leads to vasoconstriction), 56 an increase in the synthesis of calcitriol that stimulates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the expansion of intravascular volume, 61,62 or low-grade systemic inflammation and insulin resistance. 61 Few trials included aspirin in the intervention or control arms, yielding insufficient evidence to evaluate the additive or comparative effects of calcium and aspirin. However, our data suggest that the most important modifier of calcium effectiveness is baseline calcium intake and not pre-eclampsia risk, which would make calcium and aspirin potentially complementary preventative strategies.…”

Dietary calcium intake in Brazilian preschoolers and schoolchhildren: review of the literature

“…2 In addition, the intake of elemental calcium in the diet negatively correlates with cardiovascular disease by helping to reduce blood pressure through the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, decreasing fat absorption, and increasing lipolysis with lower lipid concentrations and body weight consequently. 3,4 Dietary calcium is mainly present in milk and dairy products, but foods, such as sardines, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli, are sources with a lower mineral concentration in daily diet. After ingestion, approximately 20-60% of dietary calcium is absorbed in the duodenum and jejunum, stimulated by calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D. In addition, periods of physiological change, such as growth in childhood, puberty, pregnancy, and lactation, increase the percentage of calcium absorption to maintain adequate bone mineralization.…”

Associations of Calcium Intake and Calcium from Various Sources with Blood Lipids in a Population of Older Women and Men with High Calcium Intake

“…Further supporting the complex interactions of nutrients/bioactive ingredients within different food matrices, fermented dairy products and especially yogurt, which are sources of probiotics, have been shown to exert some benefits on blood lipids and other metabolic risk factors (for relevant reviews see [ 16 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]). One hypothesis to explain these observations is that calcium in dairy products may influence the intestinal absorption and metabolism of lipids [ 26 , 27 ], and thus, it would be interesting to investigate whether calcium from different dairy sources has differential effects on lipid parameters.…”