Calcium citrate – constipation reliever?

For anyone who has been prescribed calcium supplements, the risk of constipation may well have been mentioned.

Are you at risk? Well, it may depend on the actual calcium supplement you take. According to Constipation Remedies for All, constipation is one of the biggest side effect of taking a calcium supplement:

“Based on a 5-year study done on 1460 elderly women taking calcium supplements, constipation was one of the main adverse event reported.

The occurrence of calcium and constipation among this sample was 13.4%, not much higher than in the placebo group (9.1%). The difference is nonetheless notable – about 4.3% of the constipation cases were due to calcium supplementation.

When you have been struggling for years with constipation trying to find a possible cause, nothing is negligible. Nothing should be swept under the rug. Even though the probability is low, the risk of calcium and constipation is still real.”

So how does calcium trigger constipation? One of the theories is that calcium dehydrates the kidneys.

Among the many jobs that the kidneys have to do is the regulation of the levels of electrolytes in our body: sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and more.

Through the retention or excretion of sodium, the kidneys control our level of hydration, how much water is being kept by our body.

Remember this simple rule: Water follows sodium.

When the kidneys want to reduce the level of water in our body (because we absorbed a large amount for instance), they evacuate sodium through our urine. Water follows the salt, having a net dehydrating effect. When the kidneys want to retain water (because it is hot outside and we are getting dehydrated), they will retain sodium in our blood. The water will say in. Less water in the kidneys mean that constipation soon follows.

Another reason is that a lack of tonicity of gastrointestinal muscles.

According to the blog, having a high level of calcium in the blood means that is has a depressive effect of your nervous system. This results in the lack of tonicity of the smooth muscles of your gastrointestinal tract.

As a result, the colon may move slower. Food residues stay longer in the “dehydrating machine” that the colon is. This leads to constipation.