Lesson 6: Calcium Copy

Private: Calcium

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body. About 99% of the calcium in the body is found in bones and teeth, while the other 1% is found in the blood and soft tissue. Calcium concentrations in the blood and fluid surrounding the cells (extracellular fluid) must be maintained within a narrow concentration range for normal physiological functioning. The physiological functions of calcium are so vital to survival that the body will stimulate bone resorption (demineralization) to maintain normal blood calcium concentrations when calcium intake is inadequate. Thus, adequate intake of calcium is a critical factor in maintaining a healthy skeleton. Vitamin D is essential to the absorption of calcium and is especially important in childhood and adolscence when bone growth and density is increasing. If you follow a vegan diet it is especially important to maintain your vitamin D intake to ensure calcium absorption. Calcium absorption is enhanced by milk and milk products, low sodium (including salt) intake and high potassium intake. However, absorption is inhibited by phytates (cereal foods, tea and coffee), oxalates in spinach, chard and rhubarb and supplemental intakes of minerals such as zinc. Calcium is present in milk and dairy products (cheese and yoghurt), leafy green vegetables (but not spinach), bread and foods containing white or brown flour, nuts, sesame seeds, tofu, pulses, fortified soya drinks and tap water in hard water areas.


A low blood calcium level (hypocalcemia) usually implies abnormal parathyroid function since the skeleton provides a large reserve of calcium for maintaining normal blood levels, especially in the case of low dietary calcium intake. Other causes of abnormally low blood calcium concentrations include chronic kidney failure, vitamin D deficiency, and low blood magnesium levels often observed in cases of severe alcoholism. Magnesium deficiency can impair parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion by the parathyroid glands and lower the responsiveness of osteoclasts to PTH. Thus, magnesium supplementation is required to correct hypocalcemia in people with low serum magnesium concentrations (see the article on Magnesium). Chronically low calcium intakes in growing individuals may prevent the attainment of optimal peak bone mass. Once peak bone mass is achieved, inadequate calcium intake may contribute to accelerated bone loss and ultimately to the development of osteoporosis

World Health Organization recommended calcium intake is 1,000 milligrams per day for adults (1200 for women over 50 and men over 70). With the upper limit being 2500 mg. Calcium is absorbed at different rates from different foods. One of the best sources is leafy green vegetables such as kale, cabbage, and broccoli. Other useful sources include nuts, seeds, tahini, figs, oranges, linseed/flaxseed, soybeans, chickpeas, pinto beans, kidney beans, lentils, tempeh, calcium set tofu, fortified plant yoghurt and plant milks, fortified orange juice, and fortified breakfast cereal. Calcium can be a relatively difficult mineral to absorb from foods. Depending on the type of calcium, and more importantly other accessory nutrients present in the meal, calcium absorption can vary greater than ten-fold from food to food. The most important contributors to this variability are the two nutrients (sometimes referred to as anti-nutrients) phytates (grains) and oxalate (spinach, chard, almonds, cashew, quinoa). Both are able to bind calcium tightly, reducing its absorption. Both are also nearly exclusively found in plant foods, with much variation from source to source.

Calcium metabolism refers to all the movements (and how they are regulated) of calcium atoms and ions into and out of various body compartments, such as the gut, the blood plasma, the interstitial fluids which bathe the cells in the body, the intracellular fluids, and bone. An important aspect, or component, of calcium metabolism is plasma calcium homeostasis, which describes the mechanisms whereby the concentration of calcium ions in the blood plasma is kept within very narrow limits.[1] Derangements of this mechanism lead to hypercalcemia or hypocalcemia, both of which can have important consequences for health. In humans, when the blood plasma ionized calcium level rises above its set point, the thyroid gland releases calcitonin, causing the plasma ionized calcium level to return to normal. When it falls below that set point, the parathyroid glands release parathyroid hormone (PTH), causing the plasma calcium level to rise.

Calcium location and quantity

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body. The average adult body contains in total approximately 1 kg, 99% in the skeleton in the form of calcium phosphate salts. The extracellular fluid (ECF) contains approximately 22 mmol, of which about 9 mmol is in the plasma.Approximately 10 mmol of calcium is exchanged between bone and the ECF over a period of twenty-four hours.[3] The concentration of calcium ions inside the cells (in the intracellular fluid) is 10,000 times lower than in the plasma (i.e. at <0.0002 mmol/L, compared with 1.4 mmol/L in the plasma).

Biological functions

Calcium has several main functions in the body. It readily binds to proteins, particularly those with amino acids whose side chains terminate in carboxyl (-COOH) groups (e.g. glutamate residues). When such binding occurs the electrical charges on the protein chain change, causing the protein’s tertiary structure (i.e. 3-dimensional form) to change. Good example of this are several of the clotting factors in the blood plasma, which are functionless in the absence of calcium ions, but become fully functional on the addition of the correct concentration of calcium salts. Sodium ion channels in the cell membranes of nerves and muscle are particularly sensitive to the calcium ion concentration in the plasma.[4] Relatively small decreases in the plasma ionized calcium levels (hypocalcemia) cause these channels to leak sodium into the nerve cells or axons, making them hyper-excitable (positive bathmotropic effect), thus causing spontaneous muscle spasms (tetany) and paraesthesia (the sensation of “pins and needles”) of the extremities and round the mouth. When the plasma ionized calcium rises above normal (hypercalcemia) more calcium is bound to these sodium channels having a negative bathmotropic effect on them, causing lethargy, muscle weakness, anorexia, constipation and labile emotions.

Calcium acts structurally as supporting material in bones as calcium phosphate.

Because the intracellular calcium ion concentration is extremely low (see above) the entry of minute quantities of calcium ions from the endoplasmic reticulum or from the extracellular fluids, cause rapid and very marked changes in the relative concentration of these ions in the cytosol. This can therefore serve as a very effective intracellular signal (or “second messenger“) in a variety of circumstances, including muscle contraction, the release of hormones (e.g. insulin from the beta cells in the pancreatic islets) or neurotransmitters (e.g. acetylcholine from pre-synaptic terminals of nerves) and other functions.

In skeletal and heart muscle calcium ions, released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (the endoplasmic reticulum of striated muscles) binds to the troponin C present on the actin-containing thin filaments of the myofibrils. The troponin then allosterically modulates the tropomyosin. Under normal circumstances, the tropomyosin sterically obstructs binding sites for myosin on the thin filament; once calcium binds to the troponin C and causes an allosteric change in the troponin protein, troponin T allows tropomyosin to move, unblocking the binding sites.

Normal ranges

The plasma level of calcium is closely regulated with a normal total calcium of 2.2-2.6 mmol/L (9-10.5 mg/dL) and a normal ionized calcium of 1.3-1.5 mmol/L (4.5-5.6 mg/dL).The amount of total calcium varies with the level of serum albumin, a protein to which calcium is bound. The biologic effect of calcium is determined by the amount of ionized calcium, rather than the total calcium. Ionized calcium does not vary with the albumin level, and therefore it is useful to measure the ionized calcium level when the serum albumin is not within normal ranges, or when a calcium disorder is suspected despite a normal total calcium level.

Corrected calcium level

One can derive a corrected calcium (also known as adjusted calcium) level, to allow for the change in total calcium due to the change in albumin-bound calcium. This gives an estimate of what the total calcium level would be if the albumin were a specified normal value. Exact formulae used to derive corrected calcium may depend on the analytical methods used for calcium and albumin. However the traditional method of calculating it is shown below:

Corrected calcium (mg/dL) = measured total Ca (mg/dL) + 0.8 (4.0 – serum albumin [g/dL]), where 4.0 represents the average albumin level in g/dL.

In other words, each 1 g/dL decrease of albumin will decrease 0.8 mg/dL in measured serum Ca and thus 0.8 must be added to the measured calcium to get a corrected calcium value.

Or: Corrected calcium (mmol/L) = measured total Ca (mmol/L) + 0.02 (40 – serum albumin [g/L]), where 40 represents the average albumin level in g/L

In other words, each 1 g/L decrease of albumin, will decrease 0.02 mmol/L in measured serum Ca and thus 0.02 must be added to the measured value to take this into account and get a corrected calcium.

When there is hypoalbuminemia (a lower than normal albumin), the corrected calcium level is higher than the total calcium.

Effector organs


The normal adult diet contains about 25 mmol of calcium per day. Only about 5 mmol of this is absorbed into the body per day (see below). Calcium is absorbed across the intestinal epithelial cell’s brush border membrane and is immediately bound to calbindin, a vitamin D-dependent calcium-binding protein. Calbindin transfers the calcium directly into the epithelial cell’s endoplasmic reticulum, through which the calcium is transferred to the basal membrane on the opposite side of the cell, without entering its cytosol. From there TRPV6 and calcium pumps (PMCA1actively transport calcium into the body.[7] Active transport of calcium occurs primarily in the duodenum portion of the intestine when calcium intake is low; and through passive paracellular transport in the jejunum and ileum parts when calcium intake is high, independently of Vitamin D level. The active absorption of calcium from the gut is regulated by the calcitriol (or 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol, or 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3) concentration in the blood. Calcitriol is a cholesterol derivative. Under the influence of ultraviolet light on the skin, cholesterol is converted to previtamin D3 which spontaneously isomerizes to vitamin D3 (or cholecaliferol).

Under the influence of parathyroid hormone, the kidneys convert cholecalciferol into the active hormone, 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol, which acts on the epithelial cells (enterocytes) lining the small intestine to increase the rate of absorption of calcium from the intestinal contents. Low parathyroid hormone levels in the blood (which occur under physiological conditions when the plasma ionized calcium levels are high) inhibit the conversion of cholecalciferol into calcitriol, which in turn inhibits calcium absorption from the gut. The opposite happens when the plasma ionized calcium levels are low: parathyroid hormone is secreted into the blood and the kidneys convert more cholecalciferol into the active calcitriol, increasing calcium absorption from the gut. Since about 15 mmol of calcium is excreted into the intestine via the bile per day, the total amount of calcium that reaches the duodenum and jejunum each day is about 40 mmol (25 mmol from the diet plus 15 mmol from the bile), of which, on average, 20 mmol is absorbed (back) into the blood. The net result is that about 5 mmol more calcium is absorbed from the gut than is excreted into it via the bile. If there is no active bone building (as in childhood), or increased need for calcium during pregnancy and lactation, the 5 mmol calcium that is absorbed from the gut makes up for urinary losses that are only partially regulated. Most excretion of excess calcium is via the bile and feces, because the plasma calcitriol levels (which ultimately depend on the plasma calcium levels) regulate how much of the biliary calcium is reabsorbed from the intestinal contents. Urinary excretion of calcium is relatively modest (about 5 mmol/day) in comparison to what can be excreted via the feces (15 mmol/day).

Not all the calcium in the diet can be readily absorbed from the gut. The calcium that is most readily absorbed is found in dairy product and eggs, as well as in tinned fish products. The calcium contained in vegetable matter is often complexed with phytatesoxalatescitrate and other organic acids, such as the long-chained fatty acids (e.g. palmitic acid), with which calcium binds to form insoluble calcium soaps

*To Convert mmol to mg, Multiply by 18 For Example 20mmol = 360mg*


The kidney filters 250 mmol a day in pro-urine (or glomerular filtrate), and resorbs 245 mmol, leading to a net loss in the urine of 5 mmol/d. In addition to this, the kidney processes Vitamin D3 into calcitriol, the active form that is most effective in assisting intestinal absorption. Both process are influenced by the plasma parathyroid hormone level.

The role of bone

Although calcium flow to and from the bone is neutral, about 5-10 mmol is turned over a day. Bone serves as an important storage point for calcium, as it contains 99% of the total body calcium. Calcium release from bone is regulated by parathyroid hormoneCalcitonin stimulates incorporation of calcium in bone, although this process is largely independent of calcitonin. Low calcium intake may also be a risk factor in the development of osteoporosis. In one meta-analysis, the authors found that fifty out of the fifty-two studies that they reviewed showed that calcium intake promoted better bone balance.[14] With a better bone balance, the risk of osteoporosis is lowered.

Regulation of calcium metabolism

A diagrammatic representation of the movements of calcium ions into and out of the blood plasma (the central square labeled PLASMA Ca2+) in and adult in calcium balance. The widths of the arrows indicating movement into and out of the plasma are roughly in proportion to the daily amounts of calcium moved in the indicated directions. The size of the central square in not in proportion to the size of the diagrammatic bone, which represents the calcium present in the skeleton, and contains approximately 25,000 mmol (or 1 kg) of calcium compared to the 9 mmol dissolved in the blood plasma. The purple arrows indicate where the various hormones act, and their effects when their plasma levels are high. PTH is parathyroid hormone, 1,25 OH VIT D3 is calcitriol or 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3, and CALCITONIN is a hormone secreted by the thyroid gland when the plasma ionized calcium level is high or rising. The diagram does not show the extremely small amounts of calcium that move into and out of the cells of the body, nor does it indicate the calcium that is bound to the extracellular proteins (in particular the plasma proteins).

The plasma ionized calcium concentration is regulated to within very narrow limits (1.3 – 1.5 mmol/L), despite being the central hub through which calcium is moved from one body compartment to the other (see diagram on the right). This is achieved by both the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland, and the parathyroid glands constantly sensing (i.e. measuring) the concentration of calcium ions in the blood flowing through them. When the concentration rises the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland increase their secretion of calcitonin (a proteinaceous hormone) into the blood. At the same time the parathyroid glands reduce their rate of parathyroid hormone (or PTH, also a proteinaceous hormone) secretion into the blood. The resulting high levels of calcitonin in the blood stimulate the skeleton to remove calcium from the blood plasma, and deposit it as bone. The reduced levels of PTH inhibit removal of calcium from the skeleton. The low levels of PTH have several other effects: they increase the loss of calcium in the urine, but more importantly inhibit the loss of phosphate ions via that route. Phosphate ions will therefore be retained in the plasma where they form insoluble salts with calcium ions, thereby removing them from the ionized calcium pool in the blood. The low levels of PTH also inhibit the formation of calcitrol (1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3) from cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) by the kidneys. The reduction in the blood calcitrol concentration acts (comparatively slowly) on the epithelial cells (enterocytes) of the duodenum inhibiting their ability to absorb calcium from the intestinal contents.

When the plasma ionized calcium level is low or falls the opposite happens. Calcitonin secretion is inhibited and PTH secretion is stimulated, resulting in calcium being removed from bone to rapidly correct the plasma calcium level. The high plasma PTH levels inhibit calcium loss via the urine while stimulating the excretion of phosphate ions via that route. They also stimulate the kidneys to manufacture calcitrol (a steroid hormone), which enhances the ability of the cells lining the gut to absorb calcium from the intestinal contents into the blood, by stimulating the production of calbindin in these cells. This is, however, a relatively slow process. Thus fast short term regulation of the plasma ionized calcium level primarily involves rapid movements of calcium into or out of the skeleton. Longer term regulation is achieved by regulating the amount of calcium absorbed from the gut or lost via the feces.



Hypocalcemia and hypercalcemia are both serious medical disorders.

Renal osteodystrophy is a consequence of chronic renal failure related to the calcium metabolism.

Osteoporosis and osteomalacia have been linked to calcium metabolism disorders.

Research into cancer prevention

The role that calcium might have in reducing the rates of colorectal cancer has been the subject of many studies. However, given its modest efficacy, there is no current medical recommendation to use calcium for cancer reduction. Several epidemiological studies suggest that people with high calcium intake have a reduced risk of colorectal cancer. These observations have been confirmed by experimental studies in volunteers and in rodents. One large scale clinical trial shows that 1.2 g calcium each day reduces, modestly, intestinal polyps recurrence in volunteers.Data from the four published trials are available.Some forty carcinogenesis studies in rats or mice, reported in the Chemoprev.Database, also support that calcium could prevent intestinal cancer.

Sources of calcium on a Raw Vegan Diet 

½ cup of tofu prepared with calcium sulfate is 434 mg of calcium

1 cup of dried figs (compote) is 240mg of calcium

1 cup of nettle tea (2 cups/ 100g of fresh leaves decocted) is 481 mg of Calcium, 2011 IU Vitamin A – 1150 mcg b-carotene, 4178 mcg of Lutein + Zeaxanthin (antioxidants), 498 mcg of Vitamin K, and small amounts of Magnesium, Potassium, zinc and phosphorus.

1 Medium Orange is 60mg so a juice with 10 oranges is 600mg of calcium

½ cup of almonds is 183 mg of calcium

1 Tablespoon of sesame seeds is 88 mg calcium

100g of kale is 150mg of calcium which is 15% of our Rda, we should absorb between 40 to 60% of this.

Although spinach is suggested a great vegan source of calcium it does need to be heated for proper absorption of calcium as it is rich in oxalates which block absorption of the calcium.

Raw Spinach Benefits: There is no need to shun raw spinach simply because it contains oxalic acid. It is also rich in many essential nutrients, some of which are more available to our bodies when we consume them raw. These nutrients include folate, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, and potassium. We can still absorb some calcium from raw spinach albeit a small amount roughly 10% of the calcium. Add other low oxalate greens such as kale. When taken kale and spinach together the oxalates in the spinach will not inhibit the absorption of calcium from the kale.

Cooked Spinach Benefits: When you eat spinach that has been heated, you will absorb higher levels of vitamins A and E, protein, fiber, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron. Important carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lutein, and Zeaxanthin, also become more absorbable.

Sumarry Note:

Ensuring you Drink at least 1 cup of orange juice daily (5 oranges 300mg), 1 cup of nettle tea daily (100g leaves 481mg), 1 cup of juiced kale ( 100g = 150mg calcium) and some sesame seeds (2 table spoons 176mg can ensure adequate intake of calcium on a raw vegan diet. Although giving the complex and individual nature of calcium absorption, your body may only absorb between 40 and 60% of this amount, if the RDA of calcium is 1000 mg daily. Then is it vital to top up with foods like Fortified vegan milks, Tofu set with calcium, a vegan supplement of Calcium or plenty of dark green leaves juiced daily as a top up in addition to the foods mentioned above.


Other important factors are

Take calcium and vitamin D together

Soak and sprouts nuts and seeds to release phytase which inhibit phytates that bind to calcium and inhibit absorption

Include low oxalate greens such as broccoli and kale (steamed or juiced).

Take calcium in smaller amounts throughout the day rather than in one large amount for better absorption.

Juicing, Fermenting, Blending, Soaking and sprouting can all help in reducing the phytates, lectins and oxalates in plant foods, which will increase absorption of calcium and other minerals.

Further Reading:

See More Information Here 

Read More about Phytates Here

Read More about nettles, which are fantastic for Calcium, Vitamin K and Vitamin A (b-carotene).

Read More here about oranges 

View Vitamin Conversion Chart