Description

Calcium is an essential nutrient for human health. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body. Almost 99% of body's calcium is found in bones and teeth (2).

The bone is a dynamic and active organ with a complex structure. Bones play many fundamental roles in body – provide structure, protect organs, anchor muscles, store minerals and produce red and white blood cells. Throughout its lifetime, the bone goes through both, destruction and formation carried out by osteoclasts and osteoblasts respectively. As part of growth and development, skeleton undergoes these processes to gain appropriate shape and structure. This process is called modeling. Whereas during remodeling, there is simultaneous break down of old or damaged bone and replacement with new bone mass. Remodeling accounts for complete regeneration of the adult skeleton every 10 years (1).

body needs calcium for various functions including strengthening of bones and teeth, blood clotting and cardiovascular and neurological functioning (2).

• Low calcium intakes early in life not only predispose you to osteoporosis later in life, but make bones more fragile in childhood and adolescence as well (3).
• Calcium is required for vascular contraction vasodilation, muscle function, nerve transmission, intracellular signaling and hormonal secretion, though less than 1% of total body calcium is needed to support these critical metabolic functions (2).
• Symptoms of hypocalcemia (calcium deficiency) include numbness and tingling in the fingers, muscle cramps, convulsions, lethargy poor appetite, and abnormal heart rhythms (2).

Role of calcium in muscle contraction

Actin and myosin are responsible for muscle contraction. Calcium dependent signaling pathway regulates this action. In all muscle cells, contraction of muscle depends on an increase in cytosolic calcium concentration. Therefore presence of calcium muscle contracts and in absence of calcium, actin and myosin don't interact with each other which results in muscle relaxation (11).

Role of calcium in neural signaling

Calcium is known to play an active role in neuronal signaling pathway. It acts as secondary messenger. Calcium has a role in role in apoptosis, neurotransmitter release and membrane excitability (12).

Calcium requirements

Women

Several reasons make women more vulnerable to bone related disorders as compared to men. Estrogen, a hormone with a protective effect on bones, reduces sharply post menopause, which increases the chance of developing osteoporosis. Estrogen decreases bone remodeling and bone resorption & maintains bone formation (4).

• Reduced estrogen production increases bone loss and reduces calcium absorption (4). In the five to seven years post menopause, women may lose about 20% of their bone density (2).
• Breastfeeding can also have serious implications on the bone development and bone health of the infant and the mother. Full breastfeeding is associated with nearly 200mg/day of calcium outflow from mother to infant – a considerable portion of the mother's daily requirement (5).

Men

• Estrogen is found to be relevant for the bone health of men as higher levels are associated with higher bone density while lower levels, with low bone density (6)
• One in 12 men suffer from osteoporosis which can lead to serious and disabling consequences including fractures of the spine, hip and wrist (6).
• Both men and women lose bone mass at the same rate by the age of 65 or 70 and the calcium absorption also reduces (6)

Why Algae Calcium supplement is so much better than regular calcium

Algae calcium is a plant and vegan calcium source that functions more holistically, and is a superior, more effective and reliable alternative to traditional calcium products. While regular supplements, a majority of which contain calcium carbonate and calcium citrate – mostly derived from marble and limestone, merely slow bone loss (7) to an extent, algae calcium contributes by increasing bone density (8).

Algae calcium:

• is easily absorbed and the body is able to utilize over 80% (9) of the useful minerals as compared with extremely low utilization (less than 10%) in case of synthetic minerals contained in popular supplements with calcium carbonate and calcium citrate.
• contains other bioavailable pre-digested minerals – 73 trace minerals, of which 30% is calcium and 4% is magnesium (9).

A very important benefit of algae calcium is that it can act as a medium for enhancing the proliferation and mineralization of the osteoblasts (bone building cells) (9).

The following biochemical mechanisms allow algae calcium to have this property:

• increases the activity of ALP – an enzyme which is involved in bone mineralization.
• increases PCNA cell expression and DNA synthesis which leads to proliferation of osteoblasts.
• the osteoblast cells treated with algae calcium supplement show increased calcium deposition as compared with inorganic forms.

The Unived difference

Compared to other calcium supplements, Unived uses a vegan calcium source (from algae) that is more bio-available and made for maximum absorption and utilization. Most commercially available sources of calcium are inorganic forms- calcium carbonate and calcium citrate, acquired from marbles and limestone. Unived’s algal calcium is pure plant-based calcium with higher bioavailability. Being from an algal source it contains 73 other pre-digested minerals.

Evidence-Based or Bust

We use ingredients backed by a significant body of research that is growing each day.

1. Birth and Death of Bone Cells: Basic Regulatory Mechanisms and Implications for the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Osteoporosis
   Manolagas, S. C. (2000). Birth and death of bone cells: basic regulatory mechanisms and implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis. Endocrine reviews, 21(2), 115-137.
   
2. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D.
   Institute of Medicine (US) Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium; Ross AC, Taylor CL, Yaktine AL, et al., editors. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011. 2, Overview of Calcium.
   
3. Nutritional bone disease in Indian population
   S Teotia, S. P., & Teotia, M. (2008). Nutritional bone disease in Indian population. The Indian journal of medical research, 127(3), 219–228.
   
4. Primary osteoporosis in postmenopausal women
   Ji, M. X., & Yu, Q. (2015). Primary osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Chronic diseases and translational medicine, 1(1), 9–13.
   
5. Calcium intakes and bone densities of lactating women and breast-fed infants in The Gambia
   . Ann Prentice et al, 'Lactation and Bone Development: Implications for the Calcium Requirements of Infants and Lactating Mothers', Nutrition and Bone Development, Nestle Nutrition Workshop Series, Vol. 4, Vevey/Lippincot – Raven Publishers, 1999.
   
6. Osteoporosis in Men
   'Osteoporosis in Men', Osteoporosis, NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Centre.
   
7. Use of calcium or calcium in combination with vitamin D supplementation to prevent fractures and bone loss in people aged 50 years and older: a meta-analysis
   Tang, B. M., Eslick, G. D., Nowson, C., Smith, C., & Bensoussan, A. (2007). Use of calcium or calcium in combination with vitamin D supplementation to prevent fractures and bone loss in people aged 50 years and older: a meta-analysis. Lancet (London, England), 370(9588), 657–666.
   
8. Changes in total body bone mineral density following a common bone health plan with two versions of a unique bone health supplement: a comparative effectiveness research study
   Michalek, J. E., Preuss, H. G., Croft, H. A., Keith, P. L., Keith, S. C., Dapilmoto, M., Perricone, N. V., Leckie, R. B., & Kaats, G. R. (2011). Changes in total body bone mineral density following a common bone health plan with two versions of a unique bone health supplement: a comparative effectiveness research study. Nutrition journal, 10, 32.
   
9. Comparative effects of a novel plant-based calcium supplement with two common calcium salts on proliferation and mineralization in human osteoblast cells
   Adluri, R. S., Zhan, L., Bagchi, M., Maulik, N., & Maulik, G. (2010). Comparative effects of a novel plant-based calcium supplement with two common calcium salts on proliferation and mineralization in human osteoblast cells. Molecular and cellular biochemistry, 340(1-2), 73–80.
   
10. Signaling in Muscle Contraction
    Kuo, I. Y., & Ehrlich, B. E. (2015). Signaling in muscle contraction. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology, 7(2), a006023.
    
11. Neuronal calcium signaling: function and dysfunction
    Brini, M., Calì, T., Ottolini, D., & Carafoli, E. (2014). Neuronal calcium signaling: function and dysfunction. Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS, 71(15), 2787–2814.