Habitual calcium supplementation may increase incident CVD and mortality in diabetes patients

The team investigated this association with 434,374 participants from the UK Biobank. Out of these, 21676 participants had diabetes. The median follow-up duration was 8.1 years (incident events) and 11.2 years (mortality events).

The main points of the study summary are:

· 26,374 had incident CVD events.

· Researchers documented 20,526 deaths, including 4007 CVD deaths.

· Habitual calcium supplementation is associated with higher risks of CVD incidence, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality in diabetic patients with HR of 1.34, 1.67 and 1.44, respectively.

· There was no significant association in those without diabetes with HR of 0.97, 1.05 and 1.02, respectively, for CVD incidence; CVD mortality and all-cause mortality

· They found no interactions between dietary or serum calcium and diabetes status.

Based on our study's findings, they said that Habitual use of calcium supplements increased the risk of CVD events and mortality in diabetes patients but not in non-diabetics.

Further investigations are warranted regarding the risks and benefits of calcium supplements among patients with diabetes.

The study has highlighted an important consideration regarding the cautious use of long-term calcium supplements in people with diabetes.

Further reading:

https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-abstract/doi/10.2337/dc23-0109/151370/Associations-of-Habitual-Calcium-Supplementation