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By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Oct. 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Calcium supplements, taken within recommended levels, can be considered safe for the heart, according to new guidelines.
Over the past decade, a number of studies have raised questions about whether calcium supplements might contribute to heart disease or stroke. Just this month, a study of U.S. adults found that supplement users were more likely than nonusers to have plaque buildup in their heart arteries. (Calcium is a component of artery-clogging "plaques.")
But a new research review, commissioned by the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), has come to a different conclusion.
On balance, the review found, the evidence doesn't support a connection between calcium supplements and heart disease or stroke.
As long as people don't go overboard, calcium supplements should be considered "safe from a cardiovascular standpoint," say the guidelines from the NOF and the American Society for Preventive Cardiology.
Getting calcium from foods such as milk, yogurt and tofu is still preferred, the groups say.
Supplements can be used to "fill any gaps" in a person's diet, said Taylor Wallace, one of the authors of the guidelines. Wallace is an affiliate professor of nutrition at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
The guidelines and the evidence review are being published online Oct. 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The NOF funded the review through a grant from Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, which makes calcium supplements.
Wallace said he thinks the research review "puts the nail in the coffin" when it comes to the calcium/heart disease issue.
Not everyone agreed, however.
The review confirms that calcium-rich foods are safe for heart health, according to Dr. Erin Michos. She's the associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
But, Michos said, the review didn't include all of the "potentially relevant" studies that have examined calcium supplements.
As an example, she pointed to a 2012 study that found a higher heart attack risk among people who used calcium supplements. This study was excluded from the new review because it didn't have information on the doses people took.