If a supplement as 500mg of elemental calcium how much does your body absorb?!
Question: This is a hard question to answer. I cannot say you will absorb 400mg of it or perhaps 250mg. Absorption is affected by calcium status, vit. D status, age, pregnancy and the calcium content of meals. As the amount of Ca++ increases, the efficiency of absorption decreases. The amount of vit. D present affects absorption. And in adulthood absorption begins to decline to 15-20% and declines even more as we get older.
You might absorb 60% of a 500mg supplement whereas I might absorb 80%. And if you skipped vit. D on one day and stayed indoors, you might absorb even less than 60%. There are too many variables to give one single answer.
Answers: This is a hard question to answer. I cannot say you will absorb 400mg of it or perhaps 250mg. Absorption is affected by calcium status, vit. D status, age, pregnancy and the calcium content of meals. As the amount of Ca++ increases, the efficiency of absorption decreases. The amount of vit. D present affects absorption. And in adulthood absorption begins to decline to 15-20% and declines even more as we get older.
You might absorb 60% of a 500mg supplement whereas I might absorb 80%. And if you skipped vit. D on one day and stayed indoors, you might absorb even less than 60%. There are too many variables to give one single answer.
It depends on whether you eat anything with the supplement. All or most absorption of minerals comes in the small intestine, so however long the supplement is in the small intestine is how much it will absorb. If you eat it alone, the minerals could pass very quickly and not much will be absorbed. On average I would say at least half would be. There is one case of drugs for osteoperosis and ONLY 1% gets absorbed making it extremely expensive.