Hair calcium paradox - a report of two cases of a controlled intermittent dietary calcium, magnesium and vitamin D supplementation vs. a case of non supplementation

摘要

Abstract. Objective: To assess the effect of intermittent custom-made dietary supplementation with Ca, Mg, and vitamin D based on an individual trace element (TE) multielement profile (MP) of the hair and whole blood (WB). Subjects: Initially, we used the hair and WB TE MP to assess Mg, Ca, and Si nutritional status of 48 healthy subjects of both sexes. After the completion of the proposed customized supplementation regimen, 3 perimenopausal women reported for the control TE MP analysis. Before the supplementation, one of them (Subject A) had increased Ca, Mg, and Si in the hair, the other (Subject B) had Ca and Mg increased, and the third one (Subject C) had normal hair Ca and Mg. Methods: TE MP of 41 elements was analyzed in the hair and WB with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). Data on Ca and Mg are also reported for all the healthy subjects. Results: Women have higher Ca and Mg of the hair than men. Counter intuitively, when dietary supplemented with Ca, Mg, Si and vitamin D, hair Ca, Mg and Si decrease in perimenopausal women having initially high Ca, Mg, and Si hair concentrations (calcium paradox). Conclusion: TE MP of the hair is the important indicator of the individual trace element status so that the dietary supplementation can be customized. Indeed, hair is a "memory tissue" due to its unidirectional growth, whereas TE in the blood has to equilibrate with the surrounding biochemical pools. The better bone mineralization may be expected if Ca, Mg, and vitamin D are supplemented simultaneously in accord with an objective individual trace element multielement profile (TE MP) of the hair.