Calcium.

[zipitydoo]

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts with this being in the news this week.

bbc.co.uk/news/health-18175707

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Thanks for the link, very interesting. Sure is hard to know what is the right thing to do with all the conflicting information. What is good for you this week will be bad for you next week!

[Alley27]

Hi..I taker Adcal, which is a combination of calcium and Vit D supposedly to protect my bones with me being on steroids, but that aside we are what we eat and I am positive that we can eat enough calcium and Vit D in our food if we are following a healthy balanced diet....

Very interesting link.....but again things are always in a state of change and as lovemyliver said; what's good for us one week is not the next.....we have to make informed choices for ourselves when it is to do with something as important as our health.

xxConniefused

[zipitydoo]

I think we all probably take it as it goes hand in hand with the urso.

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I used to take calcios ( cant remember the spelling) and vit D but I stopped taking both at the end of last year, I just got fed up of side effects and all the different pills they were trying to shove down.

[Judy48]

If you drink one glass of low fat milk 1/2 glass of oj and high fiber breads you get all the calvium you need and I take a multi vit which also has calcium so if your level of calcium is good based on blood work you should not take any extra to much of a good thing is just that I do however take 2 vit D pills every day one in the am and one in the evening... I also take milk thistle 2,000 mg a day it helps liver function I have been on it for years as I was first diagnoised with Hep C in 2004. Hope this helps !!!!! Oh one last thing mention milk thistle to your Dr. and they will dismiss it as useless.

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I don't take any calcium or Vit D supplements. Never have. I was advised in 2010 before diagnose by my GP that my Vit D was 'low' but at that time never got a figure as what was normal reading and what considered low. GP advised me to buy OTC calcium as has Vit D but that was before I was seen by hospital consultant Oct 2010 where I had the antibodies testing.

In a way glad I didn't bother really and increased foods that were calcium rich (tinned salmon with the bones for one) as well as eating oranges for another for Vit D tho' the sun is best at this but not that good Oct in England and 'up north'.

When I was diagnosed Dec 2010 and had first blood check within 2mths of starting on urso the Vit D was rechecked. The consultant wrote to me and said Vit D was 'a bit low' and suggested maybe injection form from GP as he said that tablet form wouldn't be of use in PBC! I rang his secretary and asked her what 'a bit low' meant as I hadn't a clue at the time what was supposed to be considered normal. She sent me the blood test results and I saw that the Vit D was just on the mark for becoming low but nothing to get worked up about. Last yr at recheck due to doing a bit of lazing in the sun which I never did before, my Vit D was normal and the hospital consultant said when I saw him last Oct that it is can be expected to go lower during the months we have less daylight and not much sun as after all we are in England.

I know if you were to buy a jar of malt extract that has cod liver oil in it you will get Vit D as it has been added and to me that is a bit better tho' I'm not someone who can take supplements (still have a thing about taking urso after 17mths now!) obsessively.

I did decide I would give milk thistle a go last mth as I've always been a bit of an alternative health sort of person and just take one a day (in a drink as don't like the pasticky capsule outer so break open as you can do) and my recent blood results came back rather fantastic in comparison to what they had gone to March 1st this yr so in 11wks there was some great improvement.

[TerrieLee]

i've taken calcium and vit d for years because i also have osteoporosis, so i'm confused by what is in the news now. Live in on gulf coast of florida, so i probably get plenty of vit d. I would love to stop taking calcium and vit d cause I hate pills. I usually only take one urso a day partly because i hate pills, help, help. Love my doctor, but he tells me to do what i'm comfortable with.

[Tracy-L]

When I was diagnosed in March this year I was told by my Gastro Consultant that I had PBC and told to check out the PBC Foundation website, the whole appointment took less than 5 minuets.

A month later he wrote to my GP saying I should be perscribed Adcal, My GP called me in to discuss this with me as previous blood tests have shown that my Calcium levels are at the upper end of normal. She left the decision to me and as I am diabetic with high bloodpressure I am already taking a lot of Medication as well as urso I decided not to add any further medication to the 2 injections and10 tablets I already take each day.

I have more faith in my GP who didn't seem to think I needed Adcal than a Consultant who only gave me 5 minuets of his time and didn't give me a chance to ask any questions surely calcium levels should be checked before before this medication is prescribed.

[Val02]

I was given Adcal as I have osteoporosis but it made me so ill I stopped taking it. So that was the end of my calcium taking experience, gastro said dont eat anything you find hard to digest and said if it makes you ill dont take it. I do eat plenty of calcium rich food though, I like the sun, and I take Risedrontate weekly.