What I did was use fitday.com to calculate my current calcium and magnesium intake and then worked out my supplements so that the supplements PLUS my food intake would make for a good balance of calcium vs magnesium. Most people seem to recommend an approx 2 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium. Since I am female, the RDAs suggest about 1000mg calcium and about 350mg of magnesium daily. So what I do now is take enough supplement for my total intake to be a bit above suggested RDAs and still at approx 2 to 1 ratio (but some say 1 to 1 is better). The end result is I am intaking (food plus supps) about 1200mg calcium and about 600 mg magnesium per day. I may tweek this depending on whatever else I may find out in the future. But this is my opening attack on the problem, n=1 and all that jazz.
One reason I am going a bit over the RDA is because I have noticed that since on paleo, my teeth are getting a bit translucent and I'm getting some weird aches. My teeth have never been translucent in my life so I think there is a prob. The supps seem to have gotten rid of the aches. HOpefully, the teeth will either stop getting translucent or they will improve but it will probably take some time before I will find out. I know that some say that acidic fruit removes tooth enamal, but I find it hard to believe that eating a bit of fruit once per day is enough to remove enamel from healthy teeth. Instead, I think there is a prob with calcium deposition and since sufficient calcium plus magnesium is needed for that,and also happen to be the two nutrients I am not meeting my RDAs on, the coincidence is way too much for me to be stupid enough to ignore. Ironically, I used to eat whole grain wheat bread about 4 times per week and whole grain wheat is a good source of magnesium, so I may have caused additional probs in an already magnesium poor diet when I nixed that source.
Anyway, I got separate pills for the magnesium and the calcium mostly cuz the combo pills at the vitamin store all had the oxide form of magnesium which is poorly digested. Some say you should take the two separately and separate times of day and other say it doesn't matter much. I am not yet decided about who is right. I do want to intake smaller amounts twice daily instead of one big dose. This improves digestion. So I may end up taking them together at half dosage twice per day. One thing for sure is that they say magnesium oxide has very poor digestability so steer clear. Most magnesium supps contain all or some magnesium oxide. One study showed only 6% digestability of the oxide form! That's close to useless! What I bought is a chelated form in which the magnesium is chelated (bound) to amino acids for better digestion. SUpposedly, this form also does not upset the intestines either.
For calcium I bought calcium carbonate, although some say this one is less ideal because it has some effect at neutralizing stomach acids and may be about 25% less digestable. Best solution might be to intake it with acidic foods. My stomach acids seem fine so I was not super worried about it and I figured it would good enough at least until I had time to do more research. Many people seem to think calcium citrate might be one of the better sups for calcium. Tons of info here: http://www.advancedhealthplan.com/Calcium_Citrate.html
I am thinking down the line of grinding up some healthy homegrown chicken bones for use as a supp, but need to do some research. Some are saying calcium phosphate may not be ideal as it further throws off the calcium phosphorous balance for those who are eating a high phosphorous diet (like paleo) Increased phosphorous intake (like in paleo) is said to drive need for more calcium, which may indicate blowing off calcium RDAs may not always be a good idea for paleo eaters.
Oh and in case anyone feels the need to mention vitamin D, yes, I am working hard to get my direct sun intake every day so my D levels are probably higher now than they have ever been. Therefore, it is unlikely that lack of D is causing my translucent teeth. However, improved levels of D can also increase need for Calcium so it may be that improved D levels may actually by driving my teeth prob by further undermining what was already a calcium poor diet. If intake levels of important nutrients are already borderline, it might not take much to tip the balance to a critical level.
Blah, it all gets so complicated! It can be hard to figure out what to do, but I do know I don't want to sit around and watch and my teeth turn tranluscent while my joints ache. My plan is to try to supplement judiciously in only those areas where I appear to be lacking and then go from there. Magnesium and calcium seem to be the big critical areas for me. I seem to be blowing the roof off of most of the other RDA levels.
-Eva
