@Vikas Calcium carbonate can be an anti-diarrheal drug. It can give you constipation. If it does, adding magnesium to the formula can prevent that, since magnesium is a laxative.
You don't need K2 alongside calcium. Nonsense. You should consume around 1200 mg of calcium every day. If you can't get that much from meals, you should try the supplement.
To do that, you need to ensure at least two cups of yogurt or two and a half glasses of milk alongside healthy-ish food (meaning, proper food, not snacks or fast food)
Magnesium itself is not a problem unless 1) you have a very poor diet; people in ICU that can't be fed normally require magnesium, 2) you have some kidney condition, 3) you take drugs that are toxic to kidneys (lithium, ciclosporin etc.) Common signs of magnesium deficiency are rigidity and spasms, especially in the lower limb muscles, and tingling painful sensations of the limbs.
@Vikas D3 is in every way superior to D2. That's the end of that. People whose kidneys function at less than half of a normal person's require 25-OH vit D3, the form that is normally activated by the kidneys instead.
> If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
Dietary calcium is superior to calcium supplements. Fewer side effects, and it prevents kidney stones (the excess calcium in food binds oxalate in the intestines and prevents its absorption, while a calcium carbonate pill is absorbed whose excess calcium is excreted in urine, increasing slightly the chance of kidney stones)
@CowperKettle a bit excessive. Unless your vit D blood levels are 10-30 (mg/dL I think?)
@Vikas calcium supplements are commonly either carbonate or citrate. Carbonate has twice the amount of elemental calcium, meaning that 1000 mg Ca carbonate = 2 × 1000 mg Ca citrate. No more than 500 mg of calcium is absorbed from any meal, so taking the supplements with milk isn't a good idea: Just drink the milk instead.
@tchrist I'm not in my later years and I'm already disenchanted
Calcium citrate is, however, better for people whose stomach doesn't produce any acid (because they take omeprazole or famotidine for heartburn or peptic ulcer). People also thought citrate is better for the kidneys, less chance of kidney stone formation, but the evidence doesn't seem to support that.
@tchrist sometimes I feel like I'm a child with some extra facial hair
@CowperKettle that's still not conclusively proven, nor the increased risk of pancreatic cancer at high vit D levels. Doesn't hurt to be cautious though.
@Vik ideally, you would have the results of a blood 25-OH vit D test to determine the dose of vit D. Diets high in carb like rice are a bit D-deficient, so I recommend every patient 50 000 IU of vit D monthly, at least. If the levels are around 10-30, 50 000 IU every week to two weeks until corrected or for a couple of months.
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