The chalk in your cupboard (Calcium Carbonate)

As found in Tums and other antacid products. It is considered a medicine by some, with guidelines for its use including the warning of not taking it as an antacid for more than two weeks unless your doctor tells you to. I find this to be a strange admonishment since people take Tums and others willy nilly.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000035/
>>How should this medicine be used?

Calcium carbonate comes as a tablet, chewable tablet, capsule, and liquid to take by mouth. It is usually taken three or four times a day. Follow the directions on your prescription or package label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Take calcium carbonate exactly as directed. Do not take more or less of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor. When using this medicine as a dietary supplement, take it with food or following meals.

Chewable tablets should be chewed thoroughly before being swallowed; do not swallow them whole. Drink a full glass of water after taking either the regular or chewable tablets or capsules. Some liquid forms of calcium carbonate must be shaken well before use.

Do not take calcium carbonate as an antacid for more than 2 weeks unless your doctor tells you to.<<

You will find calcium carbonate in your "cheaper" dietary supplements. In your "more expensive" dietary supplements you will find calcium gluconate, calcium aspartate and calcium citrate.

Citrical has calcium citrate obviously,and it is a time released product which adds to its effectiveness.

Citrical also contains stuff you may not want:
Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Citrate, Magnesium Hydroxide, Acacia, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Croscarmellose Sodium, Magnesium Silicate, Titanium Dioxide (color), Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Magnesium Stearate, Inulin (Oligofructose Enriched), Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol).

Some persons do not want these items in their supplements... others have no qualms about it.

The calcium product (which is not expensive as some will suggest) that is available at a store that rhymes with whitamin stop contains the following.

Vitamin D (As Cholecalciferol)
204 IU
51%
Calcium (As Calcium Citrate)
333 Mg
33%
Magnesium (As Oxide, Aspartate, Citrate)
189 Mg
47%
as well as gelatin, water and magnesium stearate.

There are some who imply that health food stores and vitamin shops sell "expensive supplements" that are no different from the ones readily available at wallyworld. This simply isn't true. They imply that there is no difference between one that costs 5 dollars and one that costs 7. That simply is not true.

The product listed above is about 16 dollars for 300 capsules, and for someone with a genuine calcium supplement need, it is the intelligent choice, imho. The cheapest calcium supplements are simply calcium carbonate, the stuff you used to write on the blackboard with in school.... think about that for a minute.

All I am saying is you need to do your homework, read about supplement ingredients, understand the difference between absorption rates and bioavailability and fillers.

Yes some supplements are cheaper than others but not that much cheaper. They certainly are not the same, they certainly aren't as good for you as some that may cost a couple of dollars more. Don't be fooled into thinking that cheaper is better. Don't be misled into thinking that there isn't a difference when it comes to your health. This may not be true across the board but in calcium supplements it certainly is true.

As someone who suffers with over active acidic stomach, I use a variety of acid blockers, up to and including Nexium, avoiding the antacid tablets like Tums. Even with those drugs, I do not take them any longer than I need.

is often lacking rather than too much and the symptoms are pretty much the same.

We do a simple "test" by adding set specific amounts of HCL to a persons diet until they get a symtomatic response. If they take almost none and get a response that means that they have either enough or too much acid, but most patients find that they have too little.

Please take this advice with a grain of salt (unless you have hypertension) as our patient base self selects and may not be reflective of the population as a whole.

When I learned this I took vinegar, and learned also that lemon juice and cayenne pepper are things that help your stomach build more hydrochloric acid. I don't usually have any problems now.

I never thought of them as a supplement. I tend to like supplements with just one thing in them, so I can keep track of what I'm getting without getting confused of having to do a big spreadsheet and keep it up all the time.

The Tums seems to have been life-style related, since I retired and stopped using legal recreational drugs and eating junk food I no longer need Tums either.