Stroke and Calcium – a Relationship?

A paper given at the American Academy of Neurology Meeting this week announced an intriguing association: it seems that higher levels of calcium in the blood are associated with less severe stroke, and better overall outcomes. The research was based on the medical course of 240 consecutive stroke patients at UCLA Los Angeles.

Patients with a high blood calcium (compared with those with a low calcium) were likely to have a less severe stroke on admission – about one-third as severe – and these patients were 50-70% less likely to have poor function on discharge from hospital. The findings were ‘robust’; that is to say, they remained significant after corrections were made for age, use of anti-stroke drugs, the type of stroke, and other factors known to influence stroke occurrence and outcomes.

Calcium and magnesium are known to be involved in the pathways of cell death in stroke models, and it’s been claimed that high dietary intake of these minerals reduces the risk of stroke. However, there was no relationship between magnesium levels and stroke (severity or outcome) in this study.

There’s one study reported in 1999 that showed a protective effect of a high calcium intake, but not much since then. Perhaps this is a topic worth following up . . . .