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When the importance of getting adequate calcium in the diet as a means to preventing osteoporosis started to become highly publicized, the makers of TUMS antacid cleverly jumped on the bandwagon and repositioned TUMS as an osteoporosis treatment. 

No doubt many people bought into the marketing (I’ve even had patients tell me that their doctor recommended TUMS as a calcium supplement).  It seemed logical - TUMS is largely composed of calcium, bones need calcium, so the natural conclusion is that TUMS is good for your bones.

There’s one little problem though.  To absorb calcium efficiently, you need a pretty acidic environment in the stomach.  So TUMS may have lots of calcium in it, but because TUMS decreases the acidity of the stomach (that is what its original purpose was), you simply won’t absorb much of the calcium in TUMS. 

I have to hand it to the makers of TUMS for their ability to think outside the box - it’s too bad that the claim just doesn’t hold up. 

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more osteoporosis information.

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