Question:
Anyone have any feedback on this liquid calcium supplement?

Hey gang. I found a liquid calcium supplement the other day at the local health store, but I am unsure if it is a good thing for us. It is a calcium + mag + vitamin D supplement made by Innovative Natural Products. The web page is: http://www.inponline.com/catalog/calcium.htm . I am a bit confused by the label on this product. It says it contains Calcium as ( Citrate, Orotate, and Microcrystalline Hydroxyapatite ). 1200mg (250mg)*. A footnote at the bottom of the label says that numbers in the parenthases is the amount of ELEMENTAL calcium present. So... I have 2 questions really. 1) I know calcium carbonate is a no-no and we need to go for citrate, but what about these other 2 forms of calcium in this product? More absorbable, or less? 2) What the heck do they mean when they say on the label that it has 1200mg of calcium, but that 1200mg only has 250mg of elemental calcium? Can anyone shed some light on the usefullness of this product?    — Greg P. (posted on August 26, 2002)

August 26, 2002
Innovative is the brand recommended by my original nutritionist. I couldn't get it down due to the flavor, so I break open a 500 mg capsule 3x/day and put it into shakes. Remember that we can only absorb about 500mg at a time so split the dose. At 2+months out, I still can't swallow a pill or capsule so this is the way I take my supplement. The liquids didn't work for me but are supposed to be the most efficiently absorbable form of the mineral.
   — Marti R.

August 27, 2002
Hi, the 1200mg refers to the amount of Calcium Citrate (or orotate, etc), but it only has 250mg of actual calcium, and that's what you go by for how much calcium you need per day. (I'm a pharmacist)
   — Kristy L.

March 25, 2006
Working in a group home for severely disabled clients, I had one who was born with extremely brittle bones and also refused to swallow pills. She took "Gramcal," which is a tablet like alka-seltzer, dissolving completey after a few minutes. But unlike alka-seltzer, there are no remaining bubbles once its disolved. The most important fact is that gramcal provides 1000 mg of elemental calcium per tablet, and is the most bio-available product out there. It is available without a prescription here in Canada, and I have heard they have similar products in the U.S. The cost may be the reason it is not routinely recommended for post WLS, as it runs about a dollar a day.
   — Anna W.