oops. I meant to [more inside] that whole thing.

Heh, I had the same thing happen when I was taking those pregnancy vitamins (with folic acid - I think that was the key) - so much so that I kept taking them long afterward just to keep my steel nails. They say "selin" works the same but that has only been a waste of money for me, spent my teenage allowances on it and it never seemed to help.

I don't ever clip my nails. They just seem to crack off while I'm not looking. Seriously. And I don't take any vitamins or anything but I get plenty of calcium in the form of NesQuik.

Well, tell me more about the virtues of calcium. Fingernails alone aren't sellin' me.

Have you noticed you haven't been craving sugary carby things too?

I didn't notice any change in my fingernails when I took a multivitamin, but maybe that's because I already get enough calcium somehow. My nails haven't cracked or broken off in years.

All the same, I'd like to know more about what calcium can do for me!

Miko - osteoporosis. Keeping calcium levels up fights that. Women and men are susceptible, moreso women.

This stuff is amazing. I can't do dairy, so I supplement calcium with this.

We should all be taking calcium, like huge heaping globs of it, every day and we all know it. I don't do it either - the only way I could remember was when I bought the calcium that masquerades as not all that wonderful candy and with those you have to eat like four of them, which means that you have time to notice how exactly unlike candy they truly are - but really, all women of northern European ancestry should be ladling in the calcium because osteoporosis is not so fun.

Yeah. Me either, even though my mother gives me bottles of it along with the osteoporosis lecture and the walking osteoporosis sufferer example and I promptly pass on both the pills and the lecture to my daughter, who, I am sure, tosses both.

I don't take calcicum supplements. I probably should. I already take a multivitamin, though. And I try to drink a glass of milk every day. I feel like calcium is "out" and fish oil is the new "popular" supplement to take these days, no?

MGL - try that liquid stuff. It doesn't taste like chalk, which is most important as otherwise it's like drinking barium for a lower-bowel scan (equals gross and not-sexy).

Out? So having your wrist shatter like glass while picking up a mug of coffee at 70 years old is in? Calcium is good for bones, fish oil (specifically deep-sea fish) is good for skin, nails, heart and your brain. I remember my Mom telling me that in school in Britain in 1947, all the kids lined up to get their cod liver oil and black strap molasses in winter, due to food shortages post-war. And yes, all the kids had it off of the same spoon. I'm sure if you did that today, parent's'd lynch you. Still. I don't think that taking vitamins/minerals are ever out of vogue, as it'd be hard to properly toast with a martini glass having a splinted wrist.

I have constant albeit mild acid reflux (for years now) so I usually end up popping a couple of Tums of a day. I figure that along with my multivitamin I'm getting a good amount of Ca.

I suspect I'm good on the calcium (lots of feta and yogurt, dontcha know), and I have those nails of steel (which is totally wasted on me, since I just cut them when I notice them getting long). But, I just bought fish oil and nutritional yeast (only comes in tiny tablets here instead of powder, which is stoopid) - not for us, though we'll take it I guess, but for the dog. I think I'm crazy.

Miko - osteoporosis. Keeping calcium levels up fights that. Women and men are susceptible, moreso women.

Oh,I knew about that. I was hoping you had some other miraculous result on the order of the fingernails, like only needing to sleep 4 hours a night, or something.

Miko, here it is: I credit it with making me sane.

Last winter I got so I couldn't focus, and was emotional about dumb stuff. I was horribly depressed- the simplest things were overwhelming. I would obsess about weird stuff- sort of fixate on it. Also, the conclusions I was reaching weren't as logical as they used to be, and I couldn't follow people's arguments if they were remotely complex. And the whole time there was the logical part of my brain saying "this is NOT normal- what's wrong with you?!" It was horrible, and truthfully I was heading towards suicide.

I was eating right. I was exercising. I was sleeping (or trying it- that was disturbed, too.)

My MD suggested talk therapy, but it didn't feel like that would have helped. It really felt chemical. I thought maybe I was perimenopausal (which is probably true, too, as it turns out). I asked her about diet and she said- "Eh, if you're taking a multivitamin you're fine."

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE OFFICE...

A coworker pointed out that since I'd figured out I was lactose intolerant I'd quit drinking the quart of milk a day I used to, and maybe I should start taking calcium, for osteoporosis reasons.

Made sense, so I did, even though I hate taking pills.

And in 72 hours my brain was back. Life was manageable. I could follow conversations.

Anecdotal, yes, but there wasn't anything else in my life that had changed. It was phenomenal. Now I'm a born-again calcium proponent, trying to spread the good word. Hallelujah!

And yes- meeshell, I don't crave refined sugar or carbs hardly ever these days, but I still love fruit. I hadn't associated that with calcium but maybe it's related.

Also, it turns out that you can't take your full dose all at once and you can't take it on an empty stomach if you want it to absorb right. Until recently, I had been doing it all wrong and it STILL made me feel better, so even that little bit that absorbed was enough to make a difference.

s_r, what kind of calcium? I looked on the web and there's a ton of different kinds.

Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D (from Trader Joes). It's cheap.

I've branched out and now sometimes take the ones that have Magnesium or Zinc mixed in, too.

I don't know what the different kinds are, but I've heard the vegan ones don't work as well, and that spinach gives you almost no calcium, despite its PR to the contrary. Also, somethings keep you from absorbing it, but I don't remember what- something to do with oxalic acid I think? That spinach also has a lot of.

(thanks, mods, for the (more inside), by the way.)

For healthier scutes, try kale!

what's a scute?

Scutes are the individual plates or scales that make up a turtle or tortoise's shell. Turtles need calcium for healthy scute growth (though too much calcium can also cause abnormal scute growth).

Kale is chock full of calcium, and it's easy to get turtles to eat it (most turtles will eat just about anything). If you know good kale recipes that don't cook all the nutrients out of the leaves, it's a great source of calcium for humans, too.

Watch this. Cute, huh?

i want to visit sunny cat and turtle porch every day.

are those your guys? the cat and turtle? cute!