A couple of months ago I went to the doctor and got a stern lecture on the need to take calcium. Apparently all the lattes I drink just weren't cutting it; I was more or less daring my bones to snap into pieces.
Okay, okay, I told her. I would get on the calcium bandwagon. And I did— I went to CVS and plunked down $4.99 for a 75-count bottle of 500-mg tablets, to take once in the morning and once in the evening. But then, last month, a bombshell: a study in the British Medical Journal linked cardiovascular disease to consumption of calcium supplements.
So, which would it be, heart disease or osteoporosis? I decided to run the numbers.
Scary figures about both are plentiful. The American Heart Association estimates that the lifetime costs associated with heart disease run from about $750,000 for women with nonobstructive coronary artery disease to more than $1 million for people with obstructive coronary artery disease. And as for osteoporosis, the International Osteoporosis Foundation says it costs the U.S. more than $17 billion a year. Unfortunately, I couldn't get an apples-to-apples comparison— readers, if you have one, please share it.
So I decided to look at the major hospital treatments associated with each and go from there. While most fractures associated with osteoporosis are actually wrist fractures, it looks like hip fractures are the most debilitating. "The Burden of Musculoskeletal Disease in the US," a book with contributions from several medical organizations, says a relatively unserious fracture that requires a 6-day stay in the hospital costs $28,077.
For heart disease, I found an online article that tallied up everything from the ambulance ride to the hospital to the angioplasty. The tab: around $50,000.
Who knows how I'll be paying for healthcare when I hit middle age, let alone old age. If I'm paying, the results of my decidedly unscientific study lead me to conclude that I should be doing whatever I can to avoid a heart attack. Calcium supplements, so long.
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