If you have had a recent fracture (broken bone), this may mean that your bones are becoming weaker due to getting older and/or losing calcium. There are things you can do right now to help keep your bones from getting weaker.

If you are not already doing so, we strongly recommend that you get enough calcium and Vitamin D in your diet or through supplements every day.

We are currently recommending that people with a history of fractures get at least 1200 mg of calcium and 800 units of Vitamin D into their body daily. One way you can do this is to take...

• One multivitamin tablet daily containing 200 mg of calcium and 400 IU of Vitamin D. These are common amounts found in most over-the-counter ‘general’ multivitamins. To get the most of this calcium into your system, we recommend taking this with a meal.

plus

• Two tablets or chewable combination calcium/Vitamin D supplements. Many supplements are available over-the-counter that have 500 mg of calcium and 100 – 200 IU of Vitamin D per tablet or chew. To get the most of this calcium into your system, we recommend taking one tablet or chew with a separate meal.

So a good way to get the recommended amount of Vitamin D and calcium would be to take . . .

• One Multivitamin with Breakfast
• One tablet (calcium/Vitamin D) with Lunch
• One tablet (calcium/Vitamin D) with Dinner.

Our Kaiser Permanente pharmacies have calcium/Vitamin D supplements and multivitamin tablets. The pharmacy staff can help answer any questions.