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Experimental studies suggest that calcium may inhibit bowel mucosal injury from bile acids or carcinogens, but epidemiologic data on the relation between calcium intake and colorectal adenomas are inconclusive. To determine whether calcium supplements reduce the incidence of recurrent colorectal adenomatous polyps, researchers randomized 930 patients with recently removed polyps to receive either 3 grams daily of calcium carbonate (containing 1,200 mg elemental calcium) or placebo.
Patients underwent colonoscopy at one year and four years. After four years, the overall incidence of adenomas was 52 percent in the placebo group and 45 percent in the calcium group, yielding a significant adjusted relative risk of 0.85 (p=0.03). A beneficial eff…