Are we getting enough calcium?
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken cut through the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, Chris and Xand dive into calcium. What is calcium, and what does it do in the body? How important is it for our health? How do we maintain healthy levels of calcium? They also examine how calcium interacts with vitamin D, whether we need calcium and vitamin D supplements, how calcium plays a part in bone health and how we can strengthen our bones.
Joining them to discuss this is Dr Sagen Zac-Varghese, a consultant in Diabetes, Endocrinology and General Internal Medicine, specialising in diabetic kidney disease and metabolic bone disease. She is also the Undergraduate Tutor at the East and North Herts NHS Trust and an Honorary Lecturer and Senior Clinical Teaching Fellow at Imperial College London and at UCL medical school.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Dr Sagen Zac-Varghese Producer: Maia Miller Lewis Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Mili Ostojic Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Video Producer: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.9 | Before you jump into your BBC podcasts, I want to tell you more about news podcasts on BBC sounds, |
| 0:12.9 | whether you want to keep on top of the latest news. |
| 0:15.3 | There's a lot of questions still about how on earth it really all happened. |
| 0:18.8 | Or go in depth on the stories behind the headlines. |
| 0:21.0 | How should politics respond to this smartphone-led world? |
| 0:23.9 | From global events to current affairs at home. |
| 0:26.4 | It's head spinning. |
| 0:27.7 | The BBC has a wide range of news podcasts to help you make sense of it all. |
| 0:32.2 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.3 | Hello, welcome to WhatsApp Dogs. |
| 0:37.4 | Zandi, have you had any milk today? |
| 0:39.6 | I had some in a cup of tea. |
| 0:41.3 | My son Rex starts every morning with his bottle of milk, and that's how he gets his calcium. |
| 0:47.1 | I'm pleased you brought it up, Zandi, because calcium is, of course, what we are going to be discussing. |
| 0:52.1 | Today, the fifth most common element in your body, we're going to be discussing today, the fifth most common element in your body. |
| 0:57.0 | We're going to be finding out more about what it is beyond its place in the periodic table. |
| 1:02.3 | We're going to be finding out how it works on our bodies and whether we're all getting enough. |
| 1:10.4 | Before we get into the main topic, though, I haven't seen you for a week. |
| 1:14.3 | What have you got for me? |
| 1:15.3 | What I've got for you, Chris, is 25 kilos of oats. |
| 1:19.2 | These were not ordered by me. |
... |
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