Washington DC: Calcium is known to be one of the most important parts of our diet and if we do not take it a balanced manner, it can be responsible for many deficiencies in our bodies.

Now, according to a new study, it has been found that individuals with lower levels of calcium in the blood, are more likely to experience sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) than those with higher calcium levels.

Ninety nine percent of the total body calcium is in the bones and the remaining 1% is in the extracellular space.Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is fatal for over 90 percent of patients, and more than half of men and close to 70 percent of women who die of SCA have no clinical history of heart disease prior to this cardiac event.

People with the lowest blood calcium levels are twice as likely to suffer a cardiac arrest as those with the highest levels, a study found. The condition is fatal in more than 90 per cent of cases.

Lead investigator Dr Sumeet Chugh, from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, said: “Our study found that serum calcium levels were lower in individuals who had a sudden cardiac arrest than in a control group.

“Patients with serum calcium in the lowest quartile (bottom 25 per cen) had twice the odds of sudden cardiac arrest compared to those in the highest quartile (top 25 per cent), even after controlling for multiple patient characteristics including demographics, cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities, and medication use.

“Overall, it seems that further study is required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the adverse associations with lower calcium levels and to determine whether controlling calcium levels improves the prognosis in the general population or in high-risk patients.”

Patients in the higher risk group had blood calcium levels of less than 8.95 milligrams per decilitre, which is just within the normal range of 8.5-10.2mg.

Cardiac arrest patients were significantly more likely to be African Americans and to suffer from diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease.

The research appears in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Dr Hirad Yarmohammadi, another member of the Cedars-Sinai team, said: “Our study showed that lower serum calcium levels, even within the normal range of values, may increase risk for sudden cardiac death.