Eli5 what are all the functions of calcium in the human body?
In: Biology
Calcium is used for a fuck ton of stuff, a lot of which I almost certainly don’t know, but I can give some things.
Calcium is combined with other atoms to form most of the structural parts of bones and teeth.
Calcium serves a key role in the nervous system – without calcium, every single nerve in your body is incapable of communicating with other nerves, thereby rendering you dead.
Calcium is used in large amounts by muscle cells – every time the muscle wants to contract, it has to release a flood of calcium across every cell in that muscle. This is also true of the heart.
Calcium is vital to many cell signalling pathways – allowing the cell to respond to stimuli like hormones.
Calcium is used in the blood clotting process.
Calcium is required for sperm to fertilise eggs.
Take-away message? Drink yer milk.
It makes bones and teeth strong by building up inside so that the bones and teeth are very dense. Denser things take more work to break, so the bones and teeth with a lot of calcium won’t break as easily as those without a lot of calcium.
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