Acceptable routes : IV ONLY

Pharmacologic Category: Calcium Salt; Electrolyte Supplement

Uses : Endocrine/Thyroid Health, Cardiovascular Health, Musculoskeletal/Neurotransmission, Musculoskeletal/Neurotransmission, Sleep Support

Calcium chloride is used in the treatment of hypocalcemia (low calcium), hyperkalemia (high potassium), and hypermagnesemia (high magnesium).Calcium chloride acts as an electrolyte, helping your body maintain fluid through activities and helps you to maintain proper muscle and nerve functioning. Calcium chloride also helps to maintain bone health and prevent muscle spasms.

Warnings/Precautions: Calcium chloride has moderate interactions with 48 different drugs and mild interactions with at least 52 different drugs. It is important that your provider has a complete and accurate list of your current medications. 

Basic Information

Calcium chloride helps to regulate the levels of other minerals in the body. This makes it an important part of keeping the body functioning properly. Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the body, and it is the major makeup of your bones. Calcium is essential to the function of our nervous and muscular systems, the coagulation of blood, and for normal contractility of the heart. Calcium also affects the secretory activity of endocrine and exocrine glands. In water, calcium chloride breaks down into calcium and chloride ions. These ions are regular components of body fluids and depend on other physiological mechanisms to maintain the balance from one’s intake and output. Approximately 80% of body calcium gets excreted in the feces as insoluble salts, and the remaining 20% is excreted through the urine.

Benefits

Endocrine/Thyroid Health:Calcium contributes to endocrine health in its secretory effects on endocrine and exocrine glands (androgens, estrogens, insulin, growth hormone, and thyroxine as well as thyroid health in the form of calcitonin, parathyroid hormone, and calcitriol).

Cardiovascular Health: Calcium is essential to the contraction of muscles and calcium plays an important role in cardiac muscle/electrical conduction. Calcium  is sometimes used in the treatment for life threatening cardiac arrhythmias. 

Musculoskeletal/Neurotransmission :Promotes healthy bones and the normal functioning of muscles, nerves and cells in the body. Insufficient calcium levels can lead to muscle cramps.

Sleep Support: Calcium and magnesium: are two minerals that play a major role in supporting a healthy sleep cycle. Magnesium calms the nervous system and has been shown to play a role in the regulation of the HPA axis. Magnesium promotes relaxation by decreasing the activity of glutamate, the primary excitatory (stimulating) neurotransmitter in the brain. Magnesium blocks glutamate from binding to its receptor, allowing for an increase in GABA activity, which activates the sleep cycle. Calcium ions are a critical requirement in the synthesis of melatonin.