Calcium D-glucarate · supplement
Evidence tier: insufficient
Supports the body's ability to clear oestrogen and xenotoxins via the liver gut axis.
Calcium D glucarate is converted in the body to D glucaro 1,4 lactone, which inhibits beta glucuronidase, a gut bacterial enzyme that snips the glucuronic acid tag off compounds the liver has already tagged for disposal, including oestrogen metabolites and various xenobiotics. Cutting that enzyme should therefore mean fewer tagged compounds get un tagged and reabsorbed, and more get excreted. This chain of reasoning is biochemically sound and the first link of it, that supplementation does lower beta glucuronidase activity in people, has actually been measured in one small study. What has never been shown is that the chain produces a clinical result at the other end. Do not present the mechanism as if it were the outcome. This is exactly the kind of plausible pathway that turns into nothing when it is finally tested.
Insufficient, and this is the emptiest record in the batch. Memorial Sloan Kettering's About Herbs monograph states the position in one line: 'no clinical trials have tested whether calcium glucarate has these effects in humans.' Everything calcium D glucarate is sold on comes from rats and test tubes. The animal work is genuine and it is where the story started: rats fed calcium glucarate developed fewer tumours and developed them more slowly. MSK's response to that is the correct one: 'positive results in animal studies do not always mean a similar approach will work in humans.' There is ONE small preliminary human study, which found that supplementation lowered beta glucuronidase activity and raised serum glucaric acid, which tells us the compound does the biochemical thing it is supposed to do. It does not tell us that anything a person cares about changes as a result. MSK notes that follow up work 'has not materialized'. Calcium D glucarate 'has not been shown to treat or prevent cancer in humans'. There is no NCCIH page, no EMA monograph, no Cochrane review and no systematic review of human efficacy, because there is no human efficacy literature to review. The gap between what this ingredient is marketed for, oestrogen detoxification, hormonal clearance, chemoprotection, and what has actually been demonstrated in a human being is as wide as any in the PlantRx catalogue. MSK's own summary of the field is the fairest sentence available: marketing claims significantly outpace actual evidence in humans. Grade it 1: the mechanism is measurable, the benefit is unevidenced.
500 to 1500 mg daily in divided doses with food.
Generally very safe.
Pregnancy: caution
Breastfeeding: caution
Active compounds: calcium D-glucarate, D-glucaro-1,4-lactone
Remedies using Calcium D-Glucarate · Browse by body system · Check it against what you take
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.