Calcium and Erythromycin: what the research says

Read this first

An evidence index, not guidance.

Every statement below is attributed to a named, dated, linked source.

This page lists published research relevant to Calcium and Erythromycin. It deliberately does not state whether the combination is safe, whether it interacts, in which direction, at what dose, or how far apart to take them.

A study appearing here is not proof that an interaction exists. Two substances can be named together in a paper that never tested them in combination, and a source listed as background may cover only one of them.
Findings are quoted from each abstract as the authors wrote them. NutriStack has not re-analysed, pooled, or reconciled them, and they may disagree with each other.
NutriStack’s own interaction assessment for this pair is not published here. It has not completed qualified-human clinical review, so it is withheld from search. See the publication gate.
Nothing here is medical advice. Decisions about prescription medication and supplements belong with your prescriber or pharmacist, who can see your full regimen.

The research

3 studies naming Calcium and Erythromycin.

Strongest relevance first: papers naming both substances in the title, then human trials and systematic reviews.

Impacts of compacting methods on the delivery of erythromycin and vancomycin from calcium polyphosphate hydrogel matrices.

Journal of biomedical materials research. Part B, Applied biomaterials · 2022 · PMID 34302429

Names both Calcium and Erythromycin in its title.

Erythromycin estolate impairs the mitochondrial and microsomal calcium homeostasis: correlation with hepatotoxicity.

Archives of toxicology. Supplement. = Archiv fur Toxikologie. Supplement · 1984 · PMID 6595996

Animal study

“Sodium lauryl sulphate, which is the surfactant moiety of the erythromycin estolate molecule, caused effects similar to those exhibited by erythromycin estolate. Disorders of the intracellular calcium homeostasis seem to play a role in the lauryl sulphate-mediated hepatotoxic action of erythromycin estolate.”
Richelmi et al. · From the abstract

Names both Calcium and Erythromycin in its title.

Effect of mibefradil on CYP3A4 in vivo.

Journal of clinical pharmacology · 2003 · PMID 14517191

Clinical TrialRandomized Controlled Trial

Names Calcium and Erythromycin together in an interaction, co-administration, or pharmacokinetic context.

Limitations

What this evidence cannot tell you.

Search-based evidence indexes have real limits, and it is worth being explicit about them:

Selection. These records were found by searching PubMed titles and abstracts for both substance names alongside interaction and pharmacokinetic terms. Relevant work that phrases things differently, or is not indexed in PubMed, will be missing.
No effect size. The quoted conclusions are the authors’ words about their own study. We have not extracted effect direction or magnitude, and a single study’s conclusion is not a consensus.
Population mismatch. Findings in healthy volunteers, animals, or a specific patient group may not transfer to you, your dose, or your formulation.
Absence is not safety. Few published studies means the combination is under-studied, which is not the same as established as safe.

Nearby evidence

Other pairs with published research.

Pages covering Calcium or Erythromycin alongside a different substance.

NutriStack

Track what you actually take.

NutriStack is a free iPhone app for organising a supplement routine: what you take, when, and what the published record says about it. Its exploratory interaction checker covers Calcium, Erythromycin, and several hundred other substances.

The checker is a research and organisation tool, not a clinical decision aid, and its per-pair assessments are excluded from search until they pass claim-level review.

Get NutriStack free → Read the methodology