The Confusion Over Calcium/Magnesium and Your Bones.
There is a recent obsession with calcium supplementation
that is far from healthy. So many products have calcium added that our
systems can’t cope with it. Our calcium/magnesium balance is becoming
severely upset, leading to excess calcium being deposited in joints and
organs and is implicated in Alzheimers. This is also a leading cause of
arthritis. Too much calcium also makes the lack of magnesium more severe
and this can cause heart attacks.
Many allopathic doctors are telling
you to take more calcium for your bones. But they are behind on their
research. Without an equivalent amount of magnesium your bones
can’t make the hormone that deposits the calcium in your bones. So the
calcium ends up in places where it can hurt you, creating problems
like high blood pressure and stroke.
Most supplements have a 2:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium.
Alternative health doctors have said for years that this ratio should
be 1:1. It is also recommended by Dr. Baroody, the author of “Alkalize
or Die”, that you take magnesium and calcium separately because the receptor
sites on your cells can only accept one of them at a time. That
eliminates most supplements on the market. You can take magnesium with
breakfast and calcium with lunch and dinner.
Some forms of minerals are also more easily assimilated
than others. Most of the calcium that is added to products is calcium
carbonate; ground up rock. For every 1000 mgs of calcium carbonate you
take you are only absorbing 26%. If you use the new angstrom liquid minerals
or, better yet, real food, instead the minerals go directly to the
cells, bypassing the digestive system, and they are more easily absorbed.
Magnesium is undersupplied in most
people’s diets and that is the mineral that makes our bones flexible and
strong. Magnesium should be taken to bowel tolerance, up to 1000
mgs a day. If you can’t tolerate that much without diarrhea at first,
just add slowly and your tolerance will increase. Read the blog for updated
sources of magnesium. Just put magnesium in the search engine and you
will get the latest information.
A recently issued National Academy
of Sciences (NAS) report indicates that nearly 80% of Americans are
deficient in magnesium, an essential mineral that is required for the
health of living cells, bones and normal function of muscle and heart
tissues. Magnesium is found in foods such as dark-green leafy vegetables,
whole grains and nuts, but nutrition researchers say the over-processing
of foodstuffs and the use of phosphates in cola soft drinks have led to
mineral deficiencies, particularly shortages of magnesium.
Milk is Not a Good Source of Calcium
Some dairy products have over 9:1 ratios of calcium to magnesium
plus are full of saturated fat, so they are best avoided. The coutries
like the U.S. and New Zealand, which are high in dairy consumption, have
a much higher rate of osteoporosis. Pasteurized
and homogenized milk is not good for your bones. It is a toxic non-food!
Raw milk that has been fermented into kefir is very good for your bones,
see the diet section.
“The obsession with calcium in our society appears to be
a major contributor to magnesium depletion. High intake of calcium interferes
with magnesium absorption. In other words it makes an already existing
deficiency worse” according to Dr Reiss, author of Natural Hormone
Balance.
There are many factors which dramatically deplete your body’s
magnesium storage and make it necessary for greater consumption of magnesium:
coffee, sugar, mental stress, alcohol, cola type soda, high sodium diet,
tobacco, medical drugs of all types, high perspiration, low thyroid, diabetes,
diuretics, chronic pain, a high carbohydrate diet, a high calcium diet.
Vitamin D3 is Another Necessary Factor
in Absorbtion
Another necessary piece of the calcium puzzle is Vitamin
D3. We can get that from 15 minutes of sunshine a day without sun block
on a large area of skin, or we can take a supplement. Many researchers
say that 50% of Americans suffer from deficiencies of Vitamin D. Without it
calcium cannot be moved into the bones and, again, gets stored in the
wrong places.
There is new information that the RDA of Vitamin D is way too low. Read
The
Vitamin D Cure
to find out how much you should be taking. There is a blog entry on this
in the diet section.
Acid Ph Robs Your Bones of Calcium
Your ph balance has an effect on your calcium levels also.
If your body is too acidic from eating processed food, too much meat,
sodas, caffeine, then your body needs free calcium to escort the
acid substances out of the body. The calcium buffers the acid so that
it doesn’t burn a hole in your gut on its way through the body. If there
is no free calcium in the body then the bones will be robbed of calcium
for this purpose. But the solution for that is not to take more calcium
but to improve your ph balance. More about that in the article on ph
balance.
Coral Calcium
Coral Calcium has been proven to be a health scam. There
is no proof that it works any better than any other form of calcium, perhaps
less. It’s one of those health gimmicks that come on the market in a flash
and dazzle of hype, make millions of dollars for the promoters and then
fades away. There is no scientific evidence that it cures anything.
There is a relatively new source of calcium on the market
that is very well-absorbed and shows up well in bone tests. It is Microcrystalline
calcium hydroxyapatite compound (MCHC). It is derived from the
bones of young cattle. In most cases it is put into bone supplements with
other ingredients, like Jarrow Bone-Up. I would rather take it separately
and I would rather be sure that it comes from New Zealand. I trust their
farming practices so far. So I would recommend Now Foods Microcrystalline
calcium hydroxyapatite. It’s very inexpensive from Iherbs.com. If you
have a diet with plenty of greens you don’t need to supplement with calcium
at all. A great deal of the supplement information I provide is assuming
that you eat the Standard American Diet – very SAD.
So, the bottom line is to be very aware of all the sources
of extra calcium that you take in during the day and then take an equivalent
amount of magnesium to balance it so that it can get into your bones where
it belongs. Then the calcium will stay out of your soft tissues and your
joints where it can create irreversible trouble and pain.
Disclaimer: Nothing on this site is to
be construed as medical advice. I am not a medical practitioner and have
no ability to diagnose or treat disease. This site is intended for informational
purposes only. Everyone should make their own health decisions after getting
all the information they need.