By Dr. Mercola
Calcium is one of the most popular dietary supplements on the market, largely due to the widespread belief that mega-doses of this mineral are necessary for building and maintaining healthy bones.
As a result, many people believe that taking calcium supplements is an easy way to prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures.
What they are not told is that while you can increase bone mineral density with calcium supplements, you cannot be sure that this will result in greater bone strength.
Be careful in interpreting bone test results
Bone density, while an excellent measure of compressive strength, does not indicate fracture strength, that is, whether your bones will resist breaking from being pulled or pulled, as typically occurs in a fall or similar trauma.
Furthermore, “osteoporosis,” as currently defined by bone scans (DXA scans) using T-scores, inadequately defines “normal bone density” by 25-year-old, young adult standards. .
In other words, if you’re 40, 50, Or even 100the T-score-based system says that your bones are not normal, or even diseased if they are not as dense as they were when you were a young adult.
If in fact they used age-appropriate Z-scores, many cases of “osteopenia” and many cases of “osteoporosis” would suddenly disappear because they were inappropriately classified in the first place.
Do calcium supplements make you more prone to breast cancer?
Ultimately, the “calcium is good for your bones” mantra is yet another example of a good theory gone wrong, and it shows how the mainstream medical community misunderstands the nature of bone health and osteoporosis, and its The highly developed joint condition is about “osteopenia”. ”
In fact, there are many studies that show that mass market calcium supplements increase your risk for cardiovascular events and other problems, while offering them. Little benefit to your bones. Just because something can increase your bone density: eating large amounts of chalk or pulverized bone meal, or worse, chemical drugs like Fosamax and Avesta, doesn’t mean it will improve your bone health. Will translate, or for any other organ system of yours. .
Indeed, before jumping off the cliff like a lemming of conventional medical wisdom, consider that there is a strong body of research showing that high bone density can actually increase the risk of breast cancer by 300% or more. ! Considering that 1 in 4 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, with breast cancer at the top of the list, isn’t there a neurotic fixation on increasing bone density with calcium supplements, especially when This can increase the overall risk of dying. From cancer and, as we’ll see, heart disease (#1 killer), as well?
Calcium can be beneficial or deadly depending on where it ends up in your body
Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body, which is essential not only for bone health but also for regulating your heartbeat, nerve impulses, blood clotting and hormone secretion. Your body does not make calcium, and in fact loses calcium daily through your skin, nails, hair, sweat, and excretion, so you must replace it through your diet.
It’s estimated, however, that your body excretes as much as 100 milligrams a day, with current recommendations from the National Osteoporosis Foundation for women over 50 to get 1,200 milligrams a day, a bit alarming. When we compared our calcium-rich diet with the traditional calcium-poor Chinese peasant diet, which was devoid of cow’s milk and calcium supplements, approximately 250 mg of plant-based calcium per day was all that their bodies needed. Needs were needed to make ends meet – and this is a culture whose 3,000+ year old language has no word for “osteoporosis”!
The truth is that taking any type of calcium in excess or alone without supplemental nutrients like magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K2, which help your body balance itself, can have negative effects. , such as calcium buildup in the coronary arteries and heart attacks. Even taking calcium with vitamin D does not seem to be enough to prevent these types of adverse effects.
So when you’re taking biologically foreign forms of calcium (such as limestone, oyster shells and bone broth (hydroxyapatite), or when your body’s ability to direct calcium to the right places is impaired ( Since you are deficient in vitamin K2), calcium can accumulate where it shouldn’t, which can lead to many health problems.
Most of the time, most of the burden of eliminating excess calcium falls on the kidneys, which is why it has been proven on many occasions that calcium carbonate rapidly calcifies the arteries of those with compromised kidney function. Especially hemodialysis patients. Calcium deposits are, in fact, a major contributor and even causative factor in many conditions, including the following:
Cellulite and scar tissue Coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis Dental plaque and gum disease Hypothyroidism Obesity and diabetes Alzheimer’s disease Breast cancer and cysts (fibrocystic breast) Stones, colon cancer and Crohn’s disease Kidney stone Ovarian cysts Cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration Bone spurs, stiff joints, osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bone cancer
Too much calcium may cause mineral deficiencies that promote disease
Robert Thompson, MD, wrote a book on this topic called The Calcium Lie, which explains that bone is made up of at least a dozen minerals, and is likely to focus on calcium supplementation in particular. . to deteriorate Bone density and actually increase your risk for osteoporosis. Dr. Thompson believes that excessive calcium intake leads to other mineral deficiencies and imbalances that increase your risk of heart disease, kidney stones, throat stones, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
If your excess calcium is turning into “small stones” that are accumulating in your soft tissues and arteries, you may start to realize that this could lead to a heart attack, stroke or other health condition. How can the risk increase?
Many believe that arterial plaque is simply a buildup of cholesterol. But in fact, more than 90% of them are fatty plaques Calculated. Cholesterol is soft and waxy and does not damage the elasticity of your arteries. But calcium deposits are like concrete, “hardening” your arteries and affecting their ability to expand. It’s calcium—not cholesterol—that increases artery stiffness and makes plaque less stable and more prone to clumping and subsequently forming a life-threatening clot.
This is especially important for postmenopausal women because hormone balance is essential for proper calcium signaling – instructing your body to deposit calcium in your bones. When hormones get out of balance, it causes signaling that calcium slowly leaves your bones and instead deposits in your arteries. Just taking a calcium supplement won’t solve the problem because if your body can’t direct the calcium to the right place, it will cause more harm than good.
Why is vitamin K2 important if you take vitamin D and calcium…
Vitamin K2 engages in a delicate dance with vitamin D. While vitamin D promotes better bone growth by helping you absorb calcium, there is new evidence that vitamin K2 directs calcium to your bones, while preventing it from accumulating where you don’t. Want – ie your muscles, joints, and arteries. As mentioned, a large portion of arterial plaque consists of calcium deposits (atherosclerosis), hence the term “hardening of the arteries”.
Vitamin K2 has also been found to actually dissolve certain tissues that are undergoing pathological (also known as ectopic) calcification.
Vitamin K2 activates a protein hormone called osteocalcin, which is produced by osteoblasts, which is needed to bind the calcium in your bone matrix. Osteocalcin also appears to help prevent calcium from building up in your arteries. In other words, without the help of vitamin K2, the calcium that allows your vitamin D to absorb so effectively may be working against you — building up your coronary arteries instead of your bones. This is because if you are taking calcium and vitamin D but are deficient in vitamin K, you may be worse off than if you were not taking these supplements at all.
Food is the best source of calcium
For calcium to do your body good, it must be in a bioavailable form and balanced with vitamins D and K and other important trace minerals, as part of an overall nutritional plan.
Good sources include raw milk and cheese from pasture-raised cows (which eat plants), leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits, carbs, sesame seeds and wheat grass, to name a few. It’s worth noting that the studies on calcium from dairy products have all been done with pasteurized dairy, rather than raw milk products, which have more nutrients intact, and this could confound the results of these studies. does
Calcium from dietary sources is generally better absorbed and utilized than calcium from supplements, which is why studies have included calcium. Natural food sources Favorable results have been shown, including a 25% lower risk of dying from all causes, and a 23% lower risk of dying from heart disease.
You also need sources of silica and magnesium, which some researchers say are actually “transferred” by your body into the type of calcium your bones can use. The theory was first proposed by the French scientist Louis Curran, a Nobel Prize nominee, who spent years studying how silica, calcium, magnesium, and other minerals interact and change through low-energy nuclear reactions. Changes can occur only in living systems.
His theory explains why cows and chickens produce more calcium in their milk and eggs than they get in their diet, or why, in the Middle East, workers working in extreme temperatures (130 degrees F) Known to use salt pills. Bodies turn to potassium (as measured by their excretion), resulting in a decrease in their body temperature.
Good sources of bone-strengthening silica are cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and many herbs, including horsetail, nettle, oat straw, alfalfa, and raw cacao, which are also extremely rich in biomagnesium.
Dr. Thompson recommends using natural, unprocessed salt as a much better alternative to calcium supplements because it provides minerals you can’t get from foods grown in today’s mineral-poor soils. it happens My favorite source of minerals is pure, unprocessed Himalayan salt, which contains 84 of the minerals your body needs.
The bottom line is, improve your vitamin D levels by getting more sun exposure and eating a variety of fresh, local organic whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, organic meats and eggs, and unprocessed salt. , and includes raw organic unpasteurized dairy. Give you the bioavailable calcium your body needs along with the minerals and other cofactors your body needs to absorb and use properly.
