The Dangers of Calcium Supplementation
www.greenmedinfo.com
On July 29th the British Medical Journal published the results of a large meta-analysis online. The report, based on the results of 5 clinical trials conducted in the US, Britain and New Zealand and involving over 8,000 people, indicated that taking calcium supplements of 500mg or higher (without coadministered vitamin D and in its elemental form) may increase the risk of heart attack by 30%.
This report confirms years of research I have been doing on the inherent dangers associated with inorganic calcium consumption; which is to say, calcium from limestone, oyster shell, egg shell and bone meal (hydroxyapatite). Despite the mass appeal consuming large amounts of elemental calcium has among health professionals, the "experts" that inform them, and lay persons alike, the practice just does not resonate well with "common sense." After all, does it really feel sensible and intuitively "right" to consume shells or chalk? Before we address the "chalk" connection further in the article below, here is a summary of the major concerns I have with calcium over-supplementation....
Inorganic or "elemental" calcium when not bound to natural co-factors, e.g. amino acids, lipids and glyconutrients, as it is found in "food" (which is to say other living beings, e.g. plants and animals) no longer has the intelligent delivery system that enables the body to comprehend its proper role, and utilize it in a biologically appropriate manner. Lacking this "delivery system" or intelligent code, the calcium may end up going to places we do not want (ectopic calcification), or go to places we do want (the bones) excessively, stimulating unnaturally accelerated cell-division (osteoblasts), resulting in higher bone turn over rates later in life (this is explained in the article below). Or, the body attempts to disburden itself of this inappropriate calcium and keeps it cordained off in the bowel (constipation), or pushes it through the kidneys (stones). Worse, high levels of calcium can ensue in the blood (hypercalcemia), which can contribute to destabilizing the atherosclerotic plaque through the formation of a brittle calcium cap on the atheroma, can contribute to thrombosis (clot) formation, hypertension (that's why we use calcium channel blockers to lower blood pressure), and perhaps causing arrhythmias/fibrillation and or heart muscle cramping (a variety of 'heart attack'). The breasts too are uniquely susceptible to calcification, which is why we use the same x-ray technology to ascertain bone density that we do to discern microcalcifications as evidence of breast cancer through x-ray mammography. Due to the fact that the hydroxyapatitate crystals found in malignant breast cancer may act as a cellular 'signaling molecule' or mitogen (inducing cell proliferation) it is possible that certain breast calcifications may be causally, and not just epiphenomenally related to the tumorous degeneration found there. "Brain gravel" is also an increasingly prevalent phenomenon, where autoposied patients have been found to have pebble size calcium deposits distributed throughout their brains. The wide range of existing calcium-associateted pathologies demand further investigation and explanation. Could one aspect be our fixation on mega-dose calcium supplementation? Hmmm. Let us see....
THE BREAKING POINT -
How Too Much Calcium & Over-Medication Can Break Your Bones
by Sayer Ji (2006)
Yes, chalk. Conceal it within a capsule, a slickly glazed tablet, or in the form of a silky smooth liquid, and it is magically transformed into a “calcium supplement”: easy to swallow, “good for the bones” and a very profitable commodity for both the dietary supplement and mining industries. After all, in places like Florida, they are standing on billions upon billions of tons of the stuff. Calcium carbonate comes very cheap. But does it work? A review published in Osteoporosis International Aug. 2008 concluded that calcium monotherapy (without d) actually increases the rate of fracture in women. If we believe the results of this study, it would appear that calcium alone, may do nothing to prevent loss of bone quality or fracture. Were this the end of the story, we might write off the $100 or more we spend on calcium supplements every year as a loss, and start drinking more milk. Not so quick! The Harvard Nurses’ Study, involving 78,000 nurses and 12 years long, demonstrated clearly that the more dairy you consume, the higher rate of bone fracture you will experience. In fact, in countries where both dairy consumption and overall calcium levels in the diet are the lowest, bone fracture rates are also the lowest (see: The China Study). Osteoporosis, after all, is a complex disease process, involving lack of strenuous exercise, chronic inflammation, multiple mineral and vitamin deficiencies, inadequate production of steroid hormones, and many other known and unknown factors, the least of which is in any probability related to a lack of elemental calcium in the diet.
If we rule out drug (e.g. steroids, acid-blockers) and hyperparathyroidism-induced osteoporosis, arguably the two main contributing factors are:
1) Dietary Acidosis: caused by the excessive consumption of acid forming foods like starchy grains, beans, dairy and meat, all of which result in the leaching of the alkaline mineral stores in our bones. (Additionally, the consumption of highly acidic substances like coffee, alcohol, sugar, over the counter and prescribed drugs, and even the metabolic byproducts of chronic stress can all put the acid/alkaline balance beyond the tipping point). The flipside is under-consumption of alkalinizing fruits and vegetables which disburden the skeletal system of their sacrifical, acid-neutralizing role.
2) Malabsorption Syndrome: caused by the consumption of wheat, dairy, soy and corn. All four of these foods are used to produce industrial adhesives, e.g .wheat = book binding glue, dairy = elmer’s glue, soy = plywood glue, corn = cardboard glue, and their ingestion leads to a disruption in the absorptive capacity of the villi in the intestines through “coating” and “atrophy” of the villi. Moreover, all four foods can cause an autoimmune response which results directly in damage to these villi. (For More Information Read: “Unglued: the Sticky Truth About Wheat, Diary, Corn & Soy.”)
Fortunately these two factors are completely preventable and treatable, having everything to do with the age old phrase: ‘we are what we eat,’ and the implicit counterpoint: ‘we are not what we do not eat.’ Not only is osteoporosis not caused by a lack of calcium, but it appears that excessive calcium intake may actually cause greater bone porosity and bone fracture rates later in life! After all, the average Chinese peasant eating a plant-based diet ingests approximately 200mg of food calcium a day – not the 1200mg a day the National Osteoporosis Foundation claims is necessary for women and men over 40 to maintain strong bones.
Paradoxically, not only does the afforementioned Chinese peasant have less dense bones than your average Westerner, but s(he) also has incomparably stronger bones. In fact, the Chinese have no traditional word for osteoporosis, and this is a 5,000 year old language! These facts beg for a scientific explanation. A Dutch researcher by the name of Thijs Klompmaker, in his 2000 article “Excessive Calcium Causes Osteoporosis” provides a brilliant explanation as to why too much calcium interferes with bone health. According to Klompmaker’s analysis, excessive calcium introduced through diary products and mineral supplementation coerces the bone-building cells known as osteoclasts to replicate prematurely, in effect causing a rapid and premature aging of the bone. Excess calcium in the blood can lead to the accumulation of plaque in the arteries and can exert both a hypertensive effect on the heart muscle and increase the risk of heart attack.
Excess calcium can also deposit into soft tissues, leading to osteoarthritis, muscle cramping, insomnia, constipation, kidney stones, and increased rates of breast and prostate cancers (note: calcium is mitogenic, stimulating proliferation of cells). To prevent this, the body shunts the extra calcium into the bone, where it is stored until it can be safely excreted. The problem with this protective measure is that when osteoblasts replicate approximately 60-70% die as they become part of the new bone mineral matrix they lay down. Because there are only a fixed number of replication cycles available to the body in a given lifetime, the bone density of those consuming excessive amounts of calcium may be greater earlier in life, but later in life there would be insufficient osteoblastic activity to countermand the bone-deconstructing activity of the osteoclasts.
Indeed, in Asia where calcium consumption is relatively low (approximatley 200 mg daily), peak bone mass is reached later in life, and bones remain stronger and more resistant to fracture later in life. Sadly, conventional medicine pays far too little if any attention to the link between dietary and tissue acidosis/malabsorption syndrome and osteoporosis in particular, and the obvious causal link between diet and disease processes, in general. Moreover, with its questionable bias towards viewing disease as genetically predetermined and treatable with toximolecular chemical therapies, the true causes of suffering are rarely perceived, treated and resolved. In fact today the primary medical intervention for osteoporosis is the use of bisphosphonates, a class of “bone-building” drugs (e.g. Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva), which are made from a chemical that can be found on the shelves of your local hardware store as an industrial cleaning solvent. The same thing used to remove repugnant soap scum from the bathtub or to prevent rusting and scaling on industrial equipment is being given to millions of Americans to “treat” their weakening bones.
These chemicals poison and have the potential to kill the group of bone-building cells known as the osteoclasts, which break down weak bone, making room for new, stronger bone that the osteoblasts put in its place. This unnatural intervention causes weak bone to accumulate beneath the new strong bone, resulting in an increase in bone density at the expense of bone quality. Three to five years into taking these drugs, though bone density usually increases, bone fracture rates may increase as well. The side effects of taking these drugs can be life-threatening, e.g. perforation of the intestines, ulceration of the stomach and intestines, liver and kidney damage, atrial fibrillation, spontaneous bone fractures and an irreversible degeneration of the jawbone known as osteonecrosis. To make matters worse, there is a systematic trend to label over 18 million Americans with a “disease” known as “osteopenia,” when in fact this is not a medically relevant term at all.
Osteopenia does not describe a disease state, nor is it an accurate predictor of future bone fracture rates. Technically speaking, “osteopenia” is defined having a T score -1 to -2 standard deviations from an arbitrarily defined norm, which is the approximate age in the human life cycle for peak bone mass: 25-30 years old. The Z score, were it to be emphasized, would take into the age of the person being evaluated (along with other variables such as well as sex, ethnicity, etc). The Z-score, because it is age-mediated, takes into account that as one ages the bone naturally becomes less dense. The use of the T-score generates the illusion that older men and women who are experiencing the natural gradual decline in bone density called aging are not going through a normal process but rather a disease process. This is all the more disturbing when we take into account that higher bone density later in life has been correlated with far higher rates of malignant bone cancer. (View studies here)
Ultimately the present T-score based bone density scoring system provides justification for prescribing unnecessary and extraordinarily dangerous medications. Bone health has everything to do with things we control, such as our ability to stay active, and what we ingest. We should not allow ourselves to be convinced that swallowing limestone supplements or metabolic poisons will in any way fill the void that a lack of genuine nutrition and exercise left there.
Here are a few tips that should help you go a long way in preventing or reversing bone loss: 1) Eat Protein and Vitamin C rich Fruits and Vegetables! All bone begins as collagen, a substance whose intricate triple helix structure is formed through the Vitamin C driven hydroxlation of the essential amino acids L-lysine and L-proline. Focusing on selecting a diet closer to our hunters and gathers appears to be a key factor in preserving both bone density and bone strength. And remember: Vitamin C is not the same thing as ascorbic acid. Szent-Gyorgyi who received the Nobel Prize for its discovery in 1937 himself concluded that you needed a whole food source of this vitamin, e.g. paprika or adrenal extract, and not the synthetic crystals we now carelessly identify with this life-giving food factor in food in order to prevent scurvy. [Psyche: Our experience with ascorbic acid has been literally miraculous, on the other hand, paprika has proved to be inflammatory!] 2) Get sunlight! Vitamin D supplements are to Sunlight, what ascorbic acid crystals are to the Vitamin C activity found in whole, raw food. 3) Vitamin K works with vitamin D, preventing hypercalcemia and ectopic calcification. It is is found in wonderfully nutrient-dense foods like Kale, and as a by-product of the metabolic activity of friendly bacteria in our gut.
The Sun itself provides both energy and information to the body. We should consider it essential, no less important than any other factor included within the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). 3) Green leafy vegetables! Kale, Collards,Chard, etc. Arguably, these amazing, life-giving vegetables pack more bone building punch than any other foods on the planet. Not only do these foods score high in plant-calcium, but according to the principles of biological transmutation laid down by the French scientist Louis Kervran (1901-1983), the magnesium, silica and potassium found abundantly in these foods can transmute through low energy nuclear transformation into additional calcium, as needed by the body. Foods like Kale are also extremely rich in the bone strengthening vitamins K, C, and the aforementioned amino acids L-lysine and L-proline. 4) Strenuous exercise. Use it or lose it. Lack of movement, in general, and lack of weight-bearing exercise in particular, can contribute to weakening bones. Even building sufficient muscle around our hips to provide cushioning, for instance, can go a long way in preventing a slip and fall from turning into a hip fracture and replacement. With a little research and a concerted effort we can take back control of our health and increase our sense of true well being.
To view biomedical citations on natural substances that build strong bone visit http://www.greenmedinfo.com/category/disease/osteoporosis
Further Research: The Shocking Truth about the Manufacturing of "Osteopenia" and "Osteoporosis,"and the connection between High Bone Density & Increased Rates Breast Cancer.
