Introduction
The purpose of this booklet is to demonstrate the importance of calcium. For too long this essential mineral has been thought to e useful for only bones and teeth. As a result of scientific research and clinical trials, calcium is now being recognized as a mineral essential to disease prevention and for its role in sustaining life. Unfortunately, more than 80% of Americans are calcium deficient, and this has led David McCarran, M.D. and Dr. John Repke, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School to say that, there is a calcium crisis in this country.
The Importance of Calcium
The importance of calcium was first discovered in England about 100 years ago by a researcher, Dr. Sidney Ringer, who found that in the absence of calcium, a rat and a frog’s heart would stop beating. Calcium makes up 2% of our body weight and, aside from oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, is the most abundant mineral element in the human body. No other element has as many crucial and active biological roles to play as calcium. We need more calcium than all other minerals combined. Calcium works with and controls our nervous system and brain, our muscle actions and it is the essential nutrient in regulating blood coagulation, muscle contraction, cell membrane function, enzyme and hormone action and it also assures a regular cardiac rhythm.
Calcium is a prominent activator or co-partner in a tremendous number of the body’s vital biochemical reactions. These go on continuously from the time of conception until the time of death. The list below just scratches the surface of calcium’s pervasive and powerful influences on the human body
• Blood clotting
• Heart beating
• Blood pressure regulation
• Normal cell division
• Releasing energy from food
• Blood sugar control
• Sending nerve impulses
• Skeletal muscle movement
• Communication between cells
• Sending signals between cells
As you are reading this article, calcium is playing a role in your muscle movement, whether you are tapping your toes or moving your fingers to turn the page. Calcium helps to send the nerve signals from your brain or muscles to direct your actions, and if you happen to get a paper cut, blood calcium will help to stop the bleeding. Very few metabolic actions escape the power of calcium.
Calcium Absortion
Vitamin D plays a fundamental role in calcium absorption and bone health. Vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption in the intestine through ionic activity. Vitamin D penetrates deeply into the intestinal wall and leaves its negatively charged oxygen end exposed at the surface. The positively charged calcium ion can now attach itself to the negatively charged oxygen end of the vitamin D molecule and be drawn in through the intestinal wall.
15 minutes of exposure to the sun on a daily basis will create about 400 i.u. of vitamin ID which is required for normal body function. Sunscreen blocks vitamin ID absorption. Many people do not get enough vitamin ID from the sun and this is particularly true of the elderly. Vitamin ID supplementation is advised together with calcium supplementation.
The Calcium Paradox
Calcium over-abundance in certain areas of the body, prompted by overall calcium deficiency, is known as the calcium paradox.
When calcium deficiency and secodary hyper-parathroidism occur in mature age, calcium is removed from the bones and then starts to accumulate in soft tissue such as the blood vessels, brain and intracellular compartments, where little calcium should be present under normal physiological circumstances. Cartilage should also be devoid of calcium in good health conditions, but when there is a calcium deficiency, estrogen deficiency or hyperparathyroidism, then calcium can accumulate in the cartilage. A quotation from the Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism describes the results of calcium deficiency.
“Degenerative Joint disease should be included in the group of diseases based on calcium deficiency and calcium paradox such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, Alzheimers disease and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system, diabetes mellitus and mellitus and malignancy. Calcium deficiency is thus responsible for both osteoporosis and degenerative joint diseases’.
Is Calcium Deficiency Harmful To The Body?
Yes — it can be extremely harmful and dangerous. A host of disease conditions may be directly or indirectly the result of calcium deficiency.
When calcium levels in the blood decrease to below adequate levels, the parathyroid glands stimulate osteoclast cells. These cells break down calcium from the bone and release it into the blood stream. If a person does not eat or absorb enough calcium, the parathyroid glands will mobilize calcium from their bones to ensure normal body function. It has been estimated that 25 years of negative calcium balance will deplete one-third of the human skeleton.
On the other hand we have the osteoblastic activity of the hormone known as calcitonin. Calcitonin plays a role in calcium maintenance and tries to inhibit the bone destroying activity of the osteoclasts. The sad thing is that the activity of calcitonin decreases with age while the activity of the parathyroid gland increases with age.
The following is a list of disorders that have been scientifically linked to calcium deficiency:
• Muscle cramps
• Brittle nails
• Tooth decay
• Indigestion
• Gallstones
• Gout
• Numbness in arms and legs
• Increased cholesterol levels
• Eczema
• Hypertension
• Insomnia
• Rickets
• Kidney stones
• Allergies
It has also been discovered that most degenerative diseases such as
• Cancer
• Heart Disease
• Osteoporosis
• Diabetes
Often have been linked to calcium deficiency.
What Are The Causes Of Calcium Deficiency?
There are many inhibitors of calcium absorption and retention. caffeine, alcohol and excessive protein for example, increase excretion through the urine and can thus rob the body of the calcium that is consumed.
Other factors that influence the calcium status level in the body are lack of exercise or movement, stress, nicotine and phosphates which are found in red meat and soft drinks.
Anything that changes the acid/alkaline balance in the body mitigates against calcium sufficiency. Following are several examples which can cause such an imbalance
• Coffee
• Smoking
• Calcium deficient diets
• Processed and devitalized foods
• Meats, refined grains, bakery foods
• Soft drinks, including diet drinks
• Stress
• Acid forming foods
How Can We Check Our Calcium Level?
When you visit your doctor, you do so normally because you are not feeling well. The doctor will check your blood, your blood pressure, your cholesterol, your temperature, and other important vital signs. For more than thirty years, doctors have known the essential role calcium plays in health; however, when did your doctor last check your calcium level? Probably never. By a simple test, he could identify your calcium level by checking the pH of your body fluids. When did you last have your pH level checked? Probably never. Is it not amazing that one of the most important health checks is never performed?
The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. At the low end, 0 indicates complete acidity. At the high end, 14 indicates complete alkalinity. Your pH should fall between 7.0 and 7.5. The perfect position should be between 7.35 and 7.45. To find out how the pH of your body fluids is faring, specially treated litmus test paper is used to check your saliva, which indicates your pH score. The pH paper changes color when it comes in contact with your saliva. A color guide comes with pH paper. Each color represents a particular pH value. The scale is shown above each color sample.
Saliva Test Results:
If your results indicate you are below 7.0 on the pH scale, your y fluids are acidic, indicating you are calcium deficient.
It is important to note that the intervals on the pH scale are exponential. The figures therefore represent much greater variances than the figures suggest. A pH change of one unit reflects a ten fold change in the hydroxyl ion concentration.
This is a simple and accurate test, costs less than five cents, and helps you take personal responsibility for your health. You can become proactive for health rather than reactive to disease.
The Acid Test!
“The countless names attached to illnesses do not really matter, what does matter is that they all come from the same root cause... too much tissue acid waste in the body!” said Dr. Theodore Baroody, DC, MD, Ph.D. Nutrition. In his book, Alkalize or Die, Dr. Baroody said, “Think about it this way... too much acidity in the body is like having too little oil in your car. It just grinds to a halt.”
Calcium is one of the alkaline earth elements. It has the unique chemical ability to form a soluble orthophosphate which plays a critical role in creating a pH buffer system that helps to hold the extracellular fluid in the 7.4 pH range. This is a very important mechanism because it allows glucose to break down the four nucleotides (adenine, guanine, cystosine and thymine) which are the building blocks of DNA. When the pH is below 6.5, the glucose breaks down into lactic acid and this results in more acidity, thus causing starvation of the cell of• basic materials needed for DNA replication. Calcium has an incredible chemical flexibility that allows it to carry out many biological functions.
Scientists have discovered that the body fluids of healthy people are mildly alkaline (7.0 to 7.5 on the pH scale) whereas the body fluids of the sick are acidic (below 7.0 on the pH scale). Scientists have also found that cancer thrives in an acidic environment but cannot survive in an alkaline environment.
Our glands and organs function properly in an alkaline environment.
The Heart
The heart is one of the most alkaline dependent organs in the body.An alkaline system creates a condition which is a good basis for ideal heart function.
The Lungs
These important organs have the primary mission of keeping us alkaline by the exchange of gases in our breathing.
The liver, pancreas, kidneys, thyroid gland, spleen and colon all function properly in an alkaline system.
The Lymphatic System
There are about as many lymph vessels as there are blood vessels. There is three times as much lymph fluid as blood and this fluid not only carries nutrition to the cell but removes acid waste products as well. Lymph fluid flows best in an alkaline medium. When the body is overly acidic it slows down, creating one of the most chronic, long term, life threatening situations. Gradually, the lymph dries and begins to form very tiny to very large adhesions throughout the tissues.
How To Maintain An Alkaline System
As you can see by now, maintaining your body fluids in an alkaline environment is essential for good health and longevity.
The following is a guideline of alkaline forming foods. Any process such as cooking, freezing, canning or preserving greatly reduces he alkaline values.
As you can see from this guideline, it is very difficult to eat only alkaline forming food. That is why it is imperative that you supplement your diet daily with calcium. As calcium is very difficult to absorb, it is important that you supplement with the most• effective form of calcium. We will discuss this subject in a later paragraph.
The Scientific Evidence
Doctors, scientists, medical and biochemical researchers from around the world have all instituted clinical research programs to study and discover the important role calcium plays in our diet. In 1950, there were about 50 publications per year by the scientific community on biological calcium. By 1990 the number had grown to over 7,000 yearly publications. As you evaluate the scientific evidence, the facts are indisputable.
Calcium During Pregnancy Could Save Lives
Scientists from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, reported that consuming sufficient calcium during pregnancy can reduce the risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension (RIH) and pre-eclampsia, a potentially fatal disorder of high blood pressure and kidney failure (Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) April 1996). This disorder affects up to one in seven American women and is a leading cause of c-sections, pre-term births and low birth- weight babies. The results indicate that calcium supplementation can lower the risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension by 70% and the risk of pre-eclampsia by over 60%.
Calcium Protects Against Cancer
A study published in the January 14, 1q99, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that calcium supplementation reduced the risk of colon cancer by 24%. Dr. Robert Sandier from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said, “Colon cancer is a big problem in the United States and this represents a significant reduction.” Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, and we expect 67,000 new cases in women and 65,000 new cases in men this year.
PMS, Cramps, Delayed Menstruation And Heavy Bleeding
Studies concluded that when blood calcium levels dropped, PMS symptoms increased. A lack of calcium is said to be responsible for menstrual cramping, heavy bleeding, headaches, sleeplessness, body aches, water retention and depression. Scientists suggest calcium supplements are important to prevent PMS symptoms.
Calcium Prevents Osteoporosis
Many researchers fear that more young women are vulnerable to developing osteoporosis at a later age because most fail to take in sufficient calcium. Dr. Robert Heaney, professor of medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska said, “We have reached crisis level in America. Among young people who run the highest risk of thinning bones are those with eating disorders.
Osteoporosis develops when the body breaks down more bone than it rebuilds leading to a condition affecting eight million women and two million men in the United States. Too little calcium will cause this imbalance. Victims of this disease are often unaware of their condition until a painful fracture occurs, usually of the hip, spine, or wrist. Almost a quarter of those who suffer a hip fracture die within a year.”
A survey conducted by the International Osteoporosis Foundation found that 85% of women do not believe they are calcium deficient. However, only 5%, according to Dr. Heaney, meet the correct calcium requirements.
Doctors from Columbia University, New York, and Tufts University, Boston, all conclude that calcium is the most important mineral to avoid this disease which is becoming an epidemic. A survey indicated 46% of adults believe that osteoporosis is an unavoidable part of aging for women. Contrary to what many people think, this disease is not inevitable, but instead is preventable if the right steps are taken throughout our lives. To prevent osteoporosis, all of us need calcium (in the right form), vitamin D and a healthy lifestyle, with no smoking or excessive alcohol.
High Blood Pressure And Kidney Function
The July 1998 issue of the Lancet reported that calcium supplementation can have a profound effect on high blood pressure, neurological, gastrointestinal and kidney function.
Calcium And Breast Cancer
A study conducted at Cornell Medical Center, New York, suggests that the tumor-inhibiting activity of calcium and vitamin D decreases the risk of breast cancer, similar to that previously found for the colon in studies of colonic carcinogenesis. This report was published in Women’s Health Weekly, October 26, 1998 issue.
The Miracle Mineral
The U.S. News and World Report, May 3, 1999, published the following article:
The Miracle Mineral
New research indicates that calcium helps prevent more illnesses than previously thought:
Arteries:
Calcium can reduce blood pressure among salt-sensitive people
Bones:
Calcium strengthens bones and prevents osteoporosis
Heart:
Studies suggest that calcium may ward off congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease
Pancreas:
Calcium may reduce insulin resistance among diabetics
Cancer:
Studies indicate that calcium protects against colon and breast cancer and may help prevent other cancers as well
PMS:
Calcium can relieve unpleasant symptoms of PMS
What Is The Most Effective Form Of Calcium?
We were all intended to receive our nutrients from the food we eat. However, in spite of an abundant food supply, people do not obtain sufficient quantities of essential nutrients from food. Due to our soils being depleted of essential minerals, modern processing, transportation, poor food choices and unbalanced diets, nutritional supplementation is essential.
There are, however, significant differences in the quality and efficiency of different nutrient supplements.
All Calcium Is Not The Same!
There are countless brands of calcium supplements available on the market today. Their form of calcium might be calcium carbonate, coral calcium, or a chelated calcium. However, none of these forms of calcium are typically in a FoodMatrixTh (i.e. a food form). It is important to realize that the body only recognizes a food. That is the reason why the absorption, retention, and utilization of the more common forms of calcium supplements are typically so low.
The absorption factor for most calcium products is in the area of 5% and very rarely exceeds 20%. If you take 1,000 mg of calcium carbonate, you will end up with only about 20 mg of calcium absorbed. This may be the reason why so many doctors have suggested that taking large amounts of supplements only results in producing expensive urine.
The second major problem with most calcium supplements is that the body does not recognize them because they are not bound in a food form to a protein, which acts as a “chaperone” to guide the nutrients to specific tissues in the body. Because the calcium does not have this protein chaperone acting as a chauffeur, it is not correctly utilized and it is not properly targeted in the body. As a result, we know that this type of calcium is free floating in the blood, and tends to clog arteries and cause atherosclerosis. It can also dangerously end up as deposits in the colon or the kidneys.
Research now shows that either too little calcium or too much of the wrong kind of calcium can create the same deadly results.
The Recommended Calcium
We recommend you only supplement with FoodMatrix calcium. Scientists working with nature have been able to re-nature and grow calcium in nutrient rich plants that bind all the nutrients you need with proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, enzymes, bioflavonoids and trace elements, in the same way as found in natural food.
The absorption rate of FoodMatrix calcium is between 70% to 90%. Studies conducted by Professor J. Vinson of Scranton University show that:
FoodMatrjx calcium was 300% better absorbed than the isolated form. Professor Vinson said, “FoodMatrix nutrients are the most important advancement in nutrition today. These FoodMatrix nutrients are essentially foods and are recognized by the body as such. These 2l century nutrients are the first supplements that can truly be called food supplements.” The point to remember is that FoodMatrix calcium, because it is bound to protein, is transported by a system whereby protein chaperones deliver the calcium to the exact location for maximum utilization within the cell. Therefore, you don’t need to be concerned about the possibilities of it ending up in the arteries, the kidneys or colon.
For sale, effective and life sustaining calcium, supplement with FoodMatrix calcium.
Conclusion
Calcium is an indispensable nutrient to the maintenance of good health and life itself. In order to keep ourselves healthy, enjoy a quality life, and experience longevity, calcium supplementation is essential. I encourage you to check your pH like you would check your weight or your credit card balance. It could very well be a lifesaver! It is time we take personal responsibility for our personal health. In the final analysis, you - and only you - can lead and live your life in ways that promote or prevent health. Good health is not an accident. Many times it’s a choice - your choice!
About the author
Dr.W.Alan Tomlinson, B.A., N.D., D.O., D.Hom. has provided technical expertise in all areas of product formulation and development for the past 30 years. He is considered an expert in the field of micronutrient supplementation. He is a sought after speaker and has lectured to audiences around the world on the subject of lifestyle management.
Dr. Tomlinson is frequently featured on TV and radio programs, and currently serves as Chairman of the Health Products Association and Executive Member of the Allied Health Service Professions Council. His interest and research in the area of plant sterols, sterolins, and phytocology has spanned over the past eleven years.
The USFDA has not evaluated, nor rendered approval for any statements or research cited herein, nor have they approved any representations or opinions concerning Calcitone. This product is a dietary supplement and is not intended to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat any disease.
Bob Fox
Robert S. Fox, Nutritional Consultant
Email: KLATOOGORT@aol.com
Phone: 201-944-7757 Off - 201-362-5619 Cell
