Excess Calcium Is Dangerous

For decades I’ve warned men and women not to take calcium supplements—whether in pill form or by drinking and eating many cows’ milk products. All sorts of well-formulated scientific studies now confirm that such advice is right. Having long been bombarded with ill begotten misinformation about calcium it is time we learned some simple truths. For instance, supplementing your diet with calcium can not only be toxic to your body: It may even shorten your life.

DANGERS OF TOO MUCH CALCIUM

Thomas E Levy, M.D. is one of the world’s leading experts in vitamin C and antioxidants used to treat and protect against a myriad of medical conditions and degenerative diseases. A board-certified cardiologist whose work I have long admired, Levy has also written an excellent book, Death by Calcium, which I urge every man and woman who cares about health and truth to read. Here are a few surprising truths you need to know about calcium:

1. All degenerative diseases, from heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s, show increased levels of calcium inside the cells where they do not belong.
2. As calcium deposits both inside and outside the cells increase, this raises the chance of malignancies and encourages the development of cancers.
3. A healthy diet based on organic fresh fruits, vegetables and protein foods can supply all the calcium your body will ever need, so long as you are getting plenty of sunlight or taking a good quality vitamin D3 supplement.
4. Women who have the highest calcium consumption have a death rate two and a half times higher than those with a lower
5. consumption of calcium, according to a long term study of 61,433 women followed over a period of 19 years.
We have long, wrongly, been urged to supplement our diet with calcium to avoid osteoporosis. Someone who has unwittingly followed such advice is far more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than from a bone fracture.
6. Women with osteoporosis do not have an overall deficiency of calcium in the body. They have a deficiency of calcium in their bones while they have an excess of calcium in the rest of their body.
7. While calcium supplementation can increase calcium density in bones, this does not decrease the chances of bone fracture. What it does do is lay down potentially dangerous deposits of excess calcium outside the bones.
8. Excess calcium circulating in the blood is far more dangerous than high cholesterol when it comes to strokes and heart disease.
9. Excess calcium over time, without adequate magnesium, sets the stage for the formation of atherosclerotic plaque build-up in the arteries.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The proofs for all this and much more are overwhelming. Get your calcium from fresh, organic vegetables and a healthy diet while shunning packaged convenience foods, sugars, grains and cereals, and you’ll not have to worry about doing it wrong ever again. So simple really. Meanwhile, I highly recommend that you read Levy’s book Death by Calcium. It’s a great read—clear, honest and so important for your health.