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Calcium supplements typically made of inorganic rock, bone and shell are not digestible and drastically increase heart attack risk and brain degeneration.
Research published in the peer-reviewed journal Heart has confirmed the findings of two controversial studies on calcium supplementation and heart attack risk published in the British Medical Journal.
These studies found a 24-27% increased risk of heart attack for those who took 500 mg of elemental calcium a day. [1] [2]
The results of this large and comprehensive review, involving 24,000 people between the ages of 35 and 64, were even more alarming.
Those participants who took a regular calcium supplement increased their risk of having a heart attack by 86% versus those who took no calcium supplements at all.
Why Do We Obsessively Consume Rock, Bone And Shell Calcium?
People really should not be so surprised at the idea that calcium supplementation may be toxic to cardiovascular health. After all, many subject themselves to coronary and cardiac calcium scans in order to ascertain their risk of cardiovascular events and/or cardiac mortality.
This is because we know that calcium of the wrong kind in the wrong place can result in serious adverse health effects. There are, in fact, quite a few in the field of nutrition who have long warned against supplementation with elemental calcium; which is to say, calcium from limestone, oyster shell, eggshell and bone meal (hydroxyapatite).
There are also those who have not needed to be “experts,” because they exercised common sense when it came to not eating rocks or shells.
The seemingly universal popularity of taking elemental calcium supplements results from the promotional efforts of conventional health “experts” and organizations like the National Osteoporosis Foundation (whose corporate sponsors include the calcium manufacturers Oscal and Citrical).
Also, the World Health Organization created a radically new definition of “normal” bone density in 1994 when it took the 25-year-old young adult standard (which is peak bone mass in a woman’s life cycle), also known as the “T-score,” and applied it to all women, irrespective of their age.
This resulted in redefining the normal and gradual loss of bone mineral density that comes with aging as a disease, essentially medicalizing a non-condition. It also resulted in millions of women being coerced into taking unnecessary (and dangerous) “bone-building” drugs and inorganic calcium supplements to drive bone mineral density higher, by any means necessary.
Suddenly, healthy women were being told they had a disease called “osteopenia” or “osteoporosis,” even while their bone mineral density was normal for their age, gender and ethnicity (which would have been clear as day, had the age-mediated “Z-score” been used).
Moreover, the #1 and #2 cause of death in women are heart disease and cancer, respectively, with heart attack and breast cancer being the primary causes of morbidity and mortality.
Calcium-Induced Heart Attack
When you consider that the risk of death as a side effect of fracture associated with low bone mineral density is infinitesimal relative to that of dying from calcium-induced heart attack, and/or high bone mineral density associated malignant breast cancer (300% higher risk for those in the top quarter percentile of BMD), the justification for promoting osteopenia/osteoporosis prevention and/or treatment in women’s health above far more serious and likely health threats completely falls apart.
In fact, it appears that this myopic fixation may be significantly contributing to their premature death.
Turned To Stone: Calcium In The Wrong Place
The reality is that the habit of consuming inorganic, elemental calcium simply does not make sense. After all, have you ever experienced visceral disgust after accidentally consuming eggshell? If you have, you know your body is “hard-wired” to reject low-quality calcium sources (stones and bones as it were), in favor of getting calcium from food.
Inorganic or “elemental” calcium, when not bound to the natural co-factors, e.g. amino acids, lipids and glyconutrients, found in “food” (which is to say other living beings, e.g. plants and animals), no longer has the intelligent delivery system that enables your body to utilize it in a biologically appropriate manner.
Lacking this “delivery system,” the calcium may end up going to places you do not want (ectopic calcification), or go to places you do want (e.g. the bones), but in excessive amounts, stimulating unnaturally accelerated cell division (osteoblasts), resulting in higher bone turnover rates later in life (this is explained in the article below).
Or, the body attempts to disburden itself of this inappropriate calcium and dumps it into the bowel (constipation), or pushes it through the kidneys (stones).
Worse, high levels of calcium can accumulate 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, or coronary artery spasm (a rather common, though rarely recognized trigger of ‘heart attack’).
Breast Calcification
The breasts too are uniquely susceptible to ectopic calcification, which is why we use the same x-rays to ascertain bone density that we do to discern pathological microcalcifications in the breast, i.e. x-ray mammography.
Due to the fact that the hydroxyapatite crystals found in malignant breast tissue may act as a cellular ‘signaling molecule’ or mitogen (inducing cell proliferation), it is possible that certain breast calcifications may be a cause, and not just an effect, of the tumorous lesions (“breast cancer”) found there.
This may also help to explain why women with the highest bone density (often obtained through massive, lifelong calcium supplementation) have up to 300% higher incidence of malignant breast cancer.
Brain Gravel
“Brain gravel” is also an increasingly prevalent phenomenon, where autopsied patients have been found to have pebble-size calcium deposits distributed throughout their brains, including the pineal gland (‘the seat of the soul’).
The wide range of existing calcium-associated pathologies, and their increasing prevalence in calcium-fixated cultures, demand further investigation and explanation.
One aspect of this, no doubt, is our obsessive cultural fixation on mega-dose calcium supplementation for non-existing “conditions” associated with bone mineral density that is normal-for-our-age, but not for our doctors and the “experts” who guide them with industry-friendly misinformation.
I believe this new research puts the nail in the coffin of any remaining doubt that we should stay as far away from inorganic calcium supplements as possible, as well as the empirically and intellectually bankrupt disease models being used to coerce women into taking them in the first place.
References
[1] BMJ 2010; 341 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c3691
[2] Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women’s Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis.
[3] BMJ. 2011;342:d2040. Epub 2011 Apr 19. PMID: 21505219
I can understand the concept behind this if people are popping calcium tablets and little else. Unfortunately, if your calcium reserves are low or you have low bone density, this is the standard advice from the medical community. But nothing works in isolation.
What I have recently discovered is that many of u s are seriously deficient in Sulfur – the forgotten element. Sulfur not only helps the body eliminate toxins and wastes more effectively, it also helps the body absorb and utilise far more nutrition from the food.
Modern intensive farming and municipal water treatments have broken the ‘sulfur cycle’. Depleted soil only held up with ‘plastic’ fertilisers and chlorine/fluoride-treated water supplies, kills Sulfur. It is no surprise that groups who live in areas of high Sulfur in the food and water are, in comparison, far healthier.
It has long been assumed it is the fish consumption that keeps those in Northern climes healthy, but it has been found that even if they eat plenty of fish, when they migrate to areas of low Sulfur, they develop the same diseases as those around them.
There is a very good article on this on the WAPF website written by Stephanie Seneff.
Whilst calcium supplements are never going to be the optimum, how can people ever get enough from their food if they aren’t getting the other elements needed for assimilation?
Some days it all seems too much….this article makes it seem as if not eating rocks should be common sense….but drinking clay (which I am sure I’ve seen touted here) is beneficial??? Ack. Maybe it is just the tone of so many articles lately. So much interesting and good info along with heaps of condesencion. Discouraging….
Interesting article, but for those who are unaware of which calcium is which, how about an explanation of the different types?
My calcium supplement contains the following: calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide, cupric sulfate, zinc gluconate, dl-alpha Tocopheryl acetate, ergocalciferol, manganese amino acid chelate, ascorbic acid, glutamic acid hydrochloride.
How do I know if this is a good supplement?
This article completely depresses me! Just when I think I’m doing the right thing it turns out I’m poisoning my body and headed for a heart attack. 🙁 *sigh
What about taking homemade calcium form eggshells? (obviously from pastured eggs)
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I take garden of life calcium. It’s from food sources. Do you recommend this supplement
Hi,
I didn’t have time to read this whole article.
That said, I noticed he said to take Vitamin D3 as it does help with the Calcium absorption , and I might add, auto immune deceases etc. .
You need to get your D3 checked, to make sure you need it or do not.(although probably need it) It does come from the sun, but it seems we just do not get enough sun in colder areas, etc.
Drs.say we should be at leval 25 , but our reading should at least 50, and we need to take 5000 iu D3 everyday..Some people might need allot more or less..that is why it is very important to get it checked.
But this is more important for your bones to get the calcium there…
We really need to take is K2 MK-4.
This will take the Calcium to Your Bones and NOT your Arteries, or soft tissue.
K2 MK-4 does not stay in the body for long..About 5 hours,take it twice aday. It should be taken with a little healthy fat. Aged Gouda cheese has some K2-MK-4 in it, but not enough..
I think Thorne liquid K2-MK-4 is the best. That is just my opinion. It comes with a dropper, its is tasteless ,and I buy mine from Amazon…If you do buy it , I think it is a bit pricey, but last a long time, and it is NOT mixed with the cheaper K2 MK-7.
Please note, I have nothing to do with Throne, or Amazon.
K2-MK-7 is different, and has a longer shelve life so to speak, in the body, about 2 to 3 days.
Does not need to be taken everyday.
Some people that do take K2- MK-7 , have noticed they might get a little jittery, or cannot fall asleep at night..If you do take it, take it in the morning with breakfast..
It comes in a pill form, or liquid..
Inorganic or “elemental” calcium, when not bound to the natural co-factors
Great article
Avoid wheat and reduce the consumption of food that have high levels of phytic acid! Or, prepare foods properly (soaking, dehydrating etc.) that have substantial levels of phytic acid.