Calcium is essential to health, yet it holds hidden danger. Calcium is the most promoted nutrient by conventional, nutritional, and alternative medicine proponents. This is a tragic mistake. They should have been promoting magnesium. In the face of growing magnesium deficiencies, calcium becomes increasingly more toxic to human physiology.
A healthy cell has the right calcium-magnesium balance – high magnesium and low calcium levels. Calcium causes serious harm if not balanced with magnesium, which regulates the action of calcium. For instance, excess calcium buildup around your bones and joints mimics arthritis. Calcification or calcium poisoning can manifest as heart disease, cancer, wrinkled skin, kidney stones, osteoporosis, dental problems, bone spurs, cataracts, and many other health problems.
Calcium and magnesium are opposites in their effects on our body structure. As a general rule, the more rigid and inflexible our body structure is, the less calcium and the more magnesium we need.
Dr. Garry Gordon wrote, “If you have compromised cell membranes or low ATP production for any reason, then the cell has trouble maintaining the normal gradient.
This is because the usual gradient is 10,000 times more calcium outside of cells than inside; when this is compromised, you will have increased intracellular calcium, which seems to always happen at the time of death. Whenever intracellular calcium is elevated, you have a relative deficiency of magnesium, so whenever anyone is seriously ill, acute or chronic, part of your plan must be to restore magnesium.”
About 20% of plaque volume contains calcium, which is measurable providing a marker for the total plaque burden. The calcification of atherosclerotic lesions is due to active calcium deposition in plaque that utilizes metabolic pathways similar to those found in normal human bone. Calcium accumulates steadily over long periods of time in plaque.
Countries with the highest calcium-to-magnesium ratios (high calcium and low magnesium levels) in soil and water have the highest incidence of cardiovascular disease. Australia is at the top of the list. In contrast, Japan’s low cardiac death rate cites a daily magnesium intake as high as 560 milligrams.
Adequate levels of magnesium are essential for the heart muscle. Those who die from heart attacks have deficient magnesium but high calcium levels in their heart muscles and blood vessels. Calcium causes muscles to contract, while magnesium helps them relax.
Magnesium and calcium are paired minerals. Several studies have reported that increasing calcium significantly reduces magnesium absorption. Calcium intakes above 2.6 grams per day may reduce the body’s uptake and utilization of magnesium and increase magnesium requirements.
Up to 30% of cells’ energy is used to pump calcium out of the cells. The higher the calcium level and the lower the magnesium level in the extracellular fluid, the harder it is for cells to pump the calcium out. The result is that the mitochondria gradually calcify, and energy production decreases. The ratio of magnesium to calcium within our cells could theoretically determine our biochemical age.
Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most common disorder affecting heart valves and is characterized by thickening, fibrosis, and mineralization of the aortic valve leaflets. Aortic stenosis is a heart valve disorder that causes the aortic valve opening to narrow, hindering blood flow out of the heart. The condition makes the heart work much harder, causing damage over time and, if left untreated, can eventually lead to death.
Aortic valve calcium score has been shown to correlate with the severity of aortic stenosis (AS).