Calcium supplements

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’d like to share an epiphany I had the other week. Nutritionists (and biochemists or whoever feeds them this crap) are retards.

To be more specific, it is the pervailing medical opinion that the nutrients calcium and phosphorus (as well as some other related minerals, like zinc) are ‘opposites’. This interpretation is based on data that when the blood concentration of one is high, the other is low. So… obviously… calcium and phosphorus must interfere with each other… or something… like duh?

Yes, except for the fact that 99% of calcium in the body is bonded directly to phosphorus. (Oh yeah, they really hate each other.) Calcium and phosphorus, as hydroxylapatite, is the main component of bone and adds up to pounds of weight in the body.

The reason that blood concentrations of phosphorus are low when those of calcium are high, and vice-versa, is because both are stored long-term as bone. When the body receives an infusion of ingested calcium, it will quickly build bone to store it, and in the process deplete phosphorus and other related minerals. (Interesting side-note: bone originally evolved more as a storage medium for calcium and other minerals than for its strength. Fish needed a large store of electrolytes when transitioning between fresh and salt water. As soon as they entered the ocean, their bones would release these salts into their cells to balance off the sodium chloride in the ocean. Without them, their cells would burst from osmosis. However only some fish evolved bones, and the largest and most ferocious, sharks, don’t have any.)

Unfortunately, the vast majority of calcium supplements lack phosphorus or anything else. If you take them in any significant amount you will first develop a deficiency in the other minerals, and then promptly stop absorbing the calcium and just piss it out.

Calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, coral calcium, are all useless and even harmful. The only mainstream calcium sources that contain phosphorus are dairy and bone meal. Bone meal, essentially ground bones, is especially useful because it contains all the various minerals that make up bone in the right proportions. Milk is good too, but it just doesn’t have enough calcium in my opinion. Certain kinds of cheese are much better, but I’d still recommend bone meal.

Calcium supplements must all be reformulated, because they now do a profane disservice to millions who admirably strive to improve their own health.

And nutritionists should be shot. (Or maybe the drug companies. Fundamental research in nutrition has nearly ceased because everyone has been brainwashed to forget the free and cheap treatments, both nutritional and traditional pharmaceutical, in favor of the latest patented med. People still remember calcium only because of the milk industry, and fiber because of cereal. Because of ads. Anything that’s not advertised, is forgotten. Even by doctors.)

2

/Homer Simpson

Mmmmm, bone meal

/HS
Other than crunching up the little round ones from salmon patties, how does one acquire bone meal?

I strongly agree with your central thesis. Just yesterday I was telling my Mom that she could try eating a banana at bedtime, as opposed to popping sleeping pills and meds for nighttime leg twitches. Potassium, dude.

There’s a show on the BBC America channel, You Are What You Eat, that gives some interesting information on nutrition and physical ailments. The author, though, has been widely discredited for over- and mis-stating her qualifications. On the show she gets results and her arguments make sense.

I dunno.

3

I was under the impression that the reason calcium supplementation is recommended and phosphorous supplementation in general is not, is that phosphorous is abundant (or even over-abundant) in the typical American diet, while it is difficult to get sufficient calcium from food alone, unless one is a much heavier consumer of dairy than is average.

4

Science behind your idea aside, it’s not hard at all to find calcium supplementation in the form of calcium phosphate. It takes more effort than grabbing the first thing off the shelf labeled “calcium”, sure, but that’s true of buying anything.

5

How about Tums? Is that effective for a calcium supplement?

Maybe this explains why my last BMD showed only slight improvement after about five years of calcium supplements and Fosamax. I don’t want to break another hip.

Off to search for bone meal, and thank you!

6

I’m back. Several articles recommend against bone meal supplements, because they could be contaminated.

Everything I read recommended dairy and the other standard calcium supplements, as well as dark green leafy veggies, bones from sardines, etc. Nobody recommended bone meal.

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If you’re interested in trying calcium phosphate, get Viactiv’s “glide” style vitamins - they’re small and coated for easy swallowing, and the type I found just searching drugstore.com had calcium phosphate as the first ingredient.

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Thanks! When I searched (not very deeply) “calcium phosphate”, I found info on using it as plant and animal food,and to stabilize plastics, so I was sorta scratching my head.

9

Don’t listen to those sites that recommend against bone meal. Ok, some brand of bone meal X number of years ago was found to have traces of lead. That’s like saying you should also stop eating food you don’t boil for 2 hours, it might have salmonella. Just buy a good brand in a good store, and make sure it’s not being sold as fertilizer or dog food.
In general, I started this thread to point out a profound deficiency in common wisdom regarding calcium: That the calcium you take must be turned into bone to be stored, and you have to consume all the other nutrients that are needed for bone-growth. Nutritionists haven’t incrorporated this fact into their thought, so they don’t go around recommending supplements that give you a full spectrum of minerals. They even make the huge error of recommending supplements like Tums, which sure do have a whole lot of calcium, but absolutely nothing else. What’s especially good about bone meal is it has the minerals in the right proportions found in bone (which may be pretty different from the normal daily values).
Also, I need to point out that my advice is really most valuable when the goal is to treat a calcium deficiency. If your body has plenty of calcium, it’s going to piss the extra out anyway and you don’t have to worry about storing it or building bone. But when treating a calcium deficiency, you have to be taking 2-3x the daily value every day. No matter how much phosphorus the American diet has, it won’t be enough to bond with that. You’ll also need other minerals which aren’t even abundant. (And let me be very clear: whatever eating habits caused the calcium deficiency in the first place also probably left you deficient in many other nutrients.) Treating a calcium deficiency is very difficult due to the vast size of your body’s [depleted] calcium stores. The total amount of calcium normally stored in the body is easily a thousand times the recommended daily dose, and factoring in absorption inefficency and day-to-day needs, you will need to take triple doses for months to have a hope at recovering. And if those doses are calcium carbonate or other ‘empty calcium’, you will fail. (You’ll develop or exacerbate deficiencies in other minerals or vitamins, and then start to have calcium piss… or kidney stones) Also, if you’re serious, you should drink fresh vegetable juice every day. It won’t give you lots of calcium (or phosphorus, or many other things), but, as has been the theme of my rants here, it’ll give you the crucial nutrient support to incorporate the calcium you take from supplements.