Low Calcium

The calcium myth
by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD

When blood levels of calcium drop too low and dietary calcium intake is insufficient, the body will obtain calcium by extracting it from the bones. Ideally, calcium that is taken from the bones will be replaced when calcium levels are replenished. But, before you reach for that glass of milk, realize that to replace the calcium in your bones an intricate process involving intake, metabolism and utilization must take place.
This is the crux of the myth, while calcium is clearly important, there are at least 19 other key nutrients that each play a vital role in the structural integrity and overall health of our bones. To put the larger picture in context, I find it is sometimes useful to think of bone as a brick wall where the bricks are made of calcium and the other key nutrients make up the mortar. Without mortar, the wall is unstable. Bricks may fall out, making the wall even weaker. Just like a brick wall without mortar, bone without vitamin D, vitamin K, and magnesium will lose its calcium.

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Dairy-free Sources of Dietary Calcium

The calcium myth
by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD

GOOD DAIRY-FREE SOURCES OF DIETARY CALCIUM
• Whole wheat products
• Vegetables in the brassica family:
broccoli, kale, cabbage, bok choy
• Dark leafy greens, e.g., collards, kale, turnip greens, dandelion greens, mustard greens, beet greens
• Canned fish/crustaceans with bones, e.g., sardines, pink salmon, shrimp
• Beans/legumes, e.g., edamame, tofu; tempeh, black-eyed peas, black beans, dried beans
• Okra
• Nuts and seeds, e.g., almonds, sesame seeds
• Mineral water
• Herbal teas and infusions, e.g., oatstraw, nettle, red clover

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Calcium’s role in bone health

The calcium myth
by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD

Calcium’s role in bone health
Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body and has several important functions. Two percent of our total body weight is made of calcium, and more than 99% of total body calcium is stored in the bones and teeth where it supports their structure. The body gets the calcium it needs for everyday, minute-to-minute physiological functioning in two ways. One way is from the intake of calcium-rich foods. Yes, these include dairy products, which have a high concentration per serving of highly absorbable calcium, but also many, many other foods, such as dark, leafy greens, nuts, beans, and seeds, which have varying amounts of highly absorbable calcium.

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The calcium myth

The calcium myth
by Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD
For many years, a popular chorus of wisdom about calcium and bone health has been playing. Its refrain goes something like this, Calcium is essential to bone health. Variations on this theme are also heard. Drink your milk for healthy bones Take a calcium-based antacid, and it will help your bones while it soothes your stomach… Look, this food, or that one, is fortified with calcium for healthier bones! In the well-known Got Milk? campaign, one ad has Superman promising bones of steel if you drink milk!
This focus on calcium as the silver bullet for bone health is not entirely restricted to mass media marketing messages. You’ll see calcium emphasized in osteoporosis web sites and pamphlets, research reports, and even in the Surgeon General’s bone health recommendations. In our society, where calcium is so widely available and its benefits are so widely known bone disorders like osteoporosis (fragile bones) and osteopenia (reduced bone mineral density) are still prevalent. Why is this?
The reasons for this paradox fly in the face of popular understanding: bone loss is not caused by low calcium intake. Furthermore, calcium by itself will neither prevent bone loss nor needless osteoporotic fractures.
Bone health depends not so much on calcium intake, but rather on its metabolism and utilization. The major players in this regard are vitamin D, vitamin K, and magnesium, which are woefully under-publicized in the campaign against osteoporosis. This article will discuss these nutrients, and help you understand how critical they are for maintaining bone health.

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Can Touching Your Toes Test Your Arteries?

December 23, 2009, NYTimes
Phys Ed: Can Touching Your Toes Test Your Arteries?
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

A provocative new study published this year in the journal Heart and Circulatory Physiology suggests, however, that there may be a novel way to test at least one element of your heart's health right in your own living room, right in the middle of the holidays. Sit on the floor with your legs stretched straight out in front of you, toes pointing up. Reach forward from the hips. Are you flexible enough to touch your toes? If so, then your cardiac arteries probably are also flexible.
What is surprising are some early indications that increasing your flexibility might somehow loosen up your arteries, too. That was the accidental and, as yet unreplicated finding of a small 2008 study at the University of Texas at Austin. The study was designed to examine whether weight lifting increased arterial stiffness. (It didn't, at least on this occasion.) The control group consisted of people who stretched. They were not expected to show any change in cardiac function, but over the course of 13 weeks they in fact increased the pliability of their arteries by more than 20 percent.

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