Calcium and its Relation to Magnesium

Calcium is an important nutrient essential to maintaining total body health. Your body needs it every day-not just to keep your bones and teeth strong, but to ensure proper functioning of muscles and nerves. It even helps your blood to clot. But can too much calcium be a problem? Yes, it can.

A matter of balance

Calcium deficiency can be a serious issue and has been heavily promoted through the media and advertising. But the hidden cause of calcium deficiency is the fact that available calcium is not being assimilated by the body due to a lack of magnesium.

Without a proper balance of these two minerals, magnesium gets depleted, which will result in the negative effects associated with lack of magnesium and a buildup of unassimilated calcium.

In addition to the many calcium (without magnesium) supplements on the market, calcium is now added to cereals, crackers, juice, antacids and other items (including soft drinks). None of these products contain magnesium to balance the added calcium.

Calcium, Magnesium and Stress

Calcium and magnesium are two different sides of a coin.

Calcium excites nerves while magnesium calms them down.

Calcium makes muscles contract. Magnesium is necessary for muscles to relax.

Calcium is needed for blood clotting but magnesium keeps the blood flowing freely.

It is vital to keep these minerals in balance. Too little magnesium to balance calcium can be both uncomfortable and unhealthy. To ward off the negative effects of a prolonged period of stress or over-reaction to stress, calcium needs to be balanced with adequate amounts of magnesium.

Going through a stressful period without sufficient magnesium can set up a deficit that, if not corrected, can linger, causing more stress (see symptoms of magnesium depletion listed on the green page of this brochure) and further health problems.

Today we have diets dangerously low in magnesium. Add the recent inclusion of nutritional calcium via supplements and food fortifications meant to stave off osteoporosis and many of us are getting inadequate magnesium plus too much calcium.

Women taking calcium supplements to prevent osteoporosis"without adequate magnesium"can actually lower the vital bone mineralization process. Magnesium is as important as calcium in the prevention of osteoporosis and is crucial to increasing bone mass.

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