Death by Calcium

Author: Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD
Pages: 432

Recent scientific studies now provide overwhelming proof that unequivocally confirms what many non-mainstream healthcare practitioners have long known and asserted: The regular intake of dairy and calcium supplementation promotes all known chronic degenerative diseases, and it significantly shortens life. All physicians and patients alike need to know the truth about calcium. Most people already have too much calcium in their tissues, and the incessant trumpeting of the purported health benefits of calcium supplementation and high-dairy diets must finally be exposed as marketing ploys only. The truth about calcium must finally be known.

The supplement is calcium, in any form, although some forms are more toxic than others. Furthermore, it is now clear that excess dietary calcium, as is realized with the routine ingestion of milk and other calcium-laden dairy foods, is also a toxic and life-shortening practice.

This book highlights and clearly documents the science behind the following assertions:

1. Women with the highest calcium consumption, regardless of source (diet, supplements), have a death rate 2 1/5 times higher than the women with lower consumption. This was a prospective study on 61,433 women followed over a 19-year period.
2. Women with osteoporosis do not have a generalized, body-wide deficiency of calcium. Rather, there is a deficiency of calcium in their bones, but the rest of their bodies have a calcium excess.
3. While calcium supplementation alone can increase the calcium density in the bones, it does not decrease the chances of an osteoporotic fracture. It is a cosmetic improvement only, and it further fuels the excess of calcium outside of the bones.
4. Typical American diets supply enough calcium for the needs of the body when blood vitamin D levels are maintained in the proper range.
5. Because of the emphasis on increased calcium intake, the typical osteoporosis patient faces a much higher chance of death from heart attack and stroke than from the consequences of an osteoporotic fracture.
6. Osteoporosis is a focal scurvy (severe vitamin C deficiency) of the bones.
7. All chronic degenerative diseases feature increased levels of calcium inside the cells of the body.
8. Measures that decrease further uptake of calcium inside the cells of the body substantially decrease the chances of death from all causes (a generalized reduction in mortality).
9. Increased calcium deposition outside of the cells, as well as increased levels of calcium inside the cells, increase the chances of malignant transformation and the development of cancer.
10. Many natural agents increase calcium in the bone, decrease calcium excesses throughout the body, and decrease the chances of death from all diseases. These include magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin K, and essential fatty acids (omega-3).
11. The proper restoration of deficient levels of hormones (estrogen, testosterone) and thyroid hormone helps normalize calcium metabolism and also decreases the chances of death from all causes.

To recap, then, medicine has long regarded calcium supplementation as beneficial to health. In fact, although limited amounts of calcium are vital to health, excess levels of it play routine roles in the development of chronic degenerative disease, malignant transformation, and premature cell death. Whenever a cell dies, there is already excess calcium inside it. Like iron and copper, small amounts are essential, especially in helping many enzymes function normally, but larger amounts will always be toxic and increase oxidative stress wherever accumulation occurs.