A perfect calcium to prevent weak bones
Dr. Gifford-Jones discusses effects of calcium supplements
Leonardo Da Vinci, (often called the “Universal Genius), remarked over 500 years ago that, “Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” It’s a phrase often repeated when teaching young surgeons. Now, there’s a “perfect calcium,” an Icelandic natural remedy that helps to keep bones strong.
Studies show that one in four women and one in eight men over age 50 suffer from osteoporosis (brittle bones). So due to an aging population, we can expect more hip, spinal, and other bone fractures in the future.
What about the use of calcium supplements?
The point is that not all calcium products are the same. Most use calcium mined from limestone, a sedimentary rock. After processing this material it contains only one mineral, calcium.
But one particular product, Aquamin, is a whole food source of calcium that’s not mined from limestone. Rather, it’s obtained from a red-algae plant, Lithothamnion calcareum, that grows off the clean, cold waters of Iceland. It’s harvested by permission of the Icelandic government with strict control standards and quotas.
This natural remedy contains 73 minerals including calcium and magnesium that are essential to bone health. Studies show that Aquamin decreases the activity of osteocytes that absorb bone, and increases activity of osteo
blasts that build up bone.
Aquamin works well with vitamin K2 that directs calcium into bone, rather than arteries. Equally vital, added vitamin D helps to absorb calcium from the gastrointestinal tract.
Professor Bischoff-Ferrari at the University Hospital in Zurick, Switzerland, is a world authority on calcium. Several years ago Dr. Bischoll-Ferrari reported that calcium supplements, without vitamin D, may cause a 64 percent increase in hip fractures! She explains, “it’s because bone is not just calcium and does not function in isolation.”
Researchers in recent calcium studies stress that it’s advisable to get calcium from food sources since they’re better absorbed. Moreover, natural sources such as food and plant-based Aquamin are also more slowly absorbed, so there is no sudden harmful spike in blood calcium.
Aquamin is another example of what I have been arguing for many years. That nature and natural remedies are hard to beat. They make total sense. After all, nature has been working for eons and eons to produce the right amount of calcium, magnesium and other minerals needed by the body. We also know that it must be a delicate balance, as too much or too little of one, can cause serious problems.
I acknowledge that some synthetic man-made products are needed for some health problems. But it has been proven that these products often cause significant complications and sometimes death. But natural products do not produce dead bodies. For this reason it makes sense to try them first. Trifles do make perfection.
Dr. Gifford-Jones (AKA Ken Walker) is a graduate of The University of Toronto and The Harvard Medical School. He took post-graduate training in surgery at the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, McGill University in Montreal and Harvard. During his medical training he has been a family doctor, hotel doctor and ship’s surgeon. He is a Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons and author of seven books. His medical column is published by 70 Canadian newspapers, several in the U.S. and Europe. He was Senior Editor of the Canadian Doctor, a regular contributor to the magazine Fifty Plus and other publications. Visit docgiff.com.