Death by Calcium

Death by Calcium: Eight Myths That Could Cost You Your LifeDid you know calcium does not combat osteoporosis? What’s worse, it actively promotes fatal conditions like heart disease and cancer. Here, Thomas E. Levy, MD, addresses eight myths about calcium that may be costing you your good health—and even your life.

          Henderson, NV (April 2014)—From childhood on, we’ve all heard it: “Drink your milk.” “Milk does a body good.” “You never outgrow your need for milk.” And most of us have accepted these “truths” at face value. We know that calcium is necessary in a host of bodily functions and that it builds strong bones and teeth. So after each milk mustache, cup of yogurt, or calcium supplement, we mentally pat ourselves on the back for helping stave off osteoporosis and general physical deterioration. If some is good, more must be better. Right?
          Wrong! Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, says that not only is our country’s commitment to calcium not bringing about the desired benefits; it’s actively sabotaging our health.
          “Yes, calcium is essential for bodily function, but as many non-mainstream healthcare practitioners have long known, there’s a real and grave danger in pumping excessive amounts of it into our bodies,” says Dr. Levy, author of Death by Calcium: Proof of the Toxic Effects of Dairy and Calcium Supplements (MedFox Publishing, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-615-88960-3, $29.95, www.deathbycalcium.com). “Believe it or not, most of the adult population has no need for significant calcium intake, and that need rapidly decreases with age.”
          Here’s the really scary part: An excess of calcium reliably promotes heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, cancer, and other degenerative diseases. So not only are those supplements not helping, they may actually be killing you. Note to Editor: See attached tipsheet for nine toxic effects of an excess of calcium.
          “Understandably, most people are shocked to hear this,” Dr. Levy concedes. “Due to decades of convincing campaigns and marketing ploys, millions have embraced the milk-is-good-for-you myth and other related fictions.”
          In Death by Calcium, Dr. Levy presents compelling scientific evidence that systematically debunks much of what Western society believes about calcium. The book explains why calcium is dangerous in excess quantities, why limiting it promotes health, and provides strategies to help readers begin to get their calcium levels in balance.
          Here, Dr. Levy addresses eight dangerous myths about calcium and osteoporosis you probably accept as fact:
Myth 1: Calcium is good for you. There’s a reason why no one questions the popular wisdom that calcium is good for you: It seems completely plausible. After all, aren’t bones largely composed of calcium? Isn’t osteoporosis a calcium deficiency of the bone? It makes sense that drinking milk or downing calcium tablets will fix the problem!
“What people don’t realize is that while osteoporosis involves a lack of calcium in the bones, it does not mean that there is a calcium deficiency in the rest of the body or in the patient’s diet (more on that later!),” explains Dr. Levy. “And moving on from osteoporosis, excess calcium promotes a host of other health problems including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and virtually all chronic diseases. In fact, it increases all-cause mortality by 250 percent.
“The bottom line is, there is no concrete evidence to support that calcium delivers any real health benefits—quite the opposite!” he adds.
Myth 2: You need to eat dairy products to get enough calcium. If the government’s recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium—between 1,000 to 1,300 mg per day for most adults—were correct, loading your diet with dairy products would be an easy way to reach that goal. However, says Dr. Levy, not only is the government’s RDA far too high, the idea that you need dairy to get “enough” calcium is false.
“Cultures that drink little to no milk have a much lower incidence of osteoporosis than Americans,” he shares. “Actually, the average person’s need for calcium is more than adequately met with a diet that includes meat, eggs, and vegetables. If you want to consume dairy, that’s your choice—but don’t do so believing that avoiding these products will result in an inadequate intake of calcium.”
Myth 3: If you have osteoporosis, you have a calcium deficiency. This statement isn’t entirely incorrect: If you have osteoporosis, you do have a calcium deficiency—in your bones. Because of this fact, many physicians and their patients believe that the entire body must be depleted of calcium as well. But that’s a dangerous assumption. Throughout the rest of your body, it’s actually likely that you have an excess of calcium.
“The problem with osteoporosis is that the body is unable to synthesize a new structural bone matrix and integrate calcium into it—an issue that more calcium doesn’t even begin to fix!” explains Dr. Levy. “In fact, much of the calcium leached from the bones simply moves to other parts of the body, where it does you harm. It’s both ironic and sad that because of this fundamental misunderstanding, so many motivated, health-conscious people are sabotaging their health in an effort to improve it.”
Myth 4: Calcium supplements will help prevent broken bones. Yes, there are studies that indicate that calcium supplementation is effective in decreasing the incidence of fractures in osteoporosis patients. But if you look more closely, says Dr. Levy, you’ll uncover more questions than answers. Notably, most positive studies also included 800 or more units of vitamin D as a “co-supplement.” Vitamin D, by itself, will decrease the chances of osteoporotic fracture. And that’s not all.
“In some trials the number of subjects was very small, in others the duration was short, and in still others patient and observer bias wasn’t tempered by double-blind placebo control,” he comments. “Plus, some studies relied on the accuracy of the subject’s self-observation and memory, which is questionable. Could you accurately remember how much calcium you’ve taken over the past ten years (or even one year)? On the other hand, in Death by Calcium, I cite numerous studies that collectively provide more than enough data to conclude: Calcium supplementation does not prevent bone fractures.
“Remember, it’s easy for various individuals and organizations to pick and choose the study results they’d like the public to believe, knowing that most people will take that information at face value,” he adds.
Myth 5: Increased bone density means stronger bones. Let’s say that you have a rotting wooden fence bordering your yard. If you paint it with a new coat of bright white paint, it will look better, but the “fix” is only cosmetic—the fence’s underlying structure is still continuing to deteriorate. That’s essentially what happens when you use calcium supplements to treat bone density. Your bone density test score may well improve a bit with calcium supplementation, but this is not associated with stronger bones or a decreased risk of fracture.
“When you treat a disease like osteoporosis with increased calcium, the density can legitimately increase, but the quality of the bone itself doesn’t improve unless other important factors are addressed,” explains Dr. Levy. “The structural matrix of the bone still isn’t normal and has no greater resistance to fracture than the diseased bone before the new calcium deposition.”
Myth 6: When you have osteoporosis, the biggest danger is breaking a bone. There’s no disputing that when a person with osteoporosis fractures a bone, it’s serious business. These fractures often cause incapacitation and other complications that may lead to death. But would you say that sustaining a fracture is more serious than suffering (or even dying) from a heart attack, stroke, or cancer? These are often the unrecognized consequences of osteoporosis.
“A groundbreaking study made it very clear that a fracture is not the major concern for a majority of osteoporosis patients,” says Dr. Levy. “It found that in nearly 10,000 postmenopausal women, there was a 60 percent increase in the risk of death for individuals in the lowest quintile of bone density compared to those in the highest quintile. And most of those deaths did not relate to a fracture.
“The likely reason is straightforward: The more advanced the osteoporosis, the more calcium has been released from the bones over time,” he explains. “This release literally showers all of the other tissues and organs in the body with a chronic excess of calcium—which, as I’ve already pointed out, is extremely detrimental to your health. There are many other studies that also support the conclusion that one of the biggest dangers of osteoporosis is the fact that it promotes and worsens so many other chronic diseases.”

Myth 7: Vitamin D just serves to increase calcium absorption. Vitamin D plays an essential role in regulating and modulating calcium absorption and metabolism via its interactions with the bones, gut, and kidneys. But despite data that has been accumulating since the 1980s regarding the many other roles vitamin D plays, many doctors still approach it as being “only” another way to supplement calcium.

“Vitamin D plays a role in the metabolism of virtually all cells in the body and is known to have a direct effect on around 200 genes, so it’s very important,” Dr. Levy shares. “However, I strongly caution you not to seek out vitamin D in foods with high calcium content, since vitamin D facilitates and even ‘overdoses’ calcium absorption—which, as we’ve already covered, is not desirable.”

Myth 8: You get all the vitamin D you need from the sun. This statement would be true if you spent a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes a day in the sun with enough skin area exposed, in a part of the world fairly close to the equator. But let’s be honest: For most of us, that’s just not going to happen.

“The modern way of living is very effective in shielding people from the sun so completely that even a large percentage of individuals who live in tropical climates are chronically deficient in vitamin D,” says Dr. Levy. “Therefore, for nearly everyone on the planet, vitamin D supplementation is a must in order to get its (bone) blood levels in the range that supports optimal bone health and general health. Again, just avoid getting your vitamin D in foods that also contain calcium!”

          “A lot of fiction about calcium is currently accepted as fact,” concludes Dr. Levy. “But the bottom line is, raising calcium concentrations in your body is never going to be beneficial, and often is actively toxic. You need to realize this, change your diet accordingly, and start taking steps now to reverse the damage—before it’s too late.” Note to Editor: See attached tipsheet for nine ways to start reducing your calcium levels.

The Dark Side of Calcium: Nine Ways It Makes Us Sick (Or Even Kills Us)
By Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, author of Death by Calcium: Proof of the Toxic
Effects of Dairy and Calcium Supplements (MedFox Publishing, 2013,
ISBN: 978-0-615-88960-3, $29.95, www.deathbycalcium.com)

          Calcium isn’t the nutritional “good guy” we’re often led to believe it is. In fact, it’s often the cause of disease and even death. Here, Dr. Thomas E. Levy points out nine toxic effects of an excess of calcium:

As a treatment for osteoporosis, calcium does more harm than good. It’s common “knowledge” that most older adults are calcium deficient and that this deficiency contributes to osteoporosis. But in reality, that’s not the case. While there is a deficiency of calcium in the bones of osteoporosis patients, the disease is by definition a degenerative condition of the bone in which the bone is unable to synthesize a new structural bone matrix and integrate calcium into it. Most calcium that is pumped into the body takes up residence in non-bone tissue, where (as you’ll see) it does the patient much more harm than good.

Calcium promotes heart disease… It’s not a coincidence that measurement of calcification (yes, as in calcium!) in the arteries is used to assess the development and progress of coronary disease. (In fact, fully developed plaques in the arterial walls contain 80 times more calcium than healthy tissues.) And here’s one of the most alarming statistics of all: A study of over 61,000 participants over 19 years found that taking over 1,400 mg of calcium per day had a 40 percent increase in risk of death from cardiovascular disease in general and a 114 percent increase in risk of death from a reduced flow of blood to the heart muscle.
…and that includes heart attacks. A comprehensive review of over 15 clinical studies shows that if you take an extra 500 mg of calcium per day, you’re 30 percent more likely to have a heart attack. Dump more calcium into the cauldron and the brew becomes even deadlier.
Excess calcium can lead to a stroke. Similar to the relationship between calcium and heart attacks, an extra 500 mg of calcium each day makes you 12 to 20 percent more likely to have a stroke.

It can also raise your cholesterol levels. A recent clinical trial showed that regular calcium supplementation in postmenopausal women significantly increased total cholesterol levels (which is generally considered to be an important measure of coronary artery disease risk).

Calcium and cancer are frequent bedfellows. Both microscopic and easily visible calcifications are frequently seen in malignant tissues, suggesting that there is a significant causal link between calcium and cancer (a link that has been supported by numerous studies—for instance, in one study MRI techniques detected calcification in 22 of 23 malignant prostate glands).
There are even several “smoking guns.” For example, several researchers have demonstrated that as the concentration of intracellular calcium increases, the invasive nature of cancer also increases, resulting in a metastatic spread. Not coincidentally, breast cancer patients with calcifications are less likely to survive their battle with the disease.
While the relationship between calcium and cancer has been evident for decades, medical researchers have been reluctant to connect the dots and implicate this near-sacred nutrient.

Calcium contributes to cellular dysfunction and death. The amount of calcium outside cells, depending on the type of cell, can be 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than levels inside the cell. This difference in concentrations means that there is always calcium on the outside that wants to get inside. Once inside (which can happen through various mechanisms, including the presence of various toxins such as formaldehyde or elevated glucose levels), if calcium levels become too high, a cascade of reactions pushes cells toward programmed cell death (apoptosis) or complete cell destruction(s) (necrosis).

Specifically, intracellular calcium contributes to chronic degenerative diseases. Chronically elevated calcium levels in the cells appears to be a common denominator for many forms of cell damage and death. Sustained elevations of intracellular calcium plays a significant role in degenerative neurological diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Calcium increases death from all diseases. It’s worth underscoring again that (as previously explained) significant calcium levels in the body increases all-cause mortality. Alarmingly, in the large study of 61,000 women referenced earlier, those with the highest calcium consumption posted a death rate two and one-half times (257 percent) higher than the groups who ingested less.

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Wiping off the Milk Mustache:
Nine Ways to Start Reducing Your Calcium Levels and Healing Your Body
By Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, author of Death by Calcium: Proof of the Toxic
Effects of Dairy and Calcium Supplements (MedFox Publishing, 2013,
ISBN: 978-0-615-88960-3, $29.95, www.deathbycalcium.com)

          You’ve come to terms with the fact that, contrary to what you’ve believed for your whole life, lots of calcium does not improve your health or strengthen your bones—and you’d like to start balancing your body’s calcium levels. But how, exactly, can you do that?
          Here, Dr. Thomas E. Levy offers nine ways you can cut back on dairy and start “de-calcifying” your body:
Stop drinking milk as a beverage. If you drink milk as a beverage, consider replacing it with other drinks. In particular, avoid buying and drinking milk that has added vitamin D, since vitamin D when ingested with calcium can “overdose” the body’s calcium absorption. If you live in an area where you are able to obtain dairy products derived from raw milk (i.e., not pasteurized or processed with added vitamin D), do so since raw milk has a significantly less negative impact on your health.
Here’s another alternative: You can enjoy butter and its direct derivatives, sour cream and heavy whipping cream, since these are high in fat and much lower in calcium. Their average portion size also results in a much lower calcium exposure compared to other dairy products. So if you like cereal with milk, just use a 50-50 mixture of heavy cream and water, and you’ll have a non-toxic treat.
Make other dairy products a special treat. If you’re a dairy lover, there’s no need to cut cheese, ice cream, and other products out of your life entirely. However, it’s a good idea to make these items an occasional treat instead of a daily staple. Having your favorite cheese or yogurt once every week or two will minimize the negative impact of the extra calcium. Or, you can have smaller, “child-sized” portions more frequently.
Look for new favorite foods outside the dairy universe. It’s never too late to find a new favorite food. Make a deliberate effort to find new, non-dairy foods you may never have eaten before and incorporate them into your diet. For instance, any of a wide variety of nuts, seeds, and fresh fruits make great snacks. Ask your health-conscious friends what their favorite non-dairy foods are and do a little research on the Internet as well. You may be surprised by how many new good tastes you find!
Use magnesium supplements to counteract dairy intake. When you indulge in dairy, take an extra 100 to 300 mg of magnesium glycinate beforehand. Magnesium is Nature’s calcium antagonist and will cause less calcium from your snack to accumulate in your body and enter your cells. You can find magnesium glycinate at many health and vitamin stores, and you can also order it online.
Become a label reader. Many products that aren’t typically associated with calcium can have large amounts added to them in a presumed attempt to promote good health and make the products in question even more nutritious. That’s why it’s a good idea to scan the ingredient list before buying any given food or beverage. Common culprits of calcium-spiking include: orange juice, non-dairy milks (such as rice milk and soymilk), tofu, canned salmon, canned beans, trail mix, and more. Incredibly, even some milk has had extra calcium added into it.
Cut out calcium supplements. Whether you decide to cut back on dairy products or not, discontinue all calcium-containing supplements and antacids. These supplements offer virtually no health benefits and simply increase the concentration of harmful calcium deposits in your body. Be sure to read your labels carefully, because many supplements have substantial amounts of calcium added into them.
Step up your exercise routine. Believe it or not, inducing a good sweat on a regular basis can eliminate a substantial amount of calcium from your body over time. Even if you’re not a world-class endurance athlete (and let’s face it, most of us aren’t and never will be), every little bit helps. Plus, regular exercise also promotes a host of other health benefits.

Sweat it out in the sauna. Spending some time in the sauna is also an excellent way to sweat out much of your excess calcium, as well as other toxins (like toxic metals) that may have accumulated over the years. If your budget allows, one of the best things you can do for your general health is to purchase and use an infrared sauna in your home. Just be sure to clear its use with your healthcare practitioner, as some individuals might not tolerate the stress of the heat and loss of fluids well.

Get friendly with vitamin C. Vitamin C deficiencies have been implicated in the causation and/or worsening of most, if not all, chronic degenerative diseases—including osteoporosis. In osteoporosis patients, antioxidant levels—particularly vitamin C—are extremely low in the bones themselves (and, in fact, are significantly depressed throughout the body) and need to be balanced. Overall, taking a vitamin C supplement of any size daily will help just about anyone’s health. (And interestingly, other conditions including acute infections and acute toxin exposures can be addressed and resolved with aggressive multi-gram doses of vitamin C.)

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About the Author:
Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, is the author of Death by Calcium: Proof of the Toxic Effects of Dairy and Calcium Supplements. He is a board-certified cardiologist and is also the author of Primal Panacea and Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins; plus three other groundbreaking medical books. He is one of the world’s leading vitamin C experts and frequently lectures to medical professionals all over the globe about the proper role of vitamin C and antioxidants in the treatment of a host of medical conditions and diseases.

For more information, please visit www.deathbycalcium.com.