Buffering of Acids and Control of Calcium
Maintaining good health has everything to do with balance: The balance between removing toxins and wastes which can be damaging to cells, as well as ensuring the supply of adequate nutrition and hydration for the body to produce energy and replace damaged cells with healthy ones.
If our body becomes overwhelmed with stresses, chemicals and wastes, we start to become acidic with decomposing wastes – a bit like a compost heap! Pathogenic growth then overwhelms the immune system causing inflammation in various parts of the body , including the skin. Lipid peroxidation is destructive to tissue cells. Acids after all dissolve things.
That’s not all folks… Inflammation over time attracts calcium deposits in the soft tissue and joints as the body desperately tries to the correct the pH imbalance with extra calcium (calcium being a buffering agent). It can even leach calcium out of our bones to do this, making us harder and crunchier faster! Granular calcium deposits in the joints are as destructive as sand in ball bearings, as they grind away at the cartilage causing pain and inflammation. It is often a ‘bone of contention’ in arthritic conditions.
A plentiful supply of magnesium on the other hand, which is also a buffering mineral, can control the way calcium behaves by releasing its grip on our tight muscles and ligaments. We do need to use calcium to contract muscles, but the relaxation and recovery phase relies on the presence of magnesium. Magnesium and calcium swap places on membrane binding sites depending on whether we need to contract or relax the muscle. Studies have shown that exposure of blood vessels to reduced magnesium concentration doses does in fact increase the tissue calcium content (“Magnesium in Health and Disease,”) – just like a see-saw.
An important illustration of this process is our heart muscle, which is a pump that contracts and releases 24/7 to keep blood circulating and to keep you alive. If it gets too low in magnesium, calcium moves in to occupy the binding sites causing cramps and tension, and can’t let go. This is a cardiac arrest. In fact, magnesium is so important for the heart that it has more magnesium receptors than any other muscle in the body – to be sure to be sure! If you are experiencing heart arrhythmia you can bet that your magnesium levels are running low.
Health, wellness, beauty and longevity all require efficient detoxification as well as quality nutrients for building new cells. Toxins such as heavy metals and the halogens of fluorine, bromine and chlorine cause free radical damage and premature ageing. They steal magnesium and stifle metabolism by suppressing thyroid function and mitochondrial production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – our cellular electrical energy currency. Without magnesium your mitochondria can’t make this electrical energy.
Such chemicals are unfortunately very prevalent in our environment – particularly in fluoridated areas. Showering or bathing in fluoridated chlorinated water can strip the skin of essential lipids, which has a drying effect. This diminishes our skin barrier protection and allows more ingress of toxic elements.
Many studies have demonstrated the protective and corrective action of magnesium, but a Finish study found that elevated calcium diminished the overall protective ability of magnesium to defend us from fluoride toxicity. They studied its effect on the heart muscle and found: “The lethality of fluoride may be dominantly mediated by the elevated Ca (Ca/Mg ratio) in the heart muscle and that this is correctable by magnesium.” (Koskinen-Kainulainen, Luoma, & Tuomisto, 1990)
Interestingly, the more fluoride we accumulate, the more it is associated with soft tissue calcification – that is, increasing calcification and premature ageing. Both calcium and fluoride levels depress magnesium’s action in the body.
Magnesium is lost excessively under stress. To make matters worse, we don’t get enough of it these days from our food supply due to deficient soils and food over-processing. We may have digestive issues that prevent absorption such as low stomach acid, leaky gut or Crohn’s disease. We may be big magnesium wasters because of certain genes or excessive alcohol or drug use. For all these reasons magnesium is the electrolyte mineral most likely to be deficient in people. Magnesium deficiency can cause a plethora of symptoms and degenerative metabolic diseases.