OT- Elevated Calcium Levels

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any ideas on how to lower, (if it's even possible)

elevated calcium levels? My grandmother's parathyroid is hyperactive

and causing her to absorb every drop of calcium in her diet. The

excessive calcium is causing problems with her kidney's since they are

working so hard to excrete it, (bathroom trips every 10 min.) and

attacking the myelin sheathing in her body. She has what is called

" Lewy Body Dementia " . Her Father and *younger* brother have already

died of a similar disease and her mother has been in a nursing home with

it for the last 15 years. That makes 4 out of 4, so I'm thinking it was

something in their environment that caused the symptoms. My grandmother

is only 65. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying to

find her alternative care with very little support from my family. Thanks!

Kayla

[Guest guest]

Off the top of my head, magnesium competes with calcium so magnesium

supplements may be helpful. Magnesium also helps prevent kidney

stones, so that's a double benefit. Magnesium oxide is a waste of

money, she'd need citrate, glauconate, or one of the better forms.

Hope it helps!

- Renate

>

> Hi all,

> Does anyone have any ideas on how to lower, (if it's even

possible)

> elevated calcium levels? My grandmother's parathyroid is

hyperactive

> and causing her to absorb every drop of calcium in her diet. The

> excessive calcium is causing problems with her kidney's since they

are

> working so hard to excrete it, (bathroom trips every 10 min.) and

> attacking the myelin sheathing in her body. She has what is

called

> " Lewy Body Dementia " . Her Father and *younger* brother have

already

> died of a similar disease and her mother has been in a nursing

home with

> it for the last 15 years. That makes 4 out of 4, so I'm thinking

it was

> something in their environment that caused the symptoms. My

grandmother

> is only 65. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I'm

trying to

> find her alternative care with very little support from my

family. Thanks!

> Kayla

>

[Guest guest]

On 2/22/06, haecklers <haecklers@...> wrote:

> Off the top of my head, magnesium competes with calcium so magnesium

> supplements may be helpful. Magnesium also helps prevent kidney

> stones, so that's a double benefit. Magnesium oxide is a waste of

> money, she'd need citrate, glauconate, or one of the better forms.

As far as I've read, the interaction between magnesium and calcium

isn't very well understood. According to Coe and Favus, eds.,

_Disorders of Bone and Mineral Metabolism_ (2002) in the chapter on

intestinal absorption of minerals by Favus, it takes a very high

amount of magnesium to have only a slight effect on decreasing calcium

absorption. Since the book is three going on four years old, there is

probably newer information on the subject that I'm missing.

Considerably amounts of vitamin A can decrease calcium absorption.

What are her parathyroid hormone levels? What are her serum calcium

levels? Has anyone measured her serum phosphorus levels?

Chris

--

Dioxins in Animal Foods:

A Case For Vegetarianism?

Find Out the Truth:

http://www.westonaprice.org/envtoxins/dioxins.html

[Guest guest]

Well, like drinking Coke --- the phosphoric acid is supposed to rob one of

calcium. Also, taking iron – iron binds with calcium in the intestines

before it can be absorbed. Time release would probably be good that way.

Then you need to worry about a few other minerals like selenium being also

bound...

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[Guest guest]

On 2/22/06, F. Palmer <lfpalmer@...> wrote:

> Well, like drinking Coke --- the phosphoric acid is supposed to rob one of

> calcium.

It's possible that this might happen from the acidity as it passes

along the teeth or sits in the mouth, but phosphorus is absolutely and

completely necessary for the utilization of calcium. A low-phosphorus

diet will cause urinary excretion of calcium.

Phosphorus can bind to calcium in the gut, but it depends on the pH,

and in any case it's sort of irrelevant because you need the

phosphorus to put the calcium in the bones anyway.

> Also, taking iron – iron binds with calcium in the intestines

> before it can be absorbed.

That's not possible. Calcium and iron are both positively charged

when ions, and can't bind to each other.

There has to be more going on than just efficient absorption of

calcium. The subjects Price studied were getting around 4 grams of

calcium per day. The average American is getting less than a quarter

of this. If she's consuming a gram of calcium and absorbing 100% of

it, that shouldn't be a problem. The extra calcium must be coming

from the bones, or from an inability to excrete any in the urine.

In that case, attacking the issue from the first end, preventing

absorption, is rather futile.

More importantly, if that is her most important issue, it would be

much easier to simply eat a low-calcium diet than to eat lots of

calcium and try to use extreme doses out of balance of certain

minerals to prevent its absorption.

It's not very difficult to eat a low-calcium diet. Avoiding milk and

bones should be sufficient, and maybe high-calcium vegetables if you

really want to be Draconian about it, but that certainly isn't getting

at the root of the problem, which is her (probable) uncontrolled

growth of the parathryoid gland and the (definite) inability of her

parathyroid gland to respond to the regulator effects of activated

vitamin D (calcitriol).

Chris

--

Dioxins in Animal Foods:

A Case For Vegetarianism?

Find Out the Truth:

http://www.westonaprice.org/envtoxins/dioxins.html