The Dance of Calcium and Magnesium

The dance of calcium and magnesium is complex and misunderstood. Actually, it’s not even misunderstood, it’s simply not understood, especially by your typical GP. As a result, misinformed people are potentially consuming 10 times more calcium than magnesium, but we function best when calcium and magnesium are consumed at a 1:1 ratio not 10:1. How did that get so out of control?

Without magnesium, calcium simply will not work properly. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the body, therefore it’s the most supplemented, and fortified in foods, in plant milk, cereals and even orange juice. And those harmless antacid tablets are all about calcium. Meanwhile, it’s been widely ignored that all minerals are crucial to properly functioning bodies and magnesium is crucial to the functioning of all minerals, especially calcium.

What Dr. Google or an MD might say about calcium and magnesium:

According to Dr. Google, you should take twice as much calcium as magnesium. Also, it’s important to take calcium and magnesium together as they work synergistically … but on the same page it says you should take them separately because each might interfere with the absorption with the other. Dr. Google also suggests that you can achieve appropriate levels of each mineral with a balanced diet.

This wildly confusing misinformation is the first thing you see when searching about calcium and magnesium, other than information from sites selling synthetic supplements.

I’m not going to entertain Dr. Google anymore on this topic because it’s so confusing and misleading. Let’s jump into what I say (and the research says) about calcium and magnesium.

What I say about calcium and magnesium:

Here’s an edited excerpt on calcium from my Heart Health book:

Calcium is essential for the strength and development of bones and teeth. Few people know that calcium is regulated and controlled by magnesium. Calcium is important for the transmission of impulses in nerve and muscle cells, including cardiac muscle cells.

But calcium can’t deliver without the balancing effect of magnesium. Magnesium opens the cells to receive a measured amount of calcium, then, after the muscle or nerve action has been performed, magnesium drives the calcium out of the cell.

Over the past few decades, women have been encouraged to supplement calcium exclusively for bone health and consequently they’ve become calcified by taking large doses without the balancing effects of magnesium. Nobody told them that they could be taking too much calcium!

Several studies have proven calcium supplementation in women carries an increased risk of heart disease. Besides depositing in the arteries, excess calcium is causing gall stones, kidney stones, heel spurs, fibromyalgia calcification and breast tissue calcification.

One of the reasons why calcium has become such a problem is the lack of magnesium in our diet. One hundred years ago we were able to obtain about 500mg of magnesium in our diet; today we’re lucky if we get 200-250mg. Yet the amount of calcium from diet, fortified foods and supplements can have people taking upwards of 3,000mg of calcium daily. Apply that amount to 250mg of magnesium and the ratio is 12:1. Yet, few doctors stop to ask what that incredible imbalance will do to our metabolism.

With this increased risk in heart disease in women, they’re put on a lifelong regimen of CCB’s or calcium channel blockers. It’s in the name of this group of drugs! Calcium is the problem that needs to be blocked!

I explain this extensively in my book, The Magnesium Miracle if you want to learn about the science, but I want you to have some understanding here. Calcium enters the cells by way of calcium channels that are jealously guarded by magnesium. Magnesium, at a concentration 10,000 times greater than that of calcium in the cells, allows only a certain amount of calcium to enter to create the necessary electrical transmission, and then immediately helps to eject the calcium once the work is done.

Why? If calcium accumulates in the cell, it causes hyperexcitability and calcification and disrupts cell function. Too much calcium entering cells can cause symptoms of heart disease (such as angina, high blood pressure, and arrhythmia), asthma, or headaches.

Magnesium is actually THE natural calcium channel blocker. Magnesium also helps eliminate heart spasms by relaxing heart muscles and palpitations by balancing the electrolytes.

Because there are no drugs to “dissolve” the calcium in coronary arteries, allopathic medicine continues to ineffectively use stents, calcium channel blockers and statin drugs instead of supplementing their patients with risk-free magnesium. In my world, excess calcium depositing in arteries means a relative lack of magnesium and magnesium is a treatment for calcium build up in the body.

People with high blood pressure are also given calcium channel blocking drugs which drain the body of magnesium, making them even more susceptible to heart diseases.

What to do to balance your calcium and magnesium

My advice is to finish the magnesium you are currently taking and then reach for my non-laxative, picometer-sized, stabilized ion of magnesium formula for full absorption and full benefits. The body holds onto much more calcium than magnesium, so supplementing with magnesium will start to break up and dissolve excess calcium that might be doing some damage in your body.

Then, intentionally consume about 700 mg of calcium in calcium rich foods like yogurt, green leafy vegetables, heavy whipping cream. Here’s a list of calcium-rich foods:

Calcium in Foods

Below is a list of foods high in calcium. If you do the math, you’ll see that there is much more calcium in our diet than magnesium.

The best way to proceed is to call our wonderful Customer Experience Team to help build a healthy protocol that you can depend on.

Carolyn Dean MD ND
The Doctor of the Future