> If paleos got their calcium primarily from the bones of fish and small
> animals, does anyone have any references for how much calcium this would
> amount to?
From the Protein Power LifePlan p207-209:
" Modern humans have departed from the diet the forces of nature designed
for
our well-being in a variety of ways - our reliance on cereal grains, our
higher intake of sodium, our low intake of good-quality essential fats, to
name a few - but we've made no more critical step off the Paleolithic path
than the startling decrease in the mineral magnesium, along with an equally
dramatic increase in our intake of its "opposing partner" mineral, calcium.
And this imbalance has brought with it a plethora of modern ills. Let's
first examine what *was* through the lens of history, with a look at what
the diet of our ancient ancestors provided, and see how we measure up.
Paleolithic nutrition researchers Loren Cordain and Boyd Eaton have devoted
innumerable hours of thought, study, and analysis to the reconstruction of a
modern model of the diet our ancestors thrived on. By their estimates, the
magnesium intake of early man appears to have been as much as 800 to 1,500
mg per day. Interestingly, this amount of magnesium approximately equals
what Dr. Cordain estimates the daily calcium intake to have been at that
time, giving early humans a calcium-to-magnesium ratio of about 1:1.
Look at how things have changed; contrast those Paleolithic figures with the
intake of Americans today. We now on average consume a diet that provides
only an estimated 200 to 300 mg of magnesium and 1,200 to 1,500 mg of
calcium, making our modern ration not the 1:1 of old but 5:1 or even as high
as 15:1 by some estimates. Nowadays we're taking in five to fifteen times
more calcium than magnesium much to the detriment of our health.
Consider this list of known conditions that research has correlated with
deficiency of magnesium: heart disease and sudden death, diabetes, high
blood pressure, asthma and chronic bronchitis, chronic fatigue syndrome,
migraine headaches, muscle cramps, premenstrual syndrome, depression and
other psychiatric disorders, and susceptibility to the brain-damaging
effects of food additives such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Quite an impressive list, and that's not even the half of it.
Our readers and patients in our clinic often ask us, "If you could take or
prescribe only one supplement, what would it be?" And the answer is simple:
magnesium. It's already been identified as a required cofactor for more
than three hundred enzymatic reactions in the body - and who knows how many
more have yet to be uncovered?
If its so important, you may be thinking, why don't you hear more about it?
Again, the answer is pretty simple: magnesium has no commercial lobby to
tout its benefits on the airwaves. Calcium has the diary lobby, fiber gets
its media boost from the grain producers and cereal manufacturers, vitamin C
has the citrus growers trumpeting its many benefits, but poor old magnesium
is a media orphan. However, waves of interest have begun to form, and some
previous citizens groups have begun to act on magnesium's behalf. What's
all the hullabaloo about?
How can one simple element have such diverse and potent physiological
actions? One important way that magnesium works its miracles is through its
influence on and regulation of calcium, a mineral that's gotten than its
share of media play in recent years.
You'd have to have been locked in a cave on the most remote corner of
Bora-Bora not to have heard the hype - particularly aimed at women over
forty - about taking more calcium to prevent deficiency and keep bones
strong. And so now we have the entire nation chomping calcium antacids by
the handful, drinking calcium-fortified orange juice, downing calcium
supplements of all kinds in an effort to raise their intake of calcium.
But guess what the calcium hype fails to point out? It takes both calcium
and magnesium (along with vitamin D) as well as an entire intricate symphony
of bit players (molybdenum, boron, phosphorous, adequate protein, and
bone-building hormones) to properly build and maintain bone. In fact, high
levels of calcium in the blood can actually weaken bone and make it more
brittle! And to make matters worse, taking excessive calcium without
magnesium will promote magnesium deficiency, leading to the development of
any of the host of diseases we mentioned earlier.
While its true that our bones need plenty of calcium to make them strong, if
it reaches excessive levels *within other cells*, its quite harmful - a
situation that can easily arise in the face of an unbalanced intake of
calcium and magnesium. Let's see how this works.
Beyond its role in making bones hard, calcium serves as a critical
stimulating component in the generation of electrical impulses in many
tissues throughout the body - notably, the heart, the muscles, and the brain
and nerves. Calcium resides in the tissues in the fluid that bathes the
outside of the cells - and that's where the cells want calcium to stay until
it's called for.
When its needed for the generation of an electrical impulse, the cells open
tiny channels in their membranes - called, appropriately enough, the calcium
channels - to admit a controlled number of calcium ions. The inrush of
these calcium ions alters the electrical charge within the cells and creates
the spark for transmission of an electrical impulse. As soon as it has done
its job, however, the cell hustles the calcium back out. In fact, calcium
inside the cell is so toxic that the cells expend an enormous amount of
energy keeping it in its proper place - on the outside. When too much gets
in and remains inside the cell, bad things happen.
Many disease processes occur because the tight regulation of the calcium
channel fails, permitting calcium ions to flow into the cells unabated.
Rising calcium levels within a cell activate its energy-production systems,
setting in motion a variety of effects depending on the tissue in question.
For example, calcium flowing unrestricted into the smooth muscle cells in
the coronary arteries of the heart can bring on arterial spasm and the chest
pain called angina. Calcium overstimulation of the cells in the muscular
layer of the temporal arteries (or others supplying blood to the brain) can
cause migraine headaches. Excess calcium entering the cells of the smooth
muscles surrounding the small airways in the lung causes constriction -
called bronchospasm - and the resultant wheezing of asthma and other
restrictive lung disorders. If too much calcium flows into the delicate
cells of the brain, the repeated discharge of energy that follows may
deplete their energy stores, killing the cells!
Pharmaceutical companies have developed an entire family of drugs to prevent
this excess flow of calcium into the interior of the cells. These drugs,
called calcium channel blockers, are among the most versatile drugs on the
market, currently approved for a wide range of medical indications. This
single class of drugs can reduce or eliminate the chest pain from heart
disease by preventing coronary arterial spasm, alleviate the blinding pain
of migraine headaches and prevent their onset, treat high blood pressure,
reduce asthmatic attacks, and even relieve vasomotor rhinitis, the drippy
nose often associated with severe allergies.
All these disparate diseases respond to a single action: preventing excess
calcium from entering the cell by blocking the calcium channel. Ah, the
miracles of modern medical technology! But here the story gets even more
interesting, and its one reason we titled this chapter "The Magnesium
Miracle."
Magnesium is nature's calcium channel blocker, acting as a natural retardant
to the flow of calcium ions into the cells. Adequate magnesium levels on
the inside of the cell prevent calcium's entry from without, and all is well
within the cell. If the interior of the cell becomes magnesium deficient,
however, watch out! Calcium can then enter at will. Medical researchers
have repeatedly demonstrated a low level of magnesium inside the cells in
virtually every disorder treated by calcium channel blocking drugs.
So why don't doctors treat these patients with magnesium instead of the
terribly expensive prescription medications? For one thing, because drug
companies can't patent natural substances, there's no army of pharmaceutical
representatives knocking on the doctor's doors, crowing about the advantages
of simple, cheap magnesium in treating these disorders. But the information
does slowly trickle down, and the good news is, many physicians are
beginning to use more magnesium in the treatment of disease.
In the emergency room, physicians now routinely give magnesium directly into
the vein to relieve chest pain, stabilize the heart rhythm, and reduce or
prevent the death of heart muscle cells during a heart attack. And more and
more in the ER, astute physicians, recognizing the power of magnesium to
relax the spastic respiratory muscles and open the airways, have begun to
give it by the IV route to break asthmatic attacks. (Several research
studies have demonstrated that magnesium deficiency occurs nearly uniformly
among asthma sufferers and that replacing it will reduce the number of
attacks.)
Obstetricians have been on the magnesium bandwagon since long before we did
our medical training, routinely giving intravenous injections of magnesium
sulfate to treat toxemia of pregnancy, rapidly reducing the malignant high
blood pressure sometimes associated with labor and delivery.
And since the discovery that virtually every patient admitted to the medical
intensive care unit is deficient in magnesium, its intravenous (IV)
supplementation in these critically ill people has become commonplace.
Unfortunately, most physicians don't yet use magnesium to prevent these
disorders, mainly relying on it to treat diseases after they're present.
As is too often the case with modern medicine, we close the barn door after
the horse has gotten away. But that approach, we hope, is changing."
---------------------------
From the Protein Power LifePlan, p222-224:
"We recommend that our patients take at least 300 to 400 mg of extra actual
magnesium (usually in the citrate, malate, or asparate chelate) each evening
if they're in apparent good health, with adequate or lowish but normal
intracellular levels. In those people what have already developed any of
the problems related to insulin resistance, we bump the daily dose up to 400
to 600 mg (if the patient can tolerate the dose without developing diarrhea
and if they have no medical reason that would prevent their safely taking
the mineral).
Quite often, the product label lists the total weight of the mineral plus
the chelating agent, of which there is substantially more. And its the
magnesium you're after, not the malate. But usually somewhere on the label,
often on the back side, you'll find a section of text that will say
something on the order of "This product provides 75% (or 90% or 130% or some
percentage) of the RDI for magnesium." And its that percentage of the label
that actually tells you how much magnesium is there.
Since the RDI for magnesium is 360 mg, if a product provides 100% of the
RDI, it provides 360 mg of magnesium. If, on the other hand, it provides
only 50% of the RDI per capsule, then each dose contains only 180 mg of
actual magnesium, regardless of what the milligrams on the front of the
packages say.
Magnesium supplementation (by mouth) takes time to show benefit, but
sometimes the results can be dramatic and sometimes in a matter of just a
few weeks. Patients who have suffered for years with chronic headaches
describe welcome relief; at long last intractably elevated blood pressure
start to decline; fluid retention lessens; tight breathing eases; sleep
improves; constipation resolves. So much benefit form one simple mineral.
No wonder we - and our patients- call magnesium the miracle nutrient!
Restoring your levels to that of your Paleolithic ancestors will also take
you a step closer to the ancient diet you were designed to eat and the
wellness you were born to enjoy!"
Rob
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