About Calcium and Magnesium
Calcium and magnesium are both essential to human health. They often work together and a healthy body contains the two elements in the ratio of 1.65 Calcium:1 Magnesium. Whether your diet contains enough of these elements to maintain good health depends to a large extent on the mineral content of the rocks from which your drinking water is taken and whether it is obtained in a form that your body can absorb easily.
Calcium Magnesium
Calcium is mainly used in bones and teeth. These account for about 99% of all the calcium in your body: 1-2% of this being in your teeth. The remaining 1% carries out such vital functions as breaking down the dead cells that are carried to your liver for recycling; providing elasticity to your muscles and skin, and regulating your heartbeat. Calcium is involved in the transport of neuro-chemicals and initiates the blood clotting process.
Magnesium is one of the three most commonly prescribed food supplements throughout the world This is most likely because it is involved in almost every bio-chemical process in your body and because soil and plants no longer contain adequate levels. The indiscriminate use of potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen fertilisers damages plants' ability to take up magnesium, which is the central element of chlorophyl. Low food levels are further exacerbated during cooking, when magnesium is leached into the hot water and fat.
The three calcium combinations your body needs
Your body uses calcium in three forms: Calcium fluoride (calc fluor); calcium phosphate (calc phos) and calcium sulphate (calc sulph). It cannot absorb calcium as calcium carbonate, which is the form most commonly available as a health supplement. Your body can most easily absorb minerals in their ionic form, that is suspended in water.
Calcium Fluoride
Calcium fluoride is found in your teeth, the surfaces of your bones, skin, muscles and blood vessels. It provides the elasticity essential to the well functioning of your skin, muscles and blood vessels.
If you are deficient in calcium fluoride, you may experience such symptoms as varicose veins, piles, eczema, ulcers and poor circulation. Calc fluor is a remedy for chapped lips, cracked skin, and dental decay. You may find that you have a stuffy nose, which renders tiny, tough, yellow lumps of mucus. You may also cough up such mucus from your lungs.
If you have soft or decaying teeth, liquid calc fluor, used as a mouthwash at least three times per day,will most likely strengthen your teeth and repair the decay. You should, of course, swallow the mouthwash after holding and circulating it in your mouth as long as possible, so that it can be used for the other necessary functions in your body.
Calcium Phosphate
Calc phos is also needed for healthy teeth. It is found in cell membranes, regulating the processes between proteins and between proteins and phospholipids, and thus contributing to their permeability.
In your circulatory system, calc phos is involved in the contraction and relaxation of the blood vessels, blood pressure; pulse rate and regularity and clot and scab formation.
In your nervous system, calc phos regulates the transmission of neurochemicals and muscle contraction. It also functions as a co-enzyme and is involved in the secretion of hormones
Calcium Sulphate
Calc sulph heals your tissues and purifies your blood. In the process of tissue repair, when damaged or aged components are replaced, calc sulph helps in the removal of replaced and decaying matter from your tissues to your liver, where it also facilitates the breakdown and recycling of this discarded material and used blood cells.
Without sufficient calc sulph, your body will gradually become toxic and you may experience constant tiredness; catarrh; acne; gum boils; polyps; headaches and neuralgia. You may find that wounds take too long to heal, small cuts will fester as your body tries to get rid of the decaying matter being circulated in your blood; ulcers may appear round the roots of your teeth and your throat may become septic.
Magnesium
You need magnesium in tissue repairs, in energy production, for thinning your blood to relax muscle tissue, for making proteins, and for activating B complex vitamins. It facilitates the uptake of oxygen in your blood.
Your body mostly uses magnesium in its ionic form or as magnesium phosphate: it cannot properly absorb or use magnesium in any other form, which is why magnesium sulphate is an excellent laxative. You combine magnesium with other substances within your body at the places where the different combinations are needed. For example, you combine it with malic acid (magnesium malate) and citric acid (magnesium citrate), both of which are essential to the production of energy, in your cell membranes, where energy is produced.
Because magnesium is needed for muscle relaxation, if you are deficient, you may experience cramps, hiccups, constipation, heart palpitations and spasms, involuntary movements, should you be in alcohol withdrawal, fibromyalgia, and gastro-intestinal spasms or cramping. Other symptoms of magnesium deficiency are high blood pressure, kidney stones, migraine, osteoporosis, premenstrual syndrome, constant tiredness, eclampsia, anxiety and even autism.
Some of the ways calcium and magnesium work together
Calcium comes underneath Magnesium on the periodic table, and when you are deficient in either element, your body is likely to use the other in its place. Unfortunately, these substitutions cause problems and malfunctions in your body's repair system. A shortage of magnesium, for instance, may result in a build up of calcium on a bone's surface, making a solid lump that may hinder the movement of a joint or be painful or unsightly.
Whenever you breathe, walk, talk, or indeed, perform any action, both calcium and magnesium are necessary in their proper proportions, for the actions to be carried out effectively. In order to breathe in, you need calcium to activate your diaphragm and magnesium to relax the muscles in you abdomen and ribcage. To breathe out, the reverse is true. You need magnesium to relax your diaphragm and calcium to contract your abdominals and intercostal muscles.
In exactly the same way, your heart needs both elements in order to pump efficiently. Too much calcium will cause extra strong contractions, leading to high blood pressure, whilst too much magnesium and/or too little calcium results in a muscle that is too relaxed, and can lead to congestive heart failure
When you walk, you initiate a very complicated series of reflexes that contract and relax the many muscles involved in the activity. To kick your leg forward, you need the muscle in the front of your thigh to contract at the top, using calcium, and relax at the bottom to allow your knee to bend, using magnesium. The reverse applies to the muscles in the back of your thigh. At the same time, the other leg must work in the opposite direction, allowing it to swing back.
Because of the very close association between calcium and magnesium, and because they are so essential for the most fundamental life processes, it is important to notice any symptom that may indicate an imbalance or serious deficiency in your body.
