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How Does Calcium Affect Polio Survivors?
When asked this question SNAPS medical advisor Dr. Lynell
Braught replied, "How
big a book do you want?"
There are many benefits to having an adequate amount of
calcium. Dr. Braught
encourages polio survivors to supplement their diets with
calcium because muscle
movement is dependent on calcium. When a polio survivor is
low in calcium, there will
be less muscle function possible. Here how it works:
Let's start at the beginning. Only a few people with post
polio are able to digest
protein. Therefore it is a good idea for people with post
polio to supplement their diets
with a good quality digestive enzyme to help digest protein.
Protein is required by the brain to fire a signal to the
spinal cord. The spinal cord
needs to send its signal to fire a nerve. That nerve then
fires a muscle causing it to
move. Without enough protein, the brain cannot send its
signal to the spinal cord.
Once the spinal cord receives a signal from the brain, the
spinal cord relies on calcium
for getting that signal to the appropriate nerve. Without
enough calcium there are not
enough electrons to keep the signal moving along. Therefore
without enough calcium,
there is little electron firing of the nerve. Little nerve
firing means little movement of the
muscle. Now you understand why an adequate supply of calcium
is so vitally
important for maintaining mobility.
Different Forms of Calcium
When choosing a calcium supplement, please keep in mind not
all calcium is created
equal. Some forms are much better (more useable) than others.
The human body can only use minerals that are water-soluble
in nature.
"Water-soluble" means "fully soluble in water, small enough
to enter a cell and in a
form the body can use without changing it." Unfortunately
most calcium supplements
are not water-soluble.
Calcium naturally occurs as compound molecules. Some examples
are: calcium
carbonate, calcium lactate, calcium gluconate, and calcium
phosphate. These calcium
compound molecules can be quite large in relation to an
individual cell. Obviously if the
calcium molecule is larger than the cell, it cannot go into
the cell. It just doesn't fit.
To make it useable the body has to break the large calcium
molecules apart.
Unfortunately our digestive systems often are not strong
enough to break them.
Sometimes (as in the case of calcium lactate) the problem is
an indigestible
compound attached to the calcium. (Nursing infants are able
to break down calcium
lactate - the calcium found in milk - but as we get older we
seem to lose that ability.)
Some compound molecules have a strong electrical bond holding
the molecule
together. If our digestive system isn't strong enough to
break that bond, then it remains
large and unusable.
Another problem is not all forms of calcium are
water-soluble. Take calcium carbonate,
for instance. It dissolves in the acid in the stomach.
Therefore it's absorbable, right?
That's what some advertisements claim. Unfortunately it does
get absorbed into the
blood but it is still not useable at the cellular level.
Since calcium carbonate dissolves in the stomach acid, it
passes through the
stomach wall into the blood. While going through the stomach
wall, however, the acid
gets stripped off. Since calcium carbonate is not
water-soluble, when it enters the
watery arena of our blood, it returns to its solid state. In
its solid form calcium
carbonate is too big to go into your cells. It's like having
little rocks floating through
your blood! When we have calcium in a large size, it cannot
satisfy the body's calcium
requirement.
Calcium Within the Body
One of the most important functions of calcium is maintaining
the correct acid-alkaline
balance (pH) of blood. The blood pH is critically important
because life is possible only
within a narrow pH range. Therefore your body will do
whatever it takes to keep the
blood pH balanced. If that means robbing other areas of the
body to get useable
calcium, then that's what your body will do.
When there is not enough calcium available within the body's
cells, calcium is pulled
out of bone storage. That is one of the causes of
osteoporosis.
Not only does large calcium not satisfy the body's
requirement, but it can lead to
problems. Even though the form of calcium may be too big to
be used, it is still
recognized by the body as calcium. Therefore the body wants
to hold onto it.
Sometimes these large calcium molecules get lodged BETWEEN
cells and can lead
to the formation of calcium deposits.
We're all familiar with calcium deposits. They go by names
like arthritis, kidney
stones, gall stones and hardening (calcification) of the
arteries. Many other diseases
are traceable to an abundance of large size calcium in the
body.
Water-Soluble Calcium
Here's a beautiful thing... If we give our bodies
water-soluble calcium, after the body
gets enough to satisfy its immediate needs, then bone storage
gets replenished. As
we continue taking the useable calcium, bone density that was
previously too low
starts increasing and bones become stronger.
Once the bone storage has been filled, the body no longer
needs to store the large
calcium. Therefore the large unusable calcium gradually gets
released. Maybe there is
still hope for those stiff joints!
Getting back to how calcium effects people with post polio:
an adequate supply of
calcium helps messages sent by the brain to reach nerves to
trigger muscles to move.
According to Dr. Lynell Braught, supplementing one's diet
with water-soluble calcium
gives a person the best chance for maintaining mobility and
personal freedom.
There is still a lot that needs to be understood about post
polio. Hopefully in the future
researchers will find more answers. For now supplementing
one's diet with
water-soluble calcium and digestive enzymes appears to be
very important.
Water-Soluble Calcium with added magnesium is available. It
is produced by Dr. Lynell
Braught through a special proprietary method. His minerals
are:
Fully soluble in water
Small enough to enter our cells
In a form ready for the body to use.
Re-printed with permission of Dr. Lynell Braught.