THE

Calcium
LIE

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T KNOW

COULD KILL YOU
ROBERT THOMPSON, M.D. • KATHLEEN
BARNES
INTRUTHPRESS Brevard, North Carolina
The purpose of this book is to educate. It is not intended to serve as a
replacement for professional medical advice. Any use of this information in this
book is at the reader’s discretion. This book is sold with the understanding that
neither the publisher nor the authors have any liability or responsibility for any
injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information
contained in this book. While every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy,
the book’s contents should not be construed as medical advice. To obtain
medical advice on your individual health needs, please consult a qualified health
care practitioner.
Published by InTruth Press
 www.intruthpress.com • e-mail: [email protected]
Library
  of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Robert
Barnes, Kathleen
The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You p. cm.
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 978-0-981581859
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008927243
Graphic design: Gary A. Rosenberg Cover design: Brion Sausser, Book Creatives
Copyright © 2008 by Robert Thompson, M.D. and Kathleen Barnes Manufactured
in the United States of America.
All rights reserved. No part of this book, with the exception of Chapter 9, may
be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including
information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the
publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Contents
FOREWORD
  y Dr. David Watts, vii
b
 Preface, ix
I ntroduction, 1
CHAPTER
  1
 Minerally Bankrupt, 3
CHAPTER
  2
 The Calcium Myth, 17
CHAPTER
  3
 Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Calcium, 31
CHAPTER
  4
 Poor Protein Digestion and Sodium Pump Failure, 41
CHAPTER 5
Metabolic Failure:
How Excess Calcium Causes Weight Gain, Thyroid and
Adrenal Malfunctions and Type 2 Hypothyroidism, 55
CHAPTER 6
Women’s Issues: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Menopause, 73
CHAPTER 7
  he Vitamin Lie, 87
T
CHAPTER
  8
 The Road Back to Health, 107
CHAPTER
  9
 Doctor to Doctor: An Impassioned Plea, 123
 Resources, 133
 References, 138
 Index, 143
 About the Authors, 148
 Dedications
To my precious family, immediate and extended, I love
you all. Without your continued support and love, life
becomes more difficult. There are many ways to count our
blessings. You bring much joy and immeasurable wealth to
each and every day of my life.
To Karen, my best friend, my eternal partner, my
helpmate, the most precious love of my life, and my bride.
For the joy you bring into our lives, your laughter, your
humor, your smile, and your love, I am forever grateful and
always overwhelmed. Thank you for your support, your
forgiveness, your encouragement, your dedication, your
faithfulness and your precious friendship. From the first time
I saw your face, to our first kiss at the altar, to the present
day, I have never gotten over the specialness of the love
our Lord has given us to share. My heart is yours forever.
Life’s journey is amazingly wonderful with you in my heart
and at my side.
To my children, Nathan, Tiffany and Kaden, it has been a
privilege beyond compare to watch you grow and to see you
blossom. I am proud to know you, let alone to call you my
children. Thank you for your love, your courage, and for
making great choices and living lives of distinction,
character, and integrity. You make a Dad smile.
To my patients and mentors for teaching me and
challenging me and to my Lord for the wisdom, blessings
and salvation you have given me, I am eternally grateful
and thankful. May this book bring honor and glory to your
name through my life.
—Robert Thompson
 For Joe, as always, with all my heart. —Kathleen Barnes

Foreword
DR. ROBERT THOMPSON IS AN ENLIGHTENED PHYSICIAN.
His medical education gave him the knowledge of human
physiology and biochemistry that he needed to become a
competent physician. Dr. Thompson is among the elite,
however, because his education did not end after
graduation, but has continued throughout his career.
He became enlightened when he used his medical and
scientific knowledge to surpass the knowledge of most other
doctors, and formulated nutritional concepts based on basic
scientific truths that are effective in treating and, dare I say,
curing diseases that conventional medicine proclaims
incurable.
Dr. Thompson is enlightened because of his unending
dedication to helping his patients return to health and his
passion for finding answers to his patients’ health
challenges.
Robert Thompson is a doctor in the true sense of the
word. He is a teacher, as evidenced by his writings. Beyond
all else, The Calcium Lie is intended to teach. Not only does
this remarkable book teach about the intricate workings of
the human body, it is also thought provoking.
The Calcium Lie can aid the average individual to
understand and make sense of the complexities of the body
in a down-to-earth fashion. This knowledge helps us to
begin to ask questions about our health care rather than
just accepting the status quo.
The Calcium Lie is a call to action to everyone who wants
to become involved in and take responsibility for his own
health.
Dr. Thompson’s enlightenment is also demonstrated in the
pioneering spirit of this book. The information contained
herein is the wave of the future, because it teaches that we
are individuals, and that therapeutic
vii
viii THE CALCIUM LIE
i ntervention should be based upon the individual need, and
not merely a condition or disease process.
Dr. Thompson’s viewpoint is certain to be controversial. It
is my sincere hope that all readers, patients and physicians
alike, carefully review the information offered here and
recognize its value.
—David L. Watts, D.C. Ph.D., F.A.C.E.P. CEO of Trace
Elements, Inc., Addison, Texas

Preface
I AM A CARING DOCTOR WHO WENT to medical school with
altruistic ideas and a belief in doing the right thing. When I
completed my medical training, I greeted my chosen career
with great excitement about practicing medicine on the
cutting edge and doing the best job I could do for my
patients.
Over the next few years, I grew increasingly
disenchanted with my profession and with the uncharitable
attitudes of many of my colleagues, who frequently resisted
basic science and medical advances in the name of
protecting their status quo. Even a local hospital where I
worked was unhappy with me when some of my more
advanced procedures resulted in outpatient, rather than
inpatient, surgeries and shortened hospital stays. It really
burst my idealistic new doctor bubble to learn that this
hospital wanted its patients to stay in longer no matter what
the trauma to the patient, because—”ca-ching”— the
hospitals make more money that way. Today, of course,
outpatient surgery has become commonplace.
Finally, in 1996, I decided I was going to quit medicine. I
was looking around for another career when I was notified I
had been chosen to be listed in an exclusive peer-reviewed
directory, “Best Doctors in America”.
I was overwhelmed by the honor, and the irony, that the
honor came at a time when I had decided to hang up my
stethoscope for good. Maybe all that training was not a
waste after all. I took it as a sign that I was to remain in the
medical profession.
I took it as a call back to my medical school training and
ideals, and to some of the basic scientific concepts I seemed
to have lost in the intervening years. That was an epiphany
for me, and an opportunity for me to take a new look at the
way I was treating my patients.
ix
x THE CALCIUM LIE
I first realized that many of my pregnant patients were
taking supplements and that, in order to be conscientious
about their treatment, I needed to know more about them:
what was good, what was bad, what worked, what didn’t
and how much to take. I began to do my own research to
find out which ones were safe and which ones weren’t.
That opened the door for me. I began learning about
herbs and homeopathics and other natural treatments. I
continued to grow and evolve in this process over the next
few years, helping patients in new ways, often getting the
same results with herbs and homeopathics as with
prescription drugs, but with less toxicity and fewer side
effects.
I soon realized that I was still treating my patients’
symptoms, perhaps with less toxicity, but nevertheless, like
most doctors, I wasn’t treating the underlying causes of
their symptoms. I began to be more aware of the impact of
nutrition in this equation. That opened new insights for me
about the supplements people were taking, what was true
about human nutrition and, more importantly, what was not
true. Eventually, I discovered The Calcium Lie, The Vitamin
Lie and The Mineral Lies and began to realize their impact
on my patients’ health and disease processes.
Along the way, I discovered what worked and what
helped people get better and what didn’t. As I continued to
make recommendations to patients, I saw them continually
getting better and overcoming their health problems. This is
what we physicians were supposed to be doing all along,
what a concept!
I was especially pleased to find ways to help my patients
with Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance to overcome
their blood sugar problems on a long-term basis. Were they
“cured” of their diabetes? Maybe not, but what else can you
call it when they have no symptoms and their laboratory
tests and blood sugars remain in the normal range over
many years?
I was tremendously excited about my discoveries.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find other caring physicians who
shared my passion and were willing to listen to my ideas.
Then I began attending meetings of the American College
for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), and another new
world opened for me. In ACAM, I found like-minded doctors
who realized there were better ways to treat patients and
who were motivated to find and share them.
I’m not a zealot. I believe there are many good elements
to conventional medicine. There are good medications,
fantastic surgeries and cures, and amazing advancements
that were not available a decade or two ago. We don’t need
to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
PREFACE xi
However, our current medical system is not only
exorbitantly expensive, it has created a system in which
doctors are reimbursed for allowing people to get sick rather
than for keeping them healthy.
There is something elementally wrong with a system in
which an insurance company will pay to amputate the leg of
a diabetic patient rather than address the healing with
nutritional therapies—at less cost. This is a travesty of
everything we stand for as physicians, as Americans and as
caring people.
Unfortunately, the nutrition industry also has its flaws. Its
focus is largely about sales. It is quite similar to the
pharmaceutical industry in many respects, but once again,
there are some amazing supplements on the market today.
They can produce good results for you if you take the right
ones. There is also tremendous waste here. Exorbitant
amounts of money are spent on supplements that have little
or no nutritional value or health benefit. I realized that, just
as I would try to pick out the best medication for treating a
medical problem, I needed to be accountable for trying to
help my patients pick out the best supplements to make up
for the tremendous deficiencies in our food. Most patients
would prefer to get better instead of having me treat their
symptoms.
In the end, patients and physicians are going to have to
realize that withholding of care and rationing of care are
likely to become commonplace because, as a society, we
simply cannot afford to pay for all the health crises we are
developing as our population ages.
For the past six years, colleagues have urged me to write
this book. So here, it is—finally! I’m putting this information
out there for patients and physicians alike to learn from it
and grow into greater health. There are many books out
there, however, we believe this one is unique.
The exposure of The Calcium Lie is huge in terms of its
potential impact on health care, now and in the future. It’s a
change in medical practice recommendations that can’t
take place fast enough.
To the best of our ability, we have made an attempt to
provide truth, facts and reliable information, in simple terms
and in ways the average person can understand.
My co-author, Kathleen Barnes, and I have written this
book together, although much of it is in first person based
on my experience.
Kathleen Barnes is a health journalist with great depth of
experience, not only in conventional medical research and
terminology, but through the passion she has had for
natural health for more than 30 years. She is author or
xii THE CALCIUM LIE
editor of 13 books, most of them on natural health
subjects, and she wrote a weekly natural health column for
Woman’s World magazine for more than six years. Her
ability to help translate complex medical terminology into
simple and easily understandable terms has helped me to
stay on the “straight and narrow” when I threatened to get
too technical in my concepts.
If you’ve read this book and it resonates with you, tell a
friend. Give a copy to a friend. Copy the last chapter and
give it to your doctor, with our blessing. Better yet, buy a
copy as a gift for your doctor. You, and your fellow patients,
will reap the benefits.
We wish you all the best in your quest to regain your health.
If you use the principles in this book, we have no doubt you
will succeed. —Robert Thompson, M.D.

Introduction
W
. These lies, held with an
E ARE ALL VICTIMS OF HEALTH LIES
almost religious zealotry, are quite literally killing us.
Primary among those lies is the notion that bones are made
of calcium,
with the dogmatic exhortation from almost every doctor
on the planet that we all need supplemental calcium in
order to have strong bones. This is absolutely untrue and
without any reliable scientific evidence. In fact, our bones
are made of at least 12 minerals, including calcium, and we
need all of them in proper proportions in order to have
healthy bones and a healthy metabolism.
From this scientifically unfounded supposition comes a
cascade of health consequences that are nothing less than
devastating.
We’ve written this book from a place of passionate
conviction that our collective health is at risk from The
Calcium Lie and a handful of other lies to which we are all
subjected.
We hope the truths in this book will lead you to a new life of
exceptional health.
—Robert Thompson, M.D., Soldotna, Alaska —Kathleen
Barnes, Brevard, North Carolina CHAPTER 1

Minerally Bankrupt
T
’S A BIG LIE THAT HAS SUCKED US ALL IN, consumers and
HERE
medical professionals alike. That Big Lie is killing us.
What’s the lie?
It started with a wild notion that calcium is essential for
strong bones. Nearly all of us and our doctors have bought
into this “Calcium Lie,” hook line and sinker. We believe that
unless we get loads of calcium, our bones will crumble to
powder. It’s not true. It’s never been true and basic science
taught in every university in the world shows us the error of
this belief system.
Before we go any further, let us tell you that calcium is only
one of at least 12 minerals that build strong bones.
If you take calcium to strengthen your bones, you are
signing your own death warrant. Think of this: Calcium
hardens concrete. Imagine what it can harden in your body!
What caused us to buy into The Calcium Lie and how are we
paying for the error of our ways? Here’s the story:
The invention of the refrigerator was the beginning of
humankind’s modern health crisis.
In 1876, the first practical refrigerator was invented and
refrigerators became commonly available by the turn of the
century.
So why did this cause a health crisis for humankind?
The answer is simple: We stopped using sea salt to preserve
meat and other foods and thereby robbed our bodies of the
essential minerals we need to survive and thrive. No matter
that medical science has flourished in the past century with
advances ranging from the invention of synthetic insulin to
antibiotics to CAT scans, MRIs, robotic surgery and more.
These medical miracles may all have their places, but
without the basic building blocks of nutrition that we need
to maintain, sustain and repair our bodies, we humans are
never going to find the vibrant health that is our birthright.
At the moment, this is a squandered birthright. However, we
can begin to regain our health by simple and affordable
means. In the process, we can treat and eliminate some of
the greatest health challenges of our time: obesity,
diabetes, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries),
hypertension, hypothyroidism, osteoporosis, depression,
migraines and more.
How? The answer is so simple it will surprise you.
All we have to do is add minerals as natural salts to our
diets in the forms of sea salt and rock salt, as food and in
supplemental form.
PAINLESS BIOCHEMISTRY
Please bear with us for a few paragraphs while we review
with you the basic science that underlies this astonishing
shortsightedness on the part of humankind, and specifically
on the part of the medical profession. We have all failed to
understand and recognize the importance of basic
biochemistry that lies at the heart of the medical conditions
that plague modern humans.
You probably already know that our bodies are mainly
water. On the average, 72% of your body weight is water,
pure and simple. If you weigh 150 pounds, you have 108
pounds of water in your body. This is a basic premise of our
physiology: Anything we put in our bodies MUST be water
soluble or have a specific transport mechanism to be
absorbed.
have a specific transport mechanism to be absorbed.
pound person, this means we’re carrying around 42 pounds
of a life-giving soup of 78 minerals, ranging from the
commonly known calcium, magnesium, sodium and
potassium to the more esoteric chromium, manganese,
selenium and copper, to the more rare trace minerals like
fluorine, cobalt, germanium and molybdenum, to name a
few. Bear with us. This is getting exciting.
Now, the planet’s oceans and salt beds contain all of the
minerals and trace minerals we need to be in perfect health.
Sea salt and rock salt contain all of the minerals in the exact
proportion that our bodies require (except sodium, more
about that later). Quite simply, these minerals are
necessary for every single body function to work:
biochemical, electrical, chemical and physiological.
We don’t know about you, but we find this awe inspiring,
miraculous and perhaps one of the strongest scientific
arguments for the existence of an intelligent creative force
that is beyond our comprehension.
WE’RE GOING DOWNHILL
Getting back to the refrigerator, when we stopped
preserving our food with naturally occurring salts, we
became progressively deficient in some, if not all, of those
essential minerals. Because a chemical “fingerprint” is
passed from mother to child (more about that in Chapter 6),
each generation has become progressively more deficient in
these essential minerals.
At about the same time, humankind in all of its wisdom
began to severely deplete the soil in which we grow our
food. The introduction of chemical fertilizers actually robbed
and depleted the soil of its nutrients.
In the same general time frame, we wise humans began
to build huge dams to control and reduce natural flooding.
We might think that was a good idea, but it wasn’t, since
floodwaters actually carry essential mineral nutrients back
into the land. Plants grown in these minerally poor soils
were increasingly unable to extract the nutrients into their
fruits and bring them to our tables.
In 1936, the U.S. Senate actually warned the population
that our soil was seriously depleted of minerals. The
warning was based on research from such prestigious
academic institutions as Yale, Rutgers, Johns Hopkins and
Columbia, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Dr. Charles Northern, one of the lead researchers in these
projects, issued a prophetic warning at the time: “. . .
Countless human ills stem from the fact that impoverished
soil of America no longer provides plant foods with mineral
elements essential to human nourishment and health.
Millions of acres no longer contain the valuable trace
elements . . . It is not commonly realized, however, that
vitamins control the body’s appropriation of minerals, and in
the absence of minerals they have no function to perform.
Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of
minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.”
Decades later, Dr. Northern’s warning was underscored
by Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes, who said,
“You can trace every sickness, every disease and every
ailment to a mineral deficiency.”
Clearly the warnings fell on deaf ears.
Since then, the problem has gotten worse. A 1992 Earth
Summit report placed the decline in mineral content of
North American soils at 85% and seven years later, in 1999,
a Rutgers University Study revealed the mineral content of
commercial fruits and vegetables was less than 16%
compared to vine ripened organic produce. Since the
mineral content determines the vitamin content, our
commercial produce has almost no nutritional value!
It’s no wonder that we are sick when we take into account
the fact that much of our produce has often been shipped
thousands of miles, picked before prime ripeness and loses
nutrients during shipping.
We’ll go into the benefits of vine ripened and organic foods
in coming chapters, but it’s important to know now that the
mineral content of vine ripened fruits and vegetables is
substantially higher than that of commercially produced
foods. So get vine ripened, fresh, raw, unheated, fresh
frozen or dried fruits and vegetables, and go organic as
much as you can! In winter, you can get some of your needs
from raw nuts and seeds, but it will almost certainly be
necessary for you to take a trace mineral supplement.
TABLE SALT IS A HEALTH DESTROYER
Then came the final blow: Early in the 20th century, more
“scientific” advances brought us pretty white convenient
table salt that was composed only of two minerals: sodium
and chloride or sodium chloride. It was a fine and granular
salt. It was convenient. Scientists of the time apparently
considered the other 76 minerals present in rock salt and
sea salt to be unnecessary and unsightly, so they were
“purified” out.
The result: The first evidence of our grave error came in
1924 when we began to see iodine deficiency within our
population, leading to the widespread development of
thyroid goiter (enlargement of the thyroid gland and thyroid
hormone deficiency). This led to the addition of another
mineral, iodide or iodine, and our pretty white table salt
became “iodized salt.” It should have been our first clue
that many other vital nutrients were missing when we
began to refine our salt. But we failed to recognize the
signals. Our collective downhill slide into widespread
mineral deficiency began to accelerate.
Our bodies began to desperately seek the minerals we
need to survive, to the point where they even drew on
similar-acting minerals to try to duplicate the missing
nutrients.
THE CALCIUM LIE IN BRIEF
The Mineral Lie was the first of many lies. The Calcium
Lie, which is an outgrowth of the Mineral Lie, has led us to a
host of health problems of untold proportions. We’ll go into
them in greater detail in the coming chapters, but here is
the foundation of The Calcium Lie:
Most people, even many medical professionals, began to
believe that bones are made of calcium. As we’ve said
before, our bones are actually composed of at least 12
minerals. One of them is calcium, but a proper balance of all
these minerals is essential for bone health, strong bones
and the prevention of osteoporosis. By the way,
osteoporosis is defined as a loss of minerals from the bones,
not just calcium deficiency. Remember, calcium hardens
concrete, not bones!
Our doctors told us we needed more calcium to keep our
bones strong, so we started popping calcium supplements,
adding calcium to many of our foods and we were told to
drink at least two glasses of calcium-rich milk every day.
This gross oversimplification for the benefit of the dairy
industry is similar to The Mineral Lie and the iodine story.
What we’ve sacrificed in the name of simplification and
convenience has led us to serious errors and the
propagation of outright lies in an approach to health that
has taken a devastating toll.
Ask yourself, what are your bones made of? What builds
strong bones? What is osteoporosis, a loss of what from the
bones? Almost everyone including educated medical
personnel, dieticians, and even physicians, will all answer,
“Calcium.” That’s The Calcium Lie.
This is a big mistake! We are so programmed to believe
that bones are made of calcium it has almost become
dogmatic.
Here’s the truth: If you take calcium supplements and eat
calcium-rich foods, (probably on the recommendation of
your doctor), you’ll build up excess calcium in your system
coupled with mineral deficiencies and imbalances that will
cause plaque in arteries, kidney stones, gallstones, bone
spurs, osteoarthritis, hypertension, thyroid hormone
resistance known as Type 2 hypothyroidism, obesity, Type 2
diabetes and many other diseases we’ll address in this
book.
When we took the sea salt and rock salt out of our diets, we
lost about 15% of the nutritional value of our foods. Adding
calcium to our diets to try to correct multiple mineral
deficiencies and prevent or treat osteoporosis won’t help. It
will actually make your mineral imbalances worse. Excess
calcium causes more deficiencies and imbalances. It doesn’t
correct fracture risks from osteoporosis. And it leads to a
myriad of other nutritional problems and diseases.
Our belief that calcium is the essential element for strong
bones is an erroneous idea that has turned into an outright
lie. Today nearly all of us believe we need extra calcium to
have healthy bones and to prevent osteoporosis. More is
better, so we add calcium. It is added to everything from
orange juice to cereal, sports drinks to baby food, soy-based
drinks and pasta. The list is endless. We need minerals. We
need all of them, not just one mineral.
Worst of all, we feed our children calcium-rich milk in the
mistaken belief it will give them strong bones. By doing this
we are condemning them to hardening of the arteries later
in life, hypothyroidism, hypoadrenalism and even obesity.
We can all give thanks to the milk industry for that lie.
The government, our research institutions and most of all,
our doctors, should have instantly grasped this simple
biochemical truth: Too much calcium causes an imbalance
of minerals in the body. This leads to an accumulation of
calcium in the tissues. This calcium excess not only causes
huge changes in our intercellular (between the cells)
metabolism, but it also leads to calcium deposits in the
intracellular (inside the cell) spaces. These calcium deposits
form gravel-like plaque throughout our arteries, kidney
stones, gallstones and joint deterioration.
Yes, we do need calcium. Calcium is still important, but most
of us get far too much of it. This imbalance is leading to the
need to take more medications in order to treat the mineral
deficiency-related diseases caused by these mineral
imbalances. This includes increases in all diseases of aging,
cancer, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic
syndrome, Type 2 hypothyroidism, depression, anxiety,
insomnia, migraines, circulatory diseases, hypertension,
immune compromise and more.
What are we doing? We are slowly turning ourselves into
concrete statues.
Why have we been victimized by this illogical thinking? Is it
false and unscrupulous advertising, a vast conspiracy, or
special interest lobbying groups and/or government
complacency? We have no answers to these important
questions, but our current national state of health is living
(or perhaps dying) proof that this has happened to our
collective psyche. The proof is in the pudding. We think
rational and intellectually honest humans can deduce the
truth and realize the error of the “get your calcium”
message.
From Dr. Thompson
Over the last 13 years, I have continually been faced with
The Calcium Lie. Lay folks can be forgiven for their
ignorance of biochemistry, but it is appalling to encounter
physicians and dieticians who hold the same disastrous
misconception. In fact, I’ve repeatedly encountered doctors
who tell me they are going to continue to recommend
calcium to their patients, even after they are reminded of
the basic biochemistry of our bodies. They doggedly go back
to what they want to believe. This is what the drug
company-sponsored research, public advertising and the
dairy industry have preached to us with almost a religious
fervor. This is programming personified, intellectual
dishonesty or just downright ignorance. Could these so-
called protectors of our health be practicing a religion, not a
science? To ignore these basic facts, after one is made
aware of them, is certainly intellectual dishonesty.
The average physician has taken at least four six-hour
courses in chemistry in the process of a medical education.
This is sufficient for every single one of them to understand
far more than the essentials of biochemistry and human
physiology. But for some reason, doctors choose to be
programmed, to quit thinking, to conveniently “forget” or
simply not to absorb these scientific truths. Could it be that
their own mineral deficiencies have affected their thought
processes or their backbones?
Of course, I’m being a little facetious here, but The
Calcium Lie is the result of selective and misleading
advertising that has deceived our country and our medical
professionals. The cost of The Calcium Lie has been
enormous. It has cost us our health and that of the coming
generations.
I am amazed at the degree of mineral deficiency in our
population. Today, it’s worse than ever in our younger
populations. Yet, the government still pushes the idea that
we all need one to two servings of dairy products or a
calcium supplement every day.
Most of us don’t need any extra dietary calcium at all!
Since dairy products are the major sources of dietary
calcium in the Standard American Diet (SAD for short), this
opens the dairy industry to suspicion.
When will we ever forget our programming? Please press
the “delete” button in your mind, erase the calcium
obsession and replace it with the idea that minerals are your
body’s greatest need, after its need for pure water.
THE SODIUM PUMP
Too much calcium causes the adrenal glands to be
suppressed in order for the kidneys to hold on to the
necessary magnesium in an attempt to keep these two
minerals in balance. This adrenal suppression results in
sodium and potassium being continuously excreted into the
urine in large amounts draining our intracellular stores of
these important minerals, even though our bodies are
desperately seeking additional sources of these two
essential minerals. These essential minerals are critical to
ensure a steady heartbeat so that muscle and nerve fibers
will fire when they are needed. They also insure that blood
pressure remains stable.
Excess calcium, and the resulting deficiencies in sodium
and potassium, causes a failure of the sodium pump with
far-reaching consequences. The sodium pump is an enzyme
found in the membrane of every cell in the human body.
The sodium pump moves sodium out of cells and
potassium into the cells, with the help of a microscopic
electrical charge. This same pumping mechanism that
moves sodium out of the cells brings glucose, amino acids
and other nutrients into every cell in our bodies except fat
cells, which are independent of the sodium pump.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, what happens when there
is not enough sodium to run this pump. The body’s ability to
get amino acids and glucose into all its cells is severely
compromised (except fat cells, which still absorb glucose
and continue to grow). This pump failure causes cellular
metabolic failures that have long-reaching consequences.
Without these amino acids, your body cannot grow and
repair itself. Without glucose, your cells have no fuel for
energy. That spells a serious problem for you and your body.
(More about this in Chapter 4.)
In my practice, I’ve discovered that the average patient
has only 10 to 20% of the normal intracellular sodium
content in spite of normal blood tests. That’s why I tell them
with confidence, based on tissue mineral analysis results,
that they are making a big mistake when they boast that
they “hardly eat any salt.” I call this The Sodium Lie. Almost
of us need more sodium.
GO IONIC
If you are adding supplemental minerals to your regimen,
be sure they are ionic minerals. These are the only ones that
are water soluble in your waterbased body. They are the
only ones with an electrical charge, allowing them to
participate in chemical reactions that are part of your body’s
basic metabolism, including in the operation of the sodium
pump. (More about this in Chapter 4.)
In the presence of enzymes, ionic minerals allow trillions
of chemical reactions to take place in our bodies every
second, at a relatively neutral pH of 7.4 and a consistent
temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ionic minerals are the most plentiful form of minerals
found on Earth. They are found in all fresh water, in ground
deposits in places where oceans once existed and, of
course, in the oceans. All fresh water tables on earth have
specific fingerprints of approximately 55 ionic minerals.
Fresh water makes its way to the ocean through a wide
variety of mineral strata. As our water finds its way to the
sea, it continues to pick up minerals, eventually forming the
great rivers that empty into our oceans which are the
world’s “great mixing pot” of all ionic minerals in salt form.
These oceans (and sea salt deposits of dried ocean beds),
by some miracle, contain a supersaturated solution of all
the minerals found in mammals and humans, in the perfect
balance and concentrations we need for good health, except
sodium. (More about that later.) Sea salt has all the ionic
minerals and trace minerals we need for good health.
You may have heard of colloidal minerals. Some
misinformed people have pushed them as the be-all and
end-all of human nutrition. They are dead wrong. You will be
too, if you listen to them.
Think about minerals like iron or copper or even chalk-
like calcium. How can you get these heavy molecules into
your body?
It’s time for another painless biochemistry lesson.
Remember what we said earlier about your body being 72%
water? The only way for your body to absorb and use
minerals is for them to dissolve in water with an electrical
charge, to become ionic. It is simple science. No matter how
much a mineral may be mixed, pulverized and powdered, or
derived from decayed plant materials (sometimes called
colloidal minerals, which, by definition, don’t dissolve), there
is no way on God’s green Earth that your body can use this
form of minerals.
These solids and suspensions, no matter how small they
are, cannot pass through cell membranes or conduct
electricity, so they are of no use to the body.
In fact, colloidal minerals can even be harmful because their
mineral residues can end up in between your cells, or in
your bloodstream, clogging up things and generally getting
in the way. Eventually, these mineral residues become
permanently deposited in between the cells, causing
inflammation, cell compression, peripheral vascular disease,
atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke. That’s how these
substances escalate the disease processes they are touted
to treat.
The best example of these harmful mineral supplements is
colloidal silver which, over time, will accumulate
permanently between your cells, including the skin, causing
it to look black or tarnished (the oxidation process of silver).
These so-called “nutritional supplements” simply don’t
dissolve, and their byproducts have to accumulate
somewhere.
Since our bodies can’t excrete colloidal minerals, they
accumulate in between the cells, building up over a lifetime,
contributing to all sorts of problems.
Never, ever, take colloidal minerals!
You may also have heard of chelated minerals: They do
have their place. These are fine mineral powders, bonded
with amino acids, which do allow varied amounts of
absorption. Chelated minerals can be important where a
deficiency has been identified and needs to be corrected.
Routinely taking vitamins or supplements which contain
chelated minerals, however, may cause problems if those
specific minerals are already in excess in the body, so you
still need to have a hair tissue mineral analysis to be sure
they contain what you need and won’t create excesses. Any
mineral can be dangerous if it is taken in excess.
Did you ever notice that your sweat and your tears taste like
salt? We lose salty minerals through our sweat and our urine
every day. (Don’t taste it, please!) Therefore, we clearly
need to replace our mineral supply daily.
Replace your lost minerals with ionic (salt form) minerals
and find your way back to health.
LONG-LIVED CULTURES
 So what’s the evidence for these mineral truths?
Aside from the logic of basic biochemistry that my
seventh grader and certainly any college freshman can
assimilate, we offer the proof of the longest-lived cultures
on earth.
There are many similarities between these seemingly
diverse cultures, from the Tibetans in China’s northeast
plateau to the Hunzas in Pakistan, the Titicacans of Peru’s
Andes Mountains, the Vilacamba of the Ecuadorean Andes
and the Russian Georgians and their sister cultures, the
Abkhazians, Azerbaijanis and the Armenians of the
Caucasus mountains as far as northern Turkey.
The longevity in these simple cultures is a strong
indicator of the value of minerals from natural salts, either
from the seas or from the salt mines that mark the remains
of ancient seas. It’s something our society should
reconsider. Industrialization clearly isn’t always progress.
The modern-day Okinawans are another remarkable
example of long life, according to the Okinawa Centenarian
Study. The Japanese live longer than anyone else, and
Okinawans live longer than anyone else in Japan.
The Japanese government says 457 Okinawans are at
least 100 years old. That is 34.7 centenarians for every
100,000 islanders, the highest ratio in the world. The United
States has about 10 centenarians for every 100,000 people
—less than one third of the number of really old folks as in
Okinawa. Life expectancy is 81.2 years on Okinawa, longest
in the world. New figures show that the average Okinawan
woman lives to 86 and the average man to 78.
Okinawans don’t just live longer, they live better, says a
2002 article in USA Today. “According to recent studies, the
elderly here appear to have far lower rates of dementia than
their U.S. counterparts and suffer less than half
Rank* Location
1 Okinawa
2 Japan
3 Hong Kong
4 Sweden
8 Italy
10 Greece
18 USA
MORTALITY RATES IN LONG-LIVED POPULATIONS
Life Expectancy
81.2
79.9
79.1
79.0
78.3
78.1
76.8
Average life expectancy world rank * Coronary Heart Disease
Sources: World Health Organization 1996; Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare
1996
Eating Pattern East-West
Asian
Asian
Nordic
Mediterranean Mediterranean American
Age Adjusted Death Rates (per 100,000 people) CHD** Cancer Stroke
All Causes 18 97 35 335 22 106 45 364 40 126 40 393 102 108 38 435 55 135
49 459 55 109 70 449 100 132 28 520
the risk for hip fractures. Some Okinawan centenarians even
claim they are still having sex. Researchers aren’t so sure
about that.”
All of these long-lived people are from comparatively
primitive agrarian cultures. Most of them live at high
elevations and habitually eat large quantities of salt from
mined salt from local deposits of the long-dried beds of
ancient seas. In recent years, the Okinawans have perfected
salt-drying techniques that have given birth to a thriving
natural seasalt industry. These cultures also engage in hard
physical labor, eat a comparatively low-calorie diet and walk
many miles every day, all of which certainly contribute to
their longevity.
The U.S. ranks 18th in the world in longevity, according
to the World Health Organization. That’s not a high
recommendation considering the technology we have
available. It’s interesting to note that the countries with the
greatest life expectancies all have diets high in seafood,
seaweed and, by extrapolation, minerals from the sea.
Want another little bit of proof? This study came through
just as we were writing this chapter in early 2008:
  alcium supplements may boost risk of heart attack in older
C
women, study suggests.
Reuters (1/16/08) reports that taking calcium
supplements to maintain bone strength “may boost the risk
of heart attack in older women,” according to a study
detailed in the British Medical Journal. A team of researchers
led by Ian Reid, M.D., of the University of Auckland, looked
at 1,471 healthy post-menopausal women, average age 74.
The researchers gave 732 of the participants a daily calcium
supplement, while 739 were given a placebo. Participants
were followed for five years.
During the follow-up period, “31 women on supplements
ha[d] 36 heart attacks compared to 21 women on placebo
having 22 heart attacks during the follow-up period,”
according to WebMD (1/16, Doheny). The researchers found
that the risk of a heart attack was about 1.5 times greater
for those in the supplement group, but the link did not reach
statistical significance. Dr. Reid speculates that the calcium
supplements may elevate blood calcium levels and possibly
speed calcification in blood vessels, which is known to
predict the rates of vascular problems such as heart attack.”
Hmmm. Maybe medical science is beginning to catch on. All
we can say is, “It’s about time.”
 POINTS TO REMEMBER Bones are not made of calcium,
they are made of many minerals. Almost all of us get too
much calcium since it is added to many food products.
Anything we put in our bodies must be water soluble to be
absorbed and utilized.
Using refined table salt leaves valuable minerals and
trace minerals out of our diet. We need more than iodized
salt and calcium for good health and strong bones.
Our foods don’t contain the minerals they once did because
of minerally depleted soil and lack of vine ripening.
Calcium excess causes the presence of calcification,
concretions, or gravel-like calcium deposits in arteries,
joints, kidneys and gallbladder, leading to a variety of health
problems, including stones, plaque and hardening of the
arteries.
Eating unrefined rock salt from the sea or from land-
based salt beds, and taking ionic supplements made from
unrefined salt will help you restore your mineral balance.
CHAPTER 2

The Calcium Myth

T
The Big Lie about calcium
HIS CRAZY BELIEF SYSTEM EMBRACING
and bones has taken on the fervor of a religion. It’s a really
dogmatic religion that allows no deviation. The sadly
erroneous doctrine says that bones are made of calcium and
that calcium builds strong bones. Maybe it’s even become a
cult.
We’re not sure about the origins of this strange and
scientifically void idea, but it has somehow made itself part
of our collective consciousness. Scientists, nutritionists and
medical professionals who are reminded of the basic science
that bones are composed of 12 minerals and many more
trace minerals, get some kind of convenient amnesia a day,
a week, or even a month later, and revert to this strangely
insinuated belief system. Our bones are in fact, the
storehouse of all the minerals our bodies need.
Medical professionals, in particular, seem to believe
everything drug companies say, basic biochemistry and
significant medical studies be damned. They won’t budge
from these illogical and unscientific belief systems.
Where did the sacred cow calcium come from? You’re on
the right track if you focused on the “sacred cow.”
Generations of Americans have been programmed to
believe that milk builds strong bones and teeth because of
its abundant calcium content. We’ve known for at least 34
years that this was patently false. The U.S. government
even validated the dangers of milk, but old ideas die hard.
In 1974, the Federal Trade Commission forced the
California Milk Producers Advisory Board and its advertising
agency to stop its “false, misleading and deceptive
advertising campaign” called “Everybody needs milk.”
Undaunted, the industry switched gears and launched a new
advertising campaign entitled, “Milk has something for
everybody.” Over time, the
17
advertising buzz morphed to the comparatively
innocuous celebrity mustachioed, “Got milk?”, intended to
trigger our memories of the wonders of milk consumption
for strong bones.
In fact, all of this is patently false and the research
proves it. Such scientific luminaries as Walter Willett, PhD.,
Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard
School of Public Health, and T. Colin Campbell, Professor
Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University,
say their research shows that boosting your calcium intake
to the currently recommended levels will not prevent
fractures and suggested it might, in fact, weaken bones.
Willett, who co-authored The Nurses’ Health Study, one of
the largest investigations ever into the risk factors for major
chronic diseases in 122,000 women, found that women with
the highest calcium consumption from dairy products
actually had substantially more fractures than women who
drank less milk.
We’ve got a lot more to say in future chapters about milk
and the industry’s ongoing efforts to keep us believing The
Calcium Lie. This problem, unfortunately, has developed
long coat tails. The Calcium Lie has become so imbedded
into our belief systems about healthy food that calcium is
now added to many foods, and advertising entices us to buy
these “enriched” products. Now we find calcium added to
soy milk, orange juice, baby food, cereals, pasta and, yeeks
—imagine this—a genetically modified carrot that contains
calcium! It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature. Be
meticulous in your label reading and avoid the “calcium-
enriched foods.”
We think our readers are smarter than that. We’ve said it
before and we’ll say it again: BONES ARE MADE OF
MINERALS. Yes, one of those minerals is calcium, and yes,
calcium is also important, but we create a grave imbalance
in the body if we get too much calcium in a misguided effort
to build strong bones. Remember: Calcium hardens
concrete and it hardens all sorts of “stuff” in your
body, too.
BONES AREN’T MADE OF CALCIUM
Here’s what bones are made of:
• Calcium
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Manganese
• Silica
• Iron
• Zinc
• Selenium
• Boron
• Phosphorus
• Sulfur
• Chromium
And traces of many other minerals That’s what bones are
made of. Not snakes and snails or puppy dogs’ tails, and
definitely not just calcium. Let’s stick with the science. Any
sensible person can see that if we want strong bones, we
need to keep all of these minerals in our bones and in
balance. We deplete our stores on a daily basis, and we
need to replace them all every day. Replacing just one
mineral creates an imbalance that has a cascading effect
we’ll talk about later in this chapter.
 Is there a way to press the “delete” button and rid our
minds once and for all of the misconception about calcium
and bones? We’d like to think this is possible, but we know it
will take a conscious effort for all of us to change our
thought patterns and remember this truth from now on.
WHO’S WINNING?
This collective amnesia makes us wonder how many
other erroneous misconceptions have been foisted on us by
who-knows-who. It is amazing how false advertising used to
sell a product can lead to a lie becoming a belief system.
No, we’re not conspiracy theorists. We’re not the kind of
people who see the devil behind every bush. It is strange,
however, that these erroneous beliefs are so pervasive and
so dogmatically held, not only by the general public, but by
doctors, nutritionists and other health care professionals
who have the tools to know better.
It’s also “coincidental” that the big pharmaceutical
companies rake in billions upon billions of dollars a year
treating the diseases caused by excess calcium in the
human body. Big Pharma isn’t interested in selling calcium
supplements, or at least that’s not the major thrust. But
pharmaceutical companies are making a fortune from drugs
used to treat the diseases that result from calcium excess.
We’re not making accusations, we’re just pointing out the
basic facts.
Here they are:
 CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Heart disease is the Number 1 killer in the United States.
In fact, it is the biggest killer in the Western world. Common
prescription drugs used to prevent and treat hardening of
the arteries, literally caused by calcification or excessive
amounts of calcium in the arteries (also called calcific
plaque— there’s a clue), include the statin drugs like Lipitor,
Zocor and Crestor. Unfortunately, doctors and patients have
been led to believe that cholesterol is the problem. More
than 25 million prescriptions have been written for these
drugs worldwide and 60% of all heart attack survivors are
taking the drugs on the erroneous belief that statins will
prevent another heart attack. In fact, despite the massive
quantity of these expensive prescription drugs dispensed
around the world, the rate of heart attacks has remained
unchanged over the last 20 years. Yet the drug companies
are raking in $20 billion a year on these drugs.
A recent study has even shown that Crestor, one of the
top-selling statin drugs, was found to have almost no effect
in preventing heart attacks during a two-year study, in spite
of the billions of dollars spent on the therapy. Another report
showed that for every 100 patients on statin drugs, only 2 to
4 heart attacks might be prevented. Side effects of these
drugs include memory loss, liver damage and failure.
Studies that showed serious risks of liver damage from
statins were never published by the drugs’ manufacturers.
Included in the statin risks are: muscle damage (2.8 times
higher with Crestor; at least 7 people have died) and kidney
failure (found to be 75 times higher with Crestor than with
the other statin drugs) and illegally delayed reports of
serious adverse side effects by the Crestor manufacturer
AstraZeneca, which spent over a billion dollars on marketing
this drug alone. And yet the FDA continues to allow the use
of these drugs with mere increased warnings to doctors.
How about the patients? Who is warning them?
HYPERTENSION
Another case in point: a class of drugs called,
interestingly, calcium channel blockers. These drugs are
meant to combat hypertension or high blood pressure by
blocking calcium’s role in contracting muscles in the heart
and arteries and, relaxing muscles, thus directly lowering
blood pressure. Of course, if there were no excess calcium in
the body in the first place, these drugs would not be
necessary. For nearly eight years now, we have known that
these drugs are dangerous since a paper was presented at
the European Cardiology Society blaming the calcium
channel blockers for causing 85,000 avoidable heart attacks
and cases of heart failure each year. If the excess calcium
doesn’t get into the cells or intracellular spaces, it gets
deposited in the arteries. But these drugs remain among the
most popular drugs for heart disease, prescribed for 28
million people around the world, 12.7 million of them in the
United States. And they net the drug companies at least
$3.2 billion a year from American sales alone (2004 figures).
These are just two of an enormous number of
prescription drugs used to treat the effects of excessive
amounts of calcium in the arteries. You can extrapolate the
numbers for yourself. The profits are mind boggling. And
they just treat the symptoms: They don’t get you better and
they probably make you worse.
OBESITY
Yes, you read it right. Excess calcium in the human body
leads to obesity. We’ll go into the details in Chapter 5, but
for now, think of a body starved for minerals and the other
nutrients that those minerals allow your body to absorb and
use. This may seem like a stretch of logic, but we assure
you, a fat body is literally starving for the nutrients it needs,
so it puts out signals that create cravings in an attempt to
get you to eat something that will nourish it. Now we know
most of us don’t get cravings for spinach or salmon. This
desperate attempt to find nourishment causes us to crave
sugary, salty and fatty foods that are so destructive to our
health. Worst of all, it sets up a vicious cycle of cravings.
The failure to satisfy those cravings leads to increasingly
urgent signals that our brains misinterpret and stimulate us
to unhealthy eating. Sometimes this can also lead to other
compulsive and addictive behaviors.
Now think of the diet industry. We’re talking about
overthe-counter diet drugs, the ubiquitous ads for diet plans
and supplements with calcium added that invade our
airwaves constantly. Of course, there are also the
prescription drugs and surgeries that promise to help us
lose weight and keep it off, at a very high cost, and I’m not
just talking about your pocketbook.
Interestingly, the average diet drink consumer, thinking
that avoiding sugar will help control weight, actually
increases the risk of obesity (and Type 2 diabetes) for every
can of diet soft drinks consumed, substantially more than
those who drink regular sugared soft drinks. For example,
drinking one to two cans of diet soft drinks a day increases
your risk of obesity by 54.5% as two cans of diet soft drinks
a day increases your risk of obesity by 54.5% as 2 cans of
sugared soft drinks daily. Neither is good, but you can see
the difference. These numbers from a University of Texas
study were presented to the staid American Diabetes
Association in 2005. Yet there has not been an ADA
statement to date condemning the widespread use of diet
soft drinks by diabetics. So who gains here? We think you’re
getting the picture.
Jenny Craig, just one popular prepared foods diet plan,
reported sales of over $400 million in 2006. The diet
business reportedly generates about $40 billion a year in
income just for overthe counter food plans.
That doesn’t even begin to touch the proceeds of
prescription diet drugs and surgeries, or the multitudinous
and well-documented health conditions related to obesity.
TYPE 2 DIABETES
Whoa! This is a big bonanza for Big Pharma. Not only do
the drugs to treat diabetes bring in big bucks, there are all
those drugs used to treat the heart disease, obesity, kidney
and eye diseases that almost inevitably accompany
diabetes, just to name a few.
We’re just touching the tip of the iceberg here, but just
consider this: 2006 sales of a newer class of drugs for
treating Type 2 diabetes called glitazones (brand names
Avandia and Actos) were well over $6 billion, despite studies
that go back as far as 1999 suggesting that these drugs
increase the risk of heart attack in an already heart-attack
prone diabetic population.
There are several more drugs commonly used to treat
Type 2 diabetes, all of them quite profitable for their
manufacturers. In their annual reports, drug manufacturers
have crowed about the double digit increase in sales over
the past few years. Obviously, there is a lot more money to
be made in the treatment of diabetes than in prevention.
Treating Type 2 diabetes can be simpler, safer, cheaper
and almost completely effective. Through nutrition, I have
successfully eliminated Type 2 diabetes in more than 80
adult patients and completely eliminated gestational
diabetes in 100% of my pregnant patients (see Chapter 6).
HYPOTHYROIDISM
One drug manufacturer boasted that more than six
million people around the world use its thyroid hormones
and another reported 2005 sales of a comparatively paltry
$500 million. We will discuss the role of calcium in the
development of Type 2 hypothyroidism (thyroid hormone
resistance) in Chapter 5, but for now, we’ll tell you that
excess calcium causes metabolic failures and
Joe R’s Story
Joe R was a healthy middle-aged man who exercised
regularly, ate fairly healthy food and was at his ideal body
weight. He thought he was in great shape. Unfortunately, he
had become somewhat of a diet soft drink addict in the past
few years, drinking five or six cans of liquid death a day.
Now, Joe knew that diabetes ran in his family. His father,
an aunt and a sister had diabetes, but he thought it would
never happen to him. After all, he told me, he watched his
diet and exercised, so he was safe. Right? Wrong. When Joe
was scheduled for routine knee surgery back in 1997, pre-
operative blood tests showed he had an elevated fasting
blood sugar of 128. That’s enough to diagnose insulin
resistance and many doctors consider it means the patient
has full-blown Type 2 diabetes.
 Within 10 months, Joe was showing all the classic signs of
Type 2 diabetes. He had lost 25 pounds without trying, and
he wasn’t happy about it. He was running to the bathroom
15 times a day, the result of a raging thirst that he never
seemed to be able to quench. Simple blood tests showed his
fasting blood sugar levels were in the danger zone at 150-
200 and 250-350 after eating.
We did a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) and the
results were surprising: Joe had very low chromium levels,
which I attributed to his diet soft drink obsession. We know
that NutraSweet (aspartame) in soft drinks depletes
chromium, among other things.
I started Joe on a variety of simple supplements and
minerals, including mealtime doses of ChromeMate™, a
specialized form of chromium that would help replace the
depleted chromium stores, improve his ability to process
sugars and his ability to use insulin.
Joe’s results were really impressive: Within two weeks, all
his blood sugars were within the normal range.
He remained on the supplement regimen for the next year
and his blood sugars remained normal.
I have followed Joe for more than ten years and he still takes
a dramatically reduced number of supplements and his daily
minerals to keep his blood sugars at normal levels. We
know, because we make sure Joe gets his glucose and
insulin tested every three months. His most recent fasting
glucose was 99—well within the normal range. I consider
that a cure for a disease that is supposedly incurable. Type 2
diabetes is curable, if it’s caught early enough. Joe’s story
and those of over 80 other patients I’ve treated with this
program are all the confirmation I need. nowhere is this
more apparent than in thyroid malfunction. In my practice,
nearly 95% of women over the age of 40 exhibit signs of
Type 2 hypothyroidism, also known as thyroid hormone
resistance. It’s not coincidental that virtually every single
one of them has excess calcium as determined by their hair
tissue mineral analysis (HTMA).
OSTEOARTHRITIS, KIDNEY STONES AND GALL STONES
All of these conditions are the result of excess calcium
being dumped in the intercellular spaces in joints, kidneys
and gall bladder. Arthritis drugs alone brought in $18 billion
in worldwide sales in 2004. Of those, the controversial COX-
2 inhibitors like Celebrex and Vioxx brought in close to $7
billion. Fortunately, Vioxx was withdrawn from the market
that year after studies showed it dramatically increased the
risk of heart attack and stroke. Celebrex and its look-alike,
Bextra, remain available with healthy sales although safety
questions are still pending.
MIGRAINES
Sales from just one popular migraine drug, Imitrex
(sumatriptan succinate) and a related drug, called Imigran,
totaled $1.2 billion in 2004. Imitrex’s patent will expire in
2009, so it will become a generic drug and will be much
cheaper than the $13-plus per pill and close to $60 per
injectible cartridge. Its manufacturer, however, has already
announced plans to keep sales in the stratosphere by
patenting a “new” combination drug that is identical to
Imitrex with a just a little added naproxen, which is nothing
more than Aleve, an overthe-counter anti-inflammatory.
(More about calcium in the cause of neurotransmitter
deficiencies and the development of migraines in Chapter
4.)
We think we’ve gone far enough with these examples to
let you know who has the most to gain from our health
woes. Yes, we know it sounds cynical and we hope and pray
we are wrong, but the circumstantial evidence is certainly
damning.
We’ll discuss all of the implications of the calcium
cascade and sodium pump failure in the coming chapters.
For now, if all of this biochemistry threatens to overwhelm
you, you need to know that excess calcium in your system
can be an underlying factor in a host of deadly health
problems.
Too much calcium messes up your entire physiology. Now
that doesn’t mean you don’t need calcium. You do. We all
need calcium, but 95% of us don’t need anywhere near the
amount of calcium we get. Our calcium intake must be in
proportion to the intake of other minerals.
It doesn’t matter what kind of calcium supplement you
take or the hype about so-called “super” forms of calcium
like coral calcium. Calcium is calcium and you remember
what calcium does, right? Calcium hardens concrete.
Remember: Bones are made of minerals. We keep repeating
this mantra to help you break the reflexive adherence to
The Calcium Lie.
I estimate that we need at least 1500 to 3000 milligrams
of sea-saltderived minerals per day and this is probably
conservative. This assumes that you have no deficiencies
and no excess calcium, and you are in great health already.
In eight years of analyzing mineral status and treating more
than 1,000 patients, I have seen only one patient who had
no deficiencies at all.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE EXCESS CALCIUM? How
can you tell if you have too much calcium in your system?
The answer is simple, but the process may not be very
simple.
First, you need a test called a tissue mineral analysis. All
you’ll need to do is clip a small amount of new growth
undyed hair, each piece about 1/2 to 3/4 inches long from
an average of three spots on your head nearest to the scalp,
and send it to your doctor. I recommend that you find a
physician trained in this area who is already using TEI (Trace
Elements Inc.) lab, the only lab I feel is completely
competent to do a proper analysis. To find such doctors, visit
our website, www.calciumlie.com.
Your results will give you important information about your
intracellular levels of 36 minerals, including calcium,
magnesium, sodium and potassium.
 The Calcium Cascade
Excess calcium in the human body begins a cascade of
negative effects that have enormous adverse consequences
to our health. This process cannot be diagnosed with
standard blood tests. It requires a reliable, competent lab to
conduct a tissue mineral analysis on a correctly collected
hair sample you provide. I recommend Trace Elements Inc.,
the only lab with the correct ratios and databases. You can
find information about them in the resources section and
through my website, www.calciumlie.com.
Warning: Here comes some more biochemistry. We’ll try to
keep it as simple and painless as possible.
You have excess calcium in your body
THAT LEADS TO
Calcium seeking more magnesium to try to keep your body
in balance THAT LEADS TO
A relative magnesium deficiency in proportion to calcium
that leads to increased muscle tension, and nerve endings
firing erratically and other “electrical” functions of the body
malfunctioning; AND
In its need for more magnesium, your body has to suppress
adrenal function in order to retain more magnesium to
compensate for the high calcium, causing a loss of sodium
and potassium in your urine;
THAT LEADS TO
A continual depletion of the sodium and potassium that are
stored inside the trillions of cells in your body;
THAT LEADS TO
A loss of the sodium and chloride you need to produce the
stomach acid you need to digest protein; AND
This increases the incidences of heartburn and other
digestive disorders, and the use of prescription drugs that
have further destructive effects and impede digestion; AND
Your body gradually loses its ability to digest protein and
absorb the essential amino acids that are the building
blocks of protein.
ALSO
the sodium depletion leads to failure of the sodium pump,
the mechanism by which our bodies get essential amino
acids and glucose into our cells, not including fat cells;
FURTHERMORE,
Potassium levels decline dramatically—this leads to thyroid
hormone resistance and slowed metabolism; SO
All cells (except fat cells) become starved for glucose
RESULTING IN
increased cravings for glucose and for minerals leading to
more cravings AND
deficiencies of sodium, potassium, and essential amino
acids, and more cravings.
THE END RESULT IS:
Multiple metabolic malfunctions, including, obesity, heart
disease, Type 2 hypothyroidism, Type 2 diabetes, anxiety,
migraines, depression, hypertension,
and the list goes on and on!
You’ll also get information about the most important
ratios of minerals, that are critical to your entire
metabolism, levels of important trace minerals and levels of
toxic minerals. The report includes specific information for
each individual on the meaning of the results and
recommends specific dietary ways to address imbalances.
The tissue mineral analysis test at this lab is only
available through a qualified health care provider, so you’ll
need a good doctor to guide you through interpreting the
test results and developing a treatment regimen. That’s the
hard part. There simply aren’t many doctors who are aware
of The Calcium Lie, and fewer still who have any idea what
to do about it.
Your insurance company may resist paying for it;
however, this is a government-certified lab. I have had
patients challenge the non-payment and I’m finding that an
increasing percentage of insurance companies are covering
the test. It’s an investment in your health that is well worth
the cost.
From Dr. Thompson
 What does this all mean?
Over the past eight years of ordering comprehensive
tissue mineral analyses, my experience has shown that
more than 90% of my patients have calcium excess, ranging
from “significant” to “extreme.”
I can only relate this to my medical practice, in which I
have treated more than 1,000 patients, but I think this is a
fairly typical populace and wouldn’t be surprised if these
results hold true for most of the population.
This calcium excess seems to be the highest in younger
people, while their parents and grandparents have both the
calcium excess and serious mineral deficiencies. These
results are based on tissue mineral analysis tests conducted
by Trace Elements, Inc. (TEI) in Addison, Texas, whose
director, Dr. David Watts, PhD, D.C., FACEP, has conducted
more than 800,000 tissue mineral profiles over the past 18
years. This company has developed an impressive database
showing the relationships between minerals, vitamins, the
human metabolism and a wide variety of disease processes.
Dr. Watts is one of the few medical professionals who truly
understands the dangers of calcium excess and mineral
imbalances. I don’t have any financial interest in his
company, but I wish I did!
Forgive me. I’m passionate about this. The entire
Western world is on the brink of a health crisis that we
cannot afford. Sadly, it extends to the next generation with
increasing health consequences, and at earlier ages, if we
don’t do something to reverse it now. (See Chapter 6).
Blood tests are not as accurate as the hair tissue mineral
analysis (HTMA) because the calcium levels outside the cells
can differ greatly from those inside the cells. By analyzing
new hair growth we get a picture of the inside of the cells of
our largest organ, the skin; we can thereby get an accurate
picture of the mineral profile of the inside of the cells of the
entire body.
You might begin your search by looking at our website,
www.calcium lie.com, where we’ll have a list of doctors who
can submit and analyze your HTMA. A doctor who is a
member of one of these professional societies that are
dedicated to open thought processes in medicine may be
helpful:
• The American College for Advancement in Medicine, an
association of integrative health practitioners:
www.acam.org, phone: 949-309-3520.
• The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M),
which has doctors worldwide who are dedicated to
preventive health: www.worldhealth. net, phone: (773) 528-
1000.
I hope the folks at these wonderful organizations will be
able to help you find the right doctor.
If not, you’ll have to educate your own doctor. Be prepared,
this is likely to be a long and difficult process. You can start
by providing a copy of this book and perhaps a copy of
Chapter 9 entitled “Doctor-to-Doctor: An Impassioned Plea.”
You can also keep yourself and your doctor up to date by
regularly visiting our website: www.calciumlie.com. We’ll be
posting new information there frequently and we hope to
develop a newsletter soon.
Our challenge to other physicians is that they should care
more about their patients. They don’t really have to know
everything; they just have to be willing to listen to their
patients and be open to changing their ingrained thought
and learning processes.
In addition to getting your hair tissue mineral analysis and
following the dietary instructions (more about those in
Chapter 8), you’ll need to begin taking mineral supplements
right away. I always recommend that my patients
immediately begin taking a high quality ionic mineral
supplement made by Trace Mineral Research or Research
Minerals, Inc. They have it in tablet and liquid forms and in
regular and an extra potassium “electrolyte formula.”
You must know your mineral analysis results to be sure you
get the correct supplement. However, either of these is
better than none. When in doubt, order the regular formula.
I recommend taking at least six of the mineral tablets per
day or two teaspoons of the liquid minerals. The liquid
tastes nasty, so dilute it slightly into about two ounces of
water and “chug” it. Never take it straight.
These supplements do contain calcium and that’s OK,
because calcium naturally occurs in sea salt. The
supplements (and unrefined sea salt) all contain calcium in
the perfect proportion with other minerals so it works for
you rather than against you. You may also need some other
whole food supplements and dietary changes which we’ll
address in Chapter 8.
POINTS TO REMEMBER Bones are not made of calcium.
They are made of a dozen or more minerals, all of which are
essential to bone strength.
 Calcium supplements, milk and dietary calcium do not
produce strong bones. Minerals in proper balance produce
strong bones.
Remember the Calcium Cascade in which excess calcium
starts causing adrenal suppression for the body to retain
magnesium to compensate. This leads to sodium and
potassium loss from our cells and then out through the
urine, and an increased proportion of calcium in our cells.
Adrenal suppression and hormone resistance results, with
the continuous loss of sodium, which eventually shuts down
protein digestion and potassium loss, while calcium increase
in our cells leads to Type 2 hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone
resistance. This creates a host of metabolic problems and
failures ranging from heart disease, diabetes and obesity to
anxiety, migraines, depression and more.
Get a reliable hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA)
available through www.calciumlie.com to determine your
personal calcium and other essential mineral, trace mineral
and toxic mineral levels and information about important
ratios of these essential minerals that affect our health and
metabolism.
Take a high quality ionic trace minerals supplement made
from unrefined sea salt minus some of the sodium. Adjust
your diet as necessary to accommodate your new correct
calcium lifestyle.
CHAPTER 3

Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Calcium

S
O NOW , YOU’VE GOT IT. Your bones are not made of calcium,
so it stands to reason that osteoporosis, osteopenia and
general brittle bones are not caused by a lack of calcium.
Nor can you strengthen your bones by taking calcium
supplements, drinking lots of milk and eating loads of dairy
products and calcium-rich and calcium-fortified foods, no
matter what you doctor might tell you.
In fact, you may remember from Chapter 2 the Harvard
and Cornell research on 122,000 of women who participated
in the Nurses’ Health Study that showed those who drank
the most milk had the highest fracture rates. You now have
the knowledge to understand why this is so.
What really causes osteoporosis? If you’ve read Chapters
1 and 2 carefully, you can probably guess the answer:
Osteoporosis is caused by mineral deficiency. It’s a loss of
the bone structure, the superstructure of your body,
because your body doesn’t have adequate supplies of all
the minerals it needs to build strong bones and, it has too
much of one of those minerals: calcium.
Let’s take a little closer look at what happens when we
become mineral deficient. Bones are the storehouses of
minerals for the entire body, so when any of your trillions of
bodily processes is in need of a particular mineral, it goes to
the bones for what it needs. Think of your bones as a
savings account for minerals. The earlier you make deposits
(ideally between puberty and age 30), the stronger your
bones will be throughout your life. If the needed mineral
isn’t there, your body may substitute a similar one, but not
without consequences.
So, you’re right, osteoporosis is not a deficiency of
calcium; it’s a deficiency of minerals. But osteoporosis is not
just a deficiency of minerals in the bones, it’s a deficiency of
minerals in the entire body.
31
From about 1,000 patients I’ve treated in the past eight
years and from the database of 800,000 HTMA (hair tissue
mineral analyses) conducted by Dr. David Watts over the
past 20 years, I can say without reservation that more than
95% of us are mineral deficient and more than 90% of us
have too much intracellular calcium.
And it’s getting worse. We’ll go into the details in Chapter
6 when we talk about pregnancy and childbirth, but here’s
what you need to know: A baby will be born with an exact
fingerprint of its mother’s mineral status, so if the mother’s
mineral status is poor, the baby’s will be too. And, as time
goes on, everyone’s mineral status declines so the picture
for each succeeding generation is worse. These shortfalls in
our environment, our nutrition and in our lifestyle add up to
declining mineral status throughout our lives.
When I look at a teenager’s HTMA these days, I find as
much as 75% depletion in the total body mineral content
and in almost every single case, an excess of calcium that is
causing numerous other imbalances and metabolic failures.
Without enough minerals in the right proportions, your
body can’t make enough of the hydroxyapatite crystals that
make up bone matrix and build bone strength. Without
adequate minerals, bones are weakened, more prone to
injury and unable to supply the rest of the body with
minerals needed for other functions.
BONE DENSITY TESTS
These are diagnostic tests for osteoporosis
recommended by nearly every doctor for women over 50.
However, the American College of Obstetrics and
Gynecology (ACOG) has suggested waiting until age 65,
unless specific risk factors are identified. This is too late!
We already know that almost everyone’s body mineral
levels are severely depleted. Research shows us that a
significant percentage of the post menopausal bone mineral
loss occurs in the first two years after menopause.
Unfortunately, these bone mineral density test results
are standardized to compare the bone mineral density to
others our own age rather than comparing us to a healthy
bone density. As our collective bone density worsens, the
averages are lower, but still acceptable to doctors.
Since we know that virtually everyone is mineral
deficient, we really should be comparing ourselves to the
bones of a 20-year old. Even at that, we really don’t know
what “normal” levels should be, based upon our current
civilization’s nutritional and mineral deficits.
Finally, bone mineral density is not called bone calcium
density. Remember, bone mineral density is just another
way to get a measurement of our total body mineral levels.
However, it is less specific and less accurate than tissue
mineral levels.
Forgive us a brief aside here: Bones and teeth are
composed of the same minerals, so the health of your teeth
can be a direct indicator of your bone status.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) told us in
2002 that 44 million Americans had compromised bone
density (either osteoporosis or osteopenia, low bone density
that often leads to fractures). They projected those numbers
would increase to 52 million by 2010 and 61 million by
2020. Those increases are staggering! That means in just
eight years the experts project nearly a 20% increase in this
crippling disease and in 18 years, nearly a 50% increase.
Now we know the NOF people mean well when they tell you
to take calcium to keep our bones strong. But they’re wrong.
Dead wrong.
These statistics substantiate the mineral decline and the
fact that no matter how much calcium we take, it doesn’t
make our bones stronger. Bones are made of minerals,
calcium is only one mineral. Calcium actually makes bones
weaker because it exaggerates our mineral imbalances and
deficiencies. Calcium excess causes other minerals to be
lost or excreted in the urine.
And by the way, if you think osteoporosis and osteopenia
are diseases of elderly women, think again. True, more than
55% of all people over the age of 50 have some form of
bone deterioration, but 20% of those sufferers are men.
Today, 2 million men have been diagnosed with osteoporosis
and 12 million are at risk. Anyone can get it, and more and
more of us are getting it every day.
If you stop putting extra calcium in your body and
replace all the lost minerals instead, the downstream effects
of calcium excess will ease over time and you’ll find yourself
coming back into balance. Dietary changes and
supplements may also be helpful as guided by the HTMA
results. If you do this faithfully over time, you’ll almost
always get relief from current health problems and prevent
new ones from developing. Nutritional guidance and reliable
supplementation by a health care practitioner well
instructed in The Calcium Lie are essential.
I continually stress to my patients how many minerals
they need because these essential nutrients cannot be
found in today’s food supply. A minimum of five or six
tablets of seasalt-derived minerals daily, or two teaspoons
of liquid ionic seasalt-derived trace minerals will just replace
what you lose every day, provided you are not pregnant,
when you need much more. (See Chapter 6). But those six
tablets won’t get you ahead of the flood. Depending on the
results of their HTMAs, most of my patients need 9 to 15
tablets a day, at least for several months and sometimes for
several years, to correct their mineral deficiencies and begin
to bring their mineral levels back to normal.
PHARMACEUTICALS FOR OSTEOPOROSIS
There is a class of pharmaceuticals for osteoporosis
called biosphosphonates. Sold under brand names like
Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel and Reclast, these drugs harden
bones and prevent further bone deterioration and fractures
in people with osteoporosis by slowing the natural
resorption and remodeling process, making the bones super
hard.
By doing this, the mineral storehouse gets shut down and
more mineral imbalance and deficiencies occur in all the
cells of the body, making the mineral bank account
continuously overdrawn, with far-reaching consequences, as
you’ll see in the coming chapters. Cell and bone mineral
depletion is actually accelerated if you are using
biosphosphonates and minerals are not being adequately
replaced.
There is another price to pay for these artificially
strengthened bones. There have been no long-term studies
on biosphosphonates, but some experts theorize that over
time, these super-hardened bones may shatter if they are
fractured.
There have been studies that show biosphosphonates
can cause a condition called aseptic bone necrosis, in which
the blood supply to the bone is interrupted and the bone
quite literally dies.
There are documented cases where bone necrosis has
killed the bone in the jaw, resulting in teeth falling out.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment may be the only hope for
these patients to save their teeth. It’s not a pretty picture.
Using these drugs will slow bone loss in patients with
osteoporosis and osteopenia, but these drugs continually
rob the rest of the body’s cells of their mineral storehouse,
so your mineral needs are continually unmet metabolically.
In the long term, biosphosphnates contribute to a vicious
cycle of serious health problems.
Biosphosphonates may also cause increased rates of serious
atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heart beats
inefficiently and irregularly, raising the risk of blood clots
and strokes. In October of 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration announced it would study the problem. There
had been no resolution of the issue, first reported in the
New England Journal of Medicine, by the time this book was
published.
These anti-osteoporotic drugs may be a last resort
among people who are already severely compromised in
terms of their bone structure, since even supplementation
with balanced sea saltderived ionic minerals alone will not
restore this much lost bone. I do prescribe them because of
the critical degree of the bone loss in some patients and,
there seems to be no better alternative. I always
simultaneously recommend, however, as much mineral
supplementation as possible and diet changes, guided by
the hair tissue mineral analysis results.
Given all these potential problems, prevention is clearly
the best route to take. The more physically active you are
early in life (in early teens and even before), the lower your
risk of osteoporosis. The more weight bearing exercise you
do, at any stage in life, the lower your risk. This means
walking, running, cross country skiing, tennis, soccer and
any of a wide number of activities that keep you on your
feet. Recent research shows that it is never too late to start.
Most conventional doctors will want to add calcium to the
biosphosphonates and recommend vitamin D supplements
as well. We repeat: Don’t go there! The chances that you
need supplemental calcium are extremely small, and most
likely that calcium is going to add to your mineral
imbalances and resulting health risks. Vitamin D
supplements are not advisable if there is a calcium excess
and specifically a calcium/magnesium imbalance.
CALCIUM’S LINK WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS
Joint pain, bone aches, what’s the difference? Well, there
is a difference, but the underlying problems are closely
linked. We’re sure you got the answer right this time: Excess
calcium and mineral deficiencies. Take a moment to look
back at the Calcium Cascade from Chapter 2. When your
body tries to hold onto magnesium to protect the muscles
and the heart and to compensate for the calcium excess,
the adrenal glands are suppressed and sodium and
potassium are lost in the urine. These essential mineral
levels fall, creating relative calcium excess.
As these ratios keep going up and up and up, they create
a downstream ripple effect that can become a flash flood.
The adrenal glands are suppressed and the body’s cells
become resistant to thyroid hormone (Type 2
hypothyroidism) and resistant to adrenal hormones. Think
about the effects of calcium building up in places where it
doesn’t belong, whether it is in excess in the bones, in the
arteries as plaque, in the eyes as cataracts, in the cartilage
as joint deterioration, in the connective tissues, or the
kidneys and the gall bladder as stones.
Now, that excess calcium is building up in your body. Your
connective tissues become weakened from inadequate
protein digestion and sodium pump failure (see Chapter 4),
and vitamin Ccomplex deficiency (see Chapter 7).
Deficiencies and imbalances of other essential minerals and
amino acids have impaired the healing process.
Osteocyte cells are responsible for the normal production
of bone matrix, but when they lay down new bone over
calcium deposits in the joint spaces, we get knobs,
protrusions and deformed joints. This process is very
complex and many other factors are at play. Calcium excess
is the major underlying factor in joint deterioration,
regardless of the pathway.
 Osteoarthritis is the result of calcium-laden tissues in the
joints. When you have too much calcium in the tissue,
crystals or gravel begin to form, creating inflammation.
Inflammation creates an abnormal healing response and, as
this calcium is deposited in your joints, you’ll get creaking,
grinding and bone spurs (new bone formation in an
abnormal location). Increasing joint deformity results.
We know, osteoarthritis is not exclusively caused by
“gravel” in the joints or by inflammation. It’s also a process
of the loss of collagen or soft tissues like cartilage from
amino acid deficiencies, vitamin Ccomplex deficiency,
impaired metabolism and impaired collagen production. The
result is chronic inflammation and tissue injury because
your natural healing response has gone awry. That can put
you at risk for other inflammatory health problems also
related to calcium excess.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the loss of
collagen is also related to excess calcium, partly because
the amino acids that help build these key soft tissues aren’t
being properly absorbed. (See the Calcium Cascade in
Chapter 2 and the discussion of sodium pump failure in
Chapter 4.) Collagen itself is a fibrous protein that makes up
not only cartilage, but all the connective tissue in your body.
Poor protein absorption and vitamin Ccomplex deficiency
directly affect collagen production—and you cannot digest
protein without a proper mineral balance.
Your body cannot make collagen without copper in
perfect proportions. In order for copper to be present in the
correct amounts, your zinc levels must perfectly match it.
Too much zinc interferes with the copper needed to keep
those soft tissues regenerating perfectly. Remember, (this
will make more sense later) we also need a copper-carrying
protein, a piece of the vitamin Ccomplex molecule called
tyrosinase, to help us use our bodies’ copper supplies
efficiently so we can make collagen. So if you can’t properly
digest those proteins because of mineral deficiency and you
can’t get that copper into your system or utilize it because
of vitamin Ccomplex deficiency, collagen production suffers.
You can see how the cascade of ill-effects continues.
Mineral balance is necessary for the proper absorption of
vitamins, amino acids and other nutrients, so once again,
vitamins as we know them cannot be used to form joint-
stabilizing collagen.
It’s the growing mineral imbalance and nutritional
deficiencies, not the passing of the years, that make older
people more vulnerable to osteoarthritis and other
degenerative and inflammatory diseases.
Just remember, we are talking about whole food natural
sources of these vitamins, not chemically or even
“naturally” derived versions that only contain a part of the
complex structure of the whole food nutrients. We won’t
belabor this right now, but there will be more in Chapter 7.
It’s easy to translate this excess calcium to other painful
“gravelly” conditions like calcific plaque, cataracts,
gallstones and kidney stones as well.
Those calcium crystals can build up in any soft tissue. They
are often found in blood vessels, tissues, and organs such as
the heart, kidneys, brain, skin, joints, breast, eyes, liver,
prostate and ovaries. Not only do these calcium deposits get
bigger over time, they also trigger inflammation and other
immune responses.
Other recent research shows the link between coronary
heart disease, breast arterial calcification and bone mineral
density. Calcium deposits in the arteries show the presence
of atherosclerosis (commonly known as hardening of the
arteries). Breast arterial calcification is often found in
women with severe hardening of the arteries.
Abnormal soft tissue calcification happens when calcium
binds with phosphate to form hard and bony structures,
when calcium crystals accumulate in the wrong places,
anywhere but in bones and teeth.
Isn’t there calcium in sea salt and in these ionic minerals,
too? Yes, there is calcium in sea salt and in the ionic mineral
supplement I recommend. However, that calcium is
naturally occurring. What’s important is the balance of
calcium with other minerals in the rock salt and ionic
minerals.
We’ll repeat here: Calcium is a very important mineral in our
bodies, but too much calcium causes serious health
problems and almost all of us have too much intracellular
and intercellular calcium. We need calcium in our bodies,
but we need it in the proper proportions to other minerals.
The vast majority of us aren’t getting those minerals in the
proper proportions, so we’re compromising not only our
bones and joints, but our entire well-being.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU’VE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH
OSTEOPOROSIS
Your first step should be to get a hair tissue mineral
analysis (HTMA) so you and your doctor will have a
complete picture of your mineral status: the most essential
mineral levels, toxic elements, and the essential mineral
ratios that affect your metabolism, digestion, thyroid,
hormones, adrenals, muscles, hemoglobin and overall
health. You and your doctor can order HTMA from
www.traceelements.com or through my website at
www.calciumlie.com. This is the only laboratory I
recommend because of its high integrity, long record of
excellence, huge data base, personalized service, reporting
of essential mineral ratios that other laboratories don’t even
understand or report, its high level of accuracy and
reproducibility. It has the USDA’s CLIA certification, assuring
its testing standards and results.
The results of the HTMA come with an assessment of the
risk of a variety of health problems and dietary
recommendations. It goes without saying, follow those
dietary recommendations. But the only way—the only way—
to improve your bone density is to replace the missing
minerals that are responsible for bone fragility.
 I’ll say at the outset, it is very difficult to increase bone
mineral density. Ionic seasalt-derived trace minerals
however, can stop the loss of those essential minerals if we
adequately replace them.
It takes time for bone mineral density to increase.
Anything over a 1.5% to 2% increase of bone density is
highly significant, yet I see at least that much in most
patients I treat with ionic trace minerals, and I often see as
much as a 5% increase per year.
The proper diet should not be ignored in this equation.
Dramatically reducing or eliminating dairy products is
probably the first positive step, and depending on your
HTMA results, avoiding fatty meats, nuts and certain oils
and increasing your intake of unrefined carbohydrates and
certain vegetables may also be recommended.
Weight-bearing exercise is also an important element of
increasing bone strength. This means walking, running,
tennis, strength training or any activity that keeps you on
your feet. Gardening is one of Kathleen’s favorite weight
bearing exercises, although most of us may not think of it
that way. You actually get a better workout gardening than
you do running—including calorie burn—because you’re
using all your large muscle groups, including the upper
body. I like walking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and
exercise that creates peace, decreases stress and allows
growth in personal relationships.
POINTS TO REMEMBER Your body needs at least 12
minerals to build strong bones. Calcium is only one of them.
 My clinical experience shows that at least 95% of us are
mineral deficient and have calcium excess. This can actually
weaken bones.
Bone density tests are not very helpful because they are
an average for people of your age, and as more and more
people get osteopenia and osteoporosis, the lower the
averages becomes. You should aim for the bone density of a
healthy 20-year old.
It’s easier to prevent bone loss with adequate mineral
supplementation, proper diet and exercise, than to try to
rebuild lost bone mass.
A hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) test, available
through www.calcium lie.com, will give you the information
you need to correct mineral imbalances and deficiencies
and address the health conditions these imbalances and
deficiencies are causing.
CHAPTER 4
Poor Protein Digestion and Sodium Pump
Failure
H
AVE YOU NOTICED A TOUCH OF HEARTBURN now and then?
Depending on your age, heartburn, gas, bloating and
constipation may be unwelcome daily companions. Perhaps
Tums have a permanent place in your pocket or purse.
Maybe you’ve even gone beyond overthe-counter digestive
“aids” and you use a prescription medication like Prevacid,
Nexium, Tagamet or Zantac to control your symptoms.
Probably you think of this problem as a minor nuisance.
Maybe it’s even a fairly major pain in the belly, but it’s not
serious, is it?
Yes, indeed, heartburn is very serious. It is often the first
sign of a major system failure that can lead to a baffling
cascade of deadly health problems. Neither you nor your
doctors should dismiss heartburn and gastric upsets as
“minor.”
Fortunately, there is a great deal you can do to stop the
downhill health slide that begins with heartburn.
Warning: Here comes some more biochemistry. It’s crucial or
we would not put it here. We’ll make it as simple and
painless as possible.
DIGESTIVE DISTRESS CAN LEAD TO SERIOUS TROUBLE
Your doctor probably has told you that you have “acid
indigestion” or “heartburn” or perhaps more formally GERD
(gastro-esophageal reflux disease), and that it is caused by
excess acid production in your stomach. This is another of
those nearly unshakeable erroneous belief systems that the
medical community and the public seem to have embraced.
It stands to reason that excess acid is splashing up into your
esophagus and causing a burning sensation, right?
41
 
 Wrong! What’s really happening is that we cannot
properly digest our food because we do not have enough
stomach acid, being released at the right time to do the job
properly. According to Dr. Jonathan Wright, author of Why
Stomach Acid is Good for You (Evans, 2001), true acid
overproduction is extremely rare. But low acid production,
causing just the symptoms of which 44 million of us
complain at least once a month, is very common. Wright
says stomach acid is essential to digestion and to the
absorption of many vital nutrients, including protein and
minerals.
So how could excess stomach acid production possibly be
responsible for heartburn? It’s not.
Doctors, even highly trained gastroenterologists, don’t
see the fallacy of putting patients on drugs called proton
pump inhibitors that slow or even stop acid production.
Worse yet, they don’t think about the downstream problems
of additional digestive problems. They don’t realize that
seemingly unrelated diseases like hypertension, depression,
anxiety, migraines and insomnia are related to the failure of
stomach acid production. These doctors have forgotten their
basic medical training.
In order to produce stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), the
body needs sodium chloride. Right—salt. Sodium chloride is
the body’s only source of chloride, the source of
hydrochloric acid in the stomach’s acid producing cells,
called parietal cells. That’s why some divine wisdom has
created sea salt at 85% sodium chloride and 15% other
minerals—exactly what we need in exactly the right
proportions.
But decades of medical badgering have caused most of
us to rein in our salt intake to the point where the vast
majority of my patients are sodium deficient.
Don’t be confused. Calcium excess also causes sodium
and potassium loss in the urine and a continuous depletion
of the intracellular stores of sodium and potassium
(remember the Calcium Cascade). Potassium is also
essential for the production of stomach acid. Most
commonly, however, inadequate salt intake is a major
factor.
I suspect that this holds true for almost everyone in the
Western world who believes another lie I call “The Sodium
Lie.” Time and time again, I hear, “I don’t use much salt.”
This is a big mistake! The result: We are losing our
MEDICAL FACT #1: Stomach acid production declines
with age.
MEDICAL FACT #2: Heartburn and GERD increase with age.
More than 50% of people over 50 complain of GERD.
digestive abilities and more importantly, we’re losing the
ability to produce stomach acid correctly, the ability to
digest protein, the ability to get amino acids into our cells
and the ability to produce protein molecules,
neurotransmitters and nitric oxide, leading to a whole host
of nutritional related diseases.
All because we “cut back on salt.” Just like all mammals,
we need the salt! Going back to the calcium cascade, we
are reminded that excess calcium
causes adrenal suppression so the kidneys can “grab” onto
magnesium to balance out the excess calcium. Furthermore,
when the adrenal glands are suppressed, there is a
continuous loss of sodium and potassium in the urine,
draining much-needed sodium and potassium from every
cell in our bodies. The loss of sodium and potassium reduces
our ability to produce stomach
acid, leading to an inability to digest protein and use the
amino acids that are
essential to the majority of our body functions.
Now here’s another problem: Many people eat Tums like
candy when
they’re experiencing heartburn. What are Tums made of?
Calcium. Oh, no!
Calcium Cascade to Impaired Protein Digestion,
Amino Acid Deficiency
DIETARY CALCIUM EXCESS
  drenal suppression
A
 Urinary loss of sodium and potassium and decreased intake
of salt
 Intracellular sodium and potassium depletion (sodium pump
failure)
 Impaired, delayed, deficient stomach acid production
 Poor protein digestion and absorption
 Amino acid deficiencies and inability to get amino acids into
our cells
Metabolic consequences, symptoms, disease This means
you’re getting more calcium that will contribute to your
problems exactly when you don’t need it. In order for your
body to absorb most forms of calcium, you need sufficient
stomach acid. Low stomach acid allows those excess
calcium molecules to roam around your body, depositing
gravel-like residues into places where you don’t want them
—like in your arteries or joints. You certainly don’t want that!
When the stomach receives protein for digestion, it sends
a signal to the body to start acid production. I use the
analogy of the carburetor start-up system of an old car
motor. It is like pumping the gas to try to get the engine
started. If the acid doesn’t come (like the car not starting),
more pumping of the gas pedal is necessary. Eventually, if
the engine doesn’t start right away, continued pumping of
the gas pedal occurs and the carburetor system gets
flooded.
Heartburn occurs in much the same way: As with the
carburetor and an engine failing to start, too much pumping
(stimulation to get the needed acid to digest protein), leads
to flooding (too much acid being released all at once
because of the overstimulation). This has to occur because
there was not enough acid to begin digesting the protein
meal when it first arrived in the stomach. The stomach is
thus flooded; too much acid is finally released, too late and
all at once, so you get heartburn.
Then you “progress” to the need for prescription
pharmaceuticals that are designed to halt the production of
stomach acid. They work quite effectively, for all practical
purposes, shutting down your acid production completely.
How can you possibly absorb the nutrients essential to your
survival if you cannot digest your food? You can’t!
Low stomach acid production causes incomplete
digestion. Most importantly, proteins are not broken down
into the amino acids we need to fuel trillions of body
functions and make protein molecules in all the cells of the
body. Minerals are not being absorbed properly or in the
optimal ratios so our bodies start to malfunction.
By the way, GERD is not exclusive to older adults. I’ve
seen it in teenagers, especially in obese teens, and even in
10-year olds who invariably have calcium excess.
So what happens when you can’t efficiently digest
protein and get those crucial amino acids into the cells
where they do their work?
The 20 standard amino acids include eight essential amino
acids and four semi-essential amino acids, which are
needed to help your body to function. Without them, you’re
in trouble.
Here’s a list of amino acids for those who like to delve more
deeply into the subject.
AMINO ACIDS ESSENTIAL
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine Threonine
Tryptophan Valine
SEMI-ESSENTIAL Arginine
Tyrosine
Cysteine
Histidine
SOMETIMES ESSENTIAL Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
OTHERS
Alanine
Asparagine Aspartate Glutamate
Let’s talk first about amino acids that help us make
neurotransmitters or brain chemicals:
Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, which helps
create the feel-good brain chemical, serotonin. If poor
protein digestion keeps your body from absorbing and
utilizing tryptophan, the results can be depression,
migraines, insomnia, anxiety, PMS, seasonal affective
disorder (SAD) and even weight gain because of an inability
to sense when you have eaten enough. Phenylalanine, a
substance found in artificial sweeteners, can interfere with
the bioavailability of tryptophan and interfere with serotonin
formation, with the same consequences as a deficiency in
tryptophan. Tryptophan also makes niacin to help your body
rid itself of cholesterol.
5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is the food source of
tryptophan from which your body makes serotonin, has
been used as a treatment for depression, anxiety, insomnia,
and migraine headaches.
Melatonin, another neurotransmitter hormone produced
from tryptophan, helps regulate sleep cycles. Correction of
this neurotransmitter deficiency also relieves sleep
disorders and depression, and is helpful as an antioxidant,
neutralizing the deterioration of cells and the diseases of
aging.
Think of all the drugs used to treat the symptoms of
serotonin deficiencies that cause depression and anxiety.
You’ve undoubtedly seen numerous television commercials
about Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft, Cymbalta and Lexapro to
treat depression; Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata to treat
insomnia; and Amerge, Frova, Imitrex, Zomig and Maxalt for
migraines, to name just a few of the multitude of
pharmaceuticals used to treat conditions resulting from
serotonin deficiency caused by low tryptophan absorption
and utilization.
With about 30 million people in the U.S.—about 8% of the
population— showing signs of clinical depression at any
given time, there is a multi-billion dollar market for these
drugs. In fact, almost all of these sufferers can be treated
successfully without these potentially harmful and
expensive drugs.
Do you really think your body has a Zoloft or Lunesta or
Imitrex deficiency? Not at all. Your body needs more
minerals and more minerals in balance. That will result in
better protein digestion and more amino acids available to
your cells to make the brain chemicals you need to stay
mentally healthy. Treat the underlying problem, not the
symptoms!
Tyrosine is a semi-essential amino acid necessary for
your body to create the anti-stress hormones dopamine and
norephinephrine. Tyrosine is also an essential part of the
manufacture of the proteins that make insulin receptors,
which keep blood sugars steady, and of thyroid hormones
that regulate metabolism. It’s also a part of the process that
creates Coenzyme Q10, a vital part of the body’s energy
production machinery that also plays a role in creating
(good) cholesterol and governing muscle function. It’s easy
to see the effects of an inability to absorb tyrosine on
adrenal function and other biological functions.
Methionine is another essential amino acid essential to
the body’s metabolism for detoxification, energy production
and enzymatic activities, including those that govern
digestion, among many other things. Methionine is the
spark plug that tells the cells to duplicate themselves
perfectly, thereby preventing the cell deterioration that
results in aging. If your hair is getting gray or your eyesight
is deteriorating, it means your cells are not duplicating
themselves as perfectly as they did when you were young.
Methionine is a critical element in keeping those cells
identical, generation after generation.
Arginine is another amino acid with far-reaching effects.
It is necessary for your body to produce nitric oxide, a
vasodilator or blood vessel expander that signals your
circulatory system that it is time to relax and expand.
Without nitric oxide, blood vessels become constricted,
blood flow is diminished and high blood pressure or
hypertension results. Patients with chest pain are often
given nitroglycerin to help relax blood vessels. Arginine has
similar results over a longer period of time. Arginine is also
important in wound healing, cellular division, immune
function, the release of hormones and removal
Jenny’s Story
Jenny was only 11 when I first met her. As they sat in my
office, Jenny was thin and pale. She certainly looked glum
for an 11-year old. Her mom was clearly at the end of her
rope.
Jenny had blinding migraine headaches virtually every
day for over five years. The situation was so bad, she rarely
was able to stay in school past noon. That’s not much of a
life for a sixth grader who should have been playing soccer,
marching in the school band or ice skating in winter. Jenny
had become a virtual invalid in this day of “highly
advanced” modern medicine.
Her concerned parents had sought the best possible
medical attention for Jenny. She had been to every
neurologist in the state of Alaska and even to specialized
medical clinics in Washington and Minnesota. Despite a
battery of every test known to medicine and a medicine
chest full of prescription drugs, nothing was helping Jenny.
I recognized that Jenny was suffering from sodium pump
failure and tryptophan deficiency. Her body was unable to
digest, absorb and utilize the proteins that would help her
manufacture serotonin. It wasn’t a surprise that she had
migraines and perhaps a little depression, too.
 I started Jenny on minerals and a regimen of
supplements to help her replace her neurotransmitters and
ordered a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) that
confirmed what I suspected: She had excess calcium and
low sodium in her tissues.
But even before the HTMA results came back, Jenny had
made a dramatic turnaround. In just four days, her
migraines had disappeared! She and her mom both hugged
me for joy. There wasn’t a dry eye in my office. All this poor
little girl needed was a few minerals and the right high
quality nutritional supplements.
She was weaned off her medications (you can’t stop
most of these medications cold turkey without some
potentially really terrible results).
Three years later, Jenny is still headache free, as long as she
continues to take her minerals and supplements. She is now
a happy and well-adjusted teenager who told me on her last
visit that she plans to go out for cheerleading.
I learned recently that Jenny’s pediatrician had pooh-poohed
my treatment and said that Jenny probably “just grew out of
her migraines.” In four days? Ha! Jenny and her family know
better and they’re unlikely to trust conventional doctors for
a long time to come.
of toxic ammonia from the body. Arginine is also necessary
for the synthesis of creatine, which is a substance that helps
to supply energy to muscle and nerve cells. Creatine is used
commonly to enhance muscle performance (safe up to 3
grams per day) and is used medically as supportive therapy
in neuromuscular diseases.
Carnitine , an amino acid found primarily in meat
products, is a key component of your body’s energy
production. Carnitine is like a train that transports fats to
the mitochondria, the body’s energy furnaces, where the
fats are burned as fuel. Carnitine also helps sweep toxins
out of the body and helps regulate cholesterol.
 Glycine is important for the production of hemoglobin,
the oxygen carrying protein molecule in red blood cells. It
also combines with cysteine and glutamic acid in the body
to form glutathione, an important antioxidant in the body.
Lysine is an amino acid that is an important element of
energy production, through a process called methylation.
This is a process that allows the donation of “methyl”
groups for every organic biochemical reaction in our bodies
to take place. It’s also important for the formation of
collagen for healthy joints and skin.
Serine is important to the activation of many enzymes,
another type of bodily “spark plug” that sets off chemical
reactions. These enzymes do everything, from digesting
food to transporting molecules across cell membranes, so
they can be used for energy. It is also important in the
formation of numerous substances that sustain brain
function. The improper absorption of serine has been
implicated in the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
Threonine is an amino acid that is important in protein
formation and in the formation of the processes that keep
your energy furnaces burning.
Of the other essential amino acids, many have less
obviously critical roles and are principally involved in the
production of protein molecules to sustain vital biological
functions throughout the body.
Other important amino acid molecules include the “non-
standard” amino acids that are not found in protein
molecules in the body, but act alone to turn on, turn off,
carry on, carry out and facilitate biochemical reactions in
the body, such as GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), glycine
and glutamate, important brain chemicals.
We’ve given you this list of some of the more important
amino acids so you can see that a deficiency of any amino
acid could have far reaching implications to our health and
longevity.
SODIUM PUMP FAILURE
 We wish we could tell you that digestive malfunction was
the end of this complex biochemical chain that causes
health problems but, in truth, it’s just the beginning.
Warning: Here’s some more biochemistry. Skip this if you
like, but it is important.
Excess calcium causes adrenal suppression with a resulting
continuous loss of large amounts of sodium and potassium
in the urine, even though our bodies are desperately
seeking additional sources of these two essential minerals
to ensure a steady heartbeat, that muscle and nerve fibers
will fire when they are needed, and that blood pressure
stays stable.
Excess calcium and the resulting deficiencies in intracellular
sodium and potassium cause a failure of the sodium pump,
an enzyme found in the membrane of every cell in the
human body, with far-reaching consequences.
The sodium pump moves sodium out of cells and potassium
into the cells. It creates a negative electrical charge inside
the cell that ushers these minerals in and out of the cells.
The same pumping mechanism that moves sodium out of
the cells brings glucose, amino acids and other nutrients
into our cells.
It’s not hard to imagine, then, what happens when there is
not enough sodium to run this pump, thereby decreasing
the body’s ability to get amino acids and glucose into all our
cells (except fat cells, which still absorb glucose): We get
cellular failure that has long-reaching consequences.
Without these amino acids, your body cannot grow and
repair itself. Without glucose, your body has no fuel for
energy. That spells a serious problem for you and your body.
(More about this in Chapter 5.)
In my practice, I’ve discovered that the average patient has
only 10 to 20% of the normal intracellular sodium content,
in spite of normal blood tests. That’s why I tell my patients,
with confidence based on tissue mineral analysis results,
that they are making a big mistake when they boast that
they “hardly eat any salt.” I call this The Sodium Lie.
Amino acid deficiency means your body cannot grow and
repair itself. Without these essential nutrients, your body will
begin to cannibalize itself, sucking proteins from the
muscles, brain, nerves and other organ tissues. The immune
system is compromised, so an early sign of amino acid
deficiency may be vulnerability to infections. Lowered
protein levels may also lead to edema, or fluid retention
outside the cells, resulting in swollen ankles, hands or face.
Over the long term, those amino acid deficiencies can result
in high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and loss of
immune system function. Undoubtedly, there are many
more consequences of amino acid deficiencies that have not
yet been documented because conventional medicine is so
focused on the idea that, in developed countries, most of us
consume more protein than we need. Just because we’re
chowing down on steaks and burgers and getting loads of
dietary protein doesn’t mean we’re able to assimilate the
nutrients in the protein.
Medical science doesn’t want to believe we could be amino
acid deficient when we eat so much protein. Again, we’re
looking at basic college biochemistry. Science doesn’t lie,
but humans seem to be very susceptible to unscientific
ideas about the biochemical functions of the human body.
Doctors (and the rest of us, too) need to take another look
at the biochemistry textbooks, apply those basic scientific
concepts to our practice of medicine and be sure that we
are not practicing it as a religion based on faith in some
erroneous concepts, rather than on hard scientific facts.
It also shouldn’t be shocking to learn that sodium pump
failure has been associated with calcium overload that leads
to heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, hypothyroidism,
hypertension (high blood pressure) and kidney failure.
Hypertension is often treated with drugs called “calcium
channel blockers, beta blockers, and alpha blockers.” All of
these are intended to relax constricted blood vessels. Think
about this: they’re called calcium channel blockers because
. . . ? The answer is simple: they’re blocking the effects of
the excess calcium.
It’s time for us to wake up and realize that excess calcium is
a major factor in hypertension and heart disease. Worse yet,
these calcium channel blockers have numerous side effects,
including muscle aches, dizziness, headache, fluid buildup in
the legs and feet, constipation, slow heart rate and flushing.
In my experience, these side effects are made worse by
sodium depletion.
In 1995, a terrible heat wave struck the Midwest and the
Northeast, resulting in more than 485 weather-related
deaths. The common denominators in every single patient
who died was that they were on sodium restricted diets and
they were unable to respond to resuscitation attempts.
Apparently, history may have to repeat itself before we
wake up. In November of 2007, doctors at the National
Institutes of Health convened to discuss further reduction in
the recommended daily salt intake. We certainly aren’t
learning from history.
Now think back to the Calcium Cascade for a moment.
Better yet, look through the diagram in Chapter 2.
The adrenal suppression that results from the Calcium
Cascade means that sodium and potassium, the exact
minerals so desperately needed for the sodium pump to
function, are excreted in large amounts through the urine.
When the body’s stores of sodium and potassium are
depleted, the body begins to shut down. The result: lack of
energy, cardiac arrhythmia, and thyroid hormone resistance
or Type 2 hypothyroidism. The situation has just gotten
worse.
Sorry, the bad news isn’t over yet.
Amino acids help build protein receptors on the cell walls.
And guess what? Insulin receptors are made of protein
molecules and minerals. If the amino acid deficiency caused
by incomplete digestion of proteins compromises cellular
function, the cells have fewer insulin receptors, so the cells
can’t balance blood glucose. We’ll talk about insulin
resistance more in Chapter 5, but for now you need to know
that insulin resistance leads to Type 2 diabetes and a whole
host of increased risks for heart disease, kidney failure,
nerve damage, improper wound healing, blindness and
more. All of these effects of poor protein digestion, mineral
deficiency and imbalance and sodium pump failure add up
to big trouble.
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
It’s a really ugly Gordian knot, but one that can be untied
with some common sense. All of the illnesses associated
with protein digestion failure and sodium pump failure are
preventable and treatable. All it takes is basic knowledge of
biochemistry and human physiology, and some basic whole
food and nutrition.
It’s not a deficiency of Paxil or Prozac or Celexa that is
causing depression. Depression is caused by an inability to
produce the neurotransmitters you need to keep from being
depressed. If you just trace back to the beginnings of acid
indigestion or the failure to digest and absorb proteins and
transport amino acids into the cells and the sodium pump
failure, you have the answers to prevention, treatment and
elimination of symptoms of many serious diseases including
depression and anxiety, obesity, diabetes, migraines,
hypertension and hypothyroidism.
If these problems are treated correctly, in almost every
case, the disease will disappear. (More about this in Chapter
8)
1. The first thing: Get a hair tissue mineral analysis
(HTMA) available through www.calciumlie.com. This will let
you know your exact mineral status. Your intracellular
sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium levels are
especially important in determining your protein digestion
and mineral deficiencies. You’ll also get valuable information
about your ratios and potentially toxic effects of these and
other minerals.
2. Even while you’re waiting for your HTMA results, begin
to use more unrefined natural sea salt to help bring up your
sodium levels. You can fairly safely assume your sodium
levels are too low. See the resource section for specific
product recommendations or refer to our website,
www.calciumlie.com for the latest products available.
3. Begin to wean yourself off proton pump inhibitors and
medication designed to lower your acid production. You may
need the help of your doctor to do this—and you may get
some serious resistance. Stick to your guns. Show your
doctor this book and encourage him or her to recall college
biochemistry and physiology.
4. Start taking supplements that will help re-train your
stomach to produce acids correctly. I recommend
Rhyzonate, a form of licorice extract. Chew one every five
minutes until you get relief. Over time, this is effective for
almost everybody. It absorbs the excess acid harmlessly and
still allows for some protein digestion.
5. If you’re depressed, but you don’t experience
heartburn, you probably still have some degree of sodium
pump failure. Try this: take extra amino acids to correct the
protein digestion deficiency and added 5-HTP (5-
hydroxytryptophan) to help re-establish correct
neurotransmitter production and bring up your serotonin
levels. If you also have anxiety and/or insomnia, additional
supplements and corrections may be needed. I also
recommend specific testing and replacement of the specific
neurotransmitter related amino acid deficiencies.
6. If you have high blood pressure, you’ll need to treat as
many of underlying problems as possible. Get more arginine
into your body to help with nitric oxide production. A
sustained release form is best. I like one called Perfusia (go
to www.calciumlie.com for more information). It’s also
helpful to stop eating foods that contain gluten, which
includes nearly all wheat products.
7. Many people with incomplete protein digestion and
sodium pump failure also have essential fatty acid
deficiencies, so a high quality fish oil product is an
important part of the healing process. Eicosamax is the
ultrapure omega 3 product I recommend. Shark liver oil that
is exceptionally pure is
Marybeth’s Story
Marybeth wasn’t unknown to me when I started treating
her. She had been a friend and a colleague for quite some
time, so I’d observed her over the course of several years.
We had shared meals and I’d seen her distress after our
families shared a zeal for Mexican food. At 52, she began to
pay a heavy price for all that spicy food.
I’d watched her pop Tums over the years and then finally
find a doctor who put her on a proton pump inhibitor. There
was temporary relief from her intense heartburn, but the
heartburn returned and she added Tums to the prescription
meds. She was a mess and the first to admit it!
I absolutely hated watching her suffer, but ethics
prohibited me from offering help until I was asked.
“Can more medicine help?” she finally asked me.
“No,” I answered immediately. “But less medicine will help
you a lot.”
She was willing to try.
I put her on an acid absorber instead of an acid inhibitor. I
gave her a mineral supplement to restore her mineral
balance, and encouraged her to use unrefined sea salt
liberally in her diet. When Marybeth saw her tissue mineral
analysis results and the documentation of her sodium
depletion, she became a believer.
Relief didn’t come overnight, but in the space of about three
months, Marybeth was able to get off all her prescription
meds. Over time, we were able to reverse her sodium pump
failure and re-train her stomach to produce acid correctly. A
year later, Marybeth is still free of prescription meds and
heartburn free, unless she really goes overboard with the
Mexican food. These days, when our families get together
for a meal, we usually opt for something a little kinder to
her digestive tract.
I have no doubt that in time, she will be completely free of
the digestive symptoms that signaled that my friend was at
high risk for serious health problems. also amazingly
effective when used correctly, but is only available in limited
amounts. I highly recommend it. (See Chapter 7 or
www.calciumlie. com for more information on finding the
best supplements.)
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Heartburn, gas, bloating, constipation and general
indigestion are often the first sign of problems related to
mineral deficiencies, poor protein digestion and calcium
excess.
Heartburn, also known as GERD (gastro-esophageal
reflux disease), is caused by low stomach acid production,
not the presence of too much stomach acid.
When there is insufficient stomach acid, proteins are not
properly digested. The result is that amino acids, essential
for many body processes, are not absorbed and, therefore,
not available for metabolism, growth and repair and other
body needs.
At the same time, intracellular sodium deficiency found
in nearly everyone, causes the cellular sodium-potassium
pump to fail, depriving the body of essential amino acids,
energy producing substances, particularly for heart and
muscle function, regulation of blood pressure and firing
muscle and nerve fibers.
The sodium pump failure further impairs the absorption
of life-giving amino acids and glucose into all our cells
(except fat cells, which continue to absorb glucose
independent of the sodium pump and continue to grow).
 Over the long term, those amino acid deficiencies can
result in depression, anxiety, migraine headaches,
hypothyroidism, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure,
heart disease, stroke and loss of immune system function,
increased cancer risk and more.
Sodium pump failure has been clearly associated with
calcium overload that leads to heart disease, hypertension
(high blood pressure), kidney failure, insulin resistance and
Type 2 diabetes and Type 2 hypothyroidism.
CHAPTER 5

Metabolic Failure
How Excess Calcium Causes Weight Gain,
Thyroid and Adrenal Malfunctions, and
Type 2 Hypothyroidism
ARE YOU OVERWEIGHT? Is someone you love overweight?
No doubt, your doctor has told you to eat less and
exercise more while discreetly adjusting a lab coat to cover
a personal paunch. Take a good look. Is your doctor an
example of good health? If not, maybe you need a change.
It seems too simple. So you struggle. You faithfully get up
at 5 a.m. every day for a morning jog. You try Atkins, South
Beach, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. You gulp down
chromium picolinate, 5-HTP, garcinia cambogia, hoodia, Alli
and every fad supplement. You’ve probably had some
success, but for almost all of us, the success is temporary.
The weight begins to creep back on until you’ve regained all
you lost and then some.
Why is that? Are we all weak-willed, unable to resist the
temptation of the dinner plate? Is our willpower so lacking
that we can’t even do the basic exercise of pushing away
from the dinner table?
 No! This answer may surprise you, but we are turning
into a fat nation (Generation XL) because we are quite
literally starving. That’s right: In a time of unparalleled food
wealth, we cannot get the nutrients our bodies need to
function. Quite literally, our mineral deficiencies and
imbalances, especially calcium excess, are leading us to
metabolic failures of unprecedented proportions.
We know that sounds like an oxymoron, to be fat but
starving, but if you add up what you’ve learned in the first
four chapters of this book, it will all start to make sense.
What are we starving for? You guessed it: Minerals. What are
we stuffed with? We’re sure you guessed it again: Calcium.
55
 
It’s a vicious circle: We are starving for the minerals we
need, and so we are driven, through cravings to eat more
and more food in an effort to get those minerals into our
cells where they are essential for literally trillions of
metabolic functions. Unfortunately, our foods are low in
minerals because of our mineral-poor soil and because few
are vine ripened. So we eat more and more. Our
metabolisms are slowed because of calcium excess, adrenal
suppression and thyroid hormone resistance (Type 2
hypothyroidism). Digestion is impaired; stomach acid is
deficient or improperly released. Protein is not fully digested
and essential amino acids are not absorbed. Amino acids
can’t make it into our cells due to sodium pump failure.
More cravings are stimulated by amino acid deficiencies and
resulting neurotransmitter deficiencies.
It’s a terrible, uncontrollable, downward spiral. Since we
all know the well-documented risks of being overweight, it
all seems so sad to think that we are killing ourselves in a
desperate struggle to get the nutrients we need to survive
and all the while we are admonished to get our calcium, diet
and exercise.
So how does this all work?
Knowing that almost every single American is mineral
deficient, it isn’t a great leap of logic to think about
deficiencies and imbalances in certain minerals causing
cravings. Those cravings may be for sugary foods or they
may be for salty foods or both.
Sugary food cravings probably mean you are becoming
insulin resistant and entering into a state of unhealth called
metabolic syndrome in which you have elevated insulin
levels, high blood pressure, elevated total cholesterol and
triglycerides and obesity. This has sometimes been called
“pre-diabetes” because, while your fasting blood sugars
may still be within the normal range, you are almost
inevitably headed toward full-blown and preventable Type 2
diabetes and all of its side effects, including heart disease,
stroke, kidney failure, poor circulation leading to
amputations, macular degeneration, retinal hemorrhages
leading to blindness and the list goes on and on.
Salty food cravings may also be related to insulin resistance,
but these cravings along with cravings for fatty foods are
even more directly linked to mineral deficiencies since so
many minerals have a salty flavor, including of course,
sodium.
Hmmm, salty, fatty food and sugar. . . a Quarter Pounder,
fries and a Coke . . . No wonder McDonalds raked in $22.8
billion worldwide in 2007. Add in all the other fast, fried and
super-processed foods that are a regular part of our
American diets and a pattern becomes clear.
Food cravings are basically a form of pica, an eating
disorder that involves eating non-food items, most
commonly dirt, clay, cornstarch, laundry starch, and baking
soda. You’ll probably be interested to know that as many at
68% of pregnant women develop some form of pica, but it is
also fairly common among the rest of the population. This is
interesting, since we know that each pregnancy drains 10%
or more of a woman’s total body mineral supply, so pica is
the body’s desperate attempt to replace those essential and
missing minerals. Mineral supplementation with ionic
seasalt-derived minerals may, in fact, be the most important
nutritional choice we can make during pregnancy (See
Chapter 6).
Iron supplementation is the most common treatment for
pica, so the mainstream medical community seems to have
gotten the idea that this eating disorder is the result of the
human’s insatiable quest for survival. But iron is not the
only deficient mineral, and iron deficiency is only a
symptom of a greater imbalance in the body’s mineral
supplies, quite literally the tip of the iceberg. This imbalance
is often exaggerated by calcium supplementation, especially
in women whose intracellular calcium levels are already
excessive.
We’re here to tell you that if you exercise like a hamster on
the wheel and eat nothing but lettuce for the rest of your
life, it will cause no permanent changes unless you treat
your underlying metabolic imbalances by balancing and
raising your mineral levels. All meaningful weight loss
must involve treating the underlying metabolism.
Let’s back up a little bit and define the metabolic failure that
is the link between calcium excess, mineral deficiency, and
obesity.
Take a look at the Calcium Cascade in Chapter 2. You’ll see
the way that calcium excess leads to the failure of the body
to respond to insulin to control blood glucose, the failure to
produce energy efficiently through glycogen, and most
importantly, it leads to the failure of thyroid hormones to be
able to stimulate our metabolism.
Low thyroid hormone levels don’t cause obesity, but nearly
100% of all obese people in my practice have
hypothyroidism, due to calcium excess with thyroid
hormone resistance (Type 2 hypothyroidism) and the
resulting metabolic failures.
This is what I call a Nutritional Disease Cascade. It goes like
this:
NUTRITIONAL DISEASE CASCADE
 1. Deficiency develops
Body nutrients (especially minerals) and essential amino acids are depleted, and
calcium is in excess in all the cells in the body,
SO
Compensation Occurs: Your body begins to have some subtle metabolic and
biochemical changes, but these are not yet detectable in laboratory blood tests.
THEN,
You develop increasing thyroid hormone resistance, calcium-to-potassium
intracellular imbalance, slowed metabolism and adrenal suppression, as your
body attempts to hold on to magnesium to balance the high intracellular
calcium. Decreased absorption of nutrients in foods occurs and sodium and
potassium are continuously lost from your cellular reserves into your urine. You
lose the ability to produce stomach acid, leading to poor protein digestion and
sodium pump failure, with a resulting inability to get essential amino acids and
glucose into your cells, except fat cells, which are stimulated by the increasing
insulin levels and remain independent of the sodium pump. Those fat cells
continue to absorb more glucose and grow larger and more numerous all the
time. As insulin sensitivity decreases or resistance develops, more insulin is
needed, more fat is produced, AND
2. Un-compensation occurs
You begin to have slightly elevated triglyceride (blood fat) levels, slightly
elevated blood sugars, still minor enough to escape much notice, however, your
body has begun to make fat more easily. You gain weight quickly due to the
underlying mineral deficiencies and imbalances, thyroid hormone resistance and
adrenal hormone resistance, further slowing your metabolism with continued
increases in insulin resistance. You don’t know how to treat it, so, you eat less,
diet and exercise and your metabolism slows even more. You may, for a short
time, maintain the weight or the loss, then you get back on the rollercoaster and
gain it all back because your body is still craving the nutrients it needs.
EVENTUALLY
3. Clinical disease develops in two stages
Clinical disease develops, most likely Type 2 diabetes or a neurotransmitter
disease like depression and anxiety or migraines. In the early stages, it is:
A. Reversible clinical disease: It can be reversed by rebalancing
and raising the mineral levels, lowering the calcium excess, and, possibly extra
thyroid hormone. After two or more years, this becomes:
B. Irreversible clinical disease: The metabolic decline becomes
increasingly irreversible, although mineral rebalancing will ease the effects,
improve the metabolism, improve the circulation, improve the digestion,
decrease the medication requirements, decrease the weight gain and slow the
body’s decline.
JC’s Story
JC came to my office a little shyly. After all, I am a
gynecologist, and, as a strapping young man, he clearly felt
a little uneasy. What made me feel uncomfortable was not
his gender, but the fact that he was carrying 254 pounds on
his once190-pound frame.
Although JC had not yet been diagnosed with Type 2
diabetes, he was clearly insulin resistant and it seemed that
a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes was an inevitable outcome of
the metabolic failure that was creeping up on him. In fact,
JC’s father suffered from severe Type 2 diabetes, and, at 300
pounds, he also had many other medical problems.
JC’s HTMA showed significant calcium excess, sodium
and potassium deficiency and thyroid hormone resistance
nearly 10 times normal. His was a classic case of the
Nutritional Disease Cascade. JC made no bones about it: he
was frightened. He told me he was committed to making the
necessary changes to bring his metabolism back into
balance.
We began trace mineral supplementation, diet changes
guided by the HTMA which largely involved eliminating
dietary calcium from dairy foods and we added some
supplements to help lower insulin resistance and correct his
mineral imbalances.
His basal body temperatures confirmed what I expected
based upon his HTMA results: a diagnosis of hypothyroidism
(Type 2) despite normal readings on his blood tests. This
was causing his metabolism to slow considerably. He began
taking Armour thyroid and gradually increased the dose to
correct his metabolism while we were treating the
underlying mineral imbalances.
He also began a daily walking program.
Over the next 8 months, JC lost 60 pounds! He was
energized and excited on the office visit that confirmed his
relatively effortless weight loss. Gradually, we tapered off
the thyroid medication and the nutritional supplements to
maintenance doses.
JC has remained at his ideal body weight for a year now on a
sensible diet that only restricts calcium intake and ensures
he gets his ionic seasalt-derived minerals every day. Better
yet, his blood sugars and insulin levels are normal! JC’s
almost inevitable diabetes was averted.
What a relief for both of us!
METABOLIC FAILURE
The thyroid hormone and adrenal hormone resistance
that lead to a slowed metabolic rate is a direct result of the
Calcium Cascade from the intracellular calcium excess. It’s
the inevitable result of sodium pump failure, which we
discuss in detail in Chapter 4. Among other things, this
sodium pump gets essential amino acids and glucose into
all the cells of our bodies—except fat cells, which function in
an entirely different way.
Fat cells are actually stimulated to grow by increased
insulin levels. Fat cells don’t require the sodium pump in
order to be able to absorb glucose. Fat cells continue to
absorb glucose without sodium, even if your body is sodium
depleted. This means these fat cells have a unique ability to
absorb glucose without the need for the sodium pump. They
are naturally stimulated to absorb increasing amounts of
glucose by the increasing insulin levels, which causes fat
cells to grow larger and multiply.
When increased insulin levels are present, as in the case
of insulin resistance (Type 2 diabetes), weight gain is a huge
problem. Fat cells in our bodies are a natural buffer
mechanism for absorbing excess glucose.
Insulin resistance leads to higher than normal release of
insulin. Too much insulin causes blood sugars to drop after
meals leaving you feeling tired and sluggish. The brain soon
lacks glucose, its main “food,” thereby stimulating your
brain’s appetite center to try to raise more glucose for your
“starving” cells and you eat again to feel better quickly.
These low blood sugars frequently lead to the misdiagnosis
of hypoglycemia which is nothing more than a treatable
early form of insulin resistance which, if untreated, will
always go on to develop into Type 2 diabetes.
 Unfortunately, fat cells can easily make more fat cells
and take up greater amounts of our body’s network of blood
vessels, putting an increased workload on the heart and
contributing to hypertension. Fat cells continue to convert
excess sugars into fat. Worse yet, since increased insulin
levels prompt them to absorb more glucose, they continue
to grow, thereby contributing to a vicious cycle of more
insulin resistance and more weight gain.
Drugs and weight loss are not the answer. Treating the
underlying mineral imbalance and the insulin resistance
clearly can reverse this disease process and return the
metabolism to normal. I now have more than 80 Type 2
diabetics in complete remission and thousands of pounds of
permanent weight loss in my patients due to the correct
treatment of the underlying malfunctioning metabolism.
Hypothyroidism (Type I and Type 2)
The thyroid, a tiny butterfly-shaped gland that straddles
your windpipe and weighs less than an ounce, sends signals
to every one of the trillions of cells in your body, billions of
times every single day. It governs every cellular and bodily
function. Without your thyroid, you’d wind down like a
child’s toy. Eventually, you would die.
Many experts believe that thyroid disease is the most
under-diagnosed illness in America. A paper published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association nearly 60 years
ago asserted that low thyroid function or hypothyroidism is
the most common disease of those who enter a doctor’s
office—and it’s the diagnosis doctors most often miss.
I estimate conservatively that 90% of our population has
some form of hypothyroidism. Although clinical symptoms
are present, they go unrecognized or ignored by doctors,
despite patients’ complaints. In fact, many people with
hypothyroidism have been labeled as hypochondriacs by
one or more doctors. Many doctors tell their patients, based
on “normal” blood tests alone that their thyroid function is
normal and give them a useless “prescription” to diet and
exercise.
In my practice, I have found thyroid hormone resistance
is beyond epidemic level and it is directly related to excess
dietary calcium.
Because hypothyroidism is so common, we’re going to
spend a fair amount of time with the subject and the easy
ways you can address it.
From the Calcium Cascade (Chapter 2), you know there is a
connection between excess calcium, mineral deficiency and
hypothyroidism. Before we go too far into this subject, I’d
like to define two types of hypothyroidism: Type 1, which is
the failure of the thyroid glands to produce sufficient
quantities of thyroid hormones to keep our body running
properly (diagnosed by blood tests), and Type 2, which is
thyroid hormone resistance, or the failure of your body to
respond properly to the thyroid hormones it has. Type 2
hypothyroidism is diagnosed by clinical symptoms, low
basal body temperature and abnormal calcium/potassium
ratio on HTMA results. These distinctions are very much akin
to Types 1 and 2 diabetes; Type 1 being the failure of the
pancreas to produce sufficient insulin to metabolize blood
glucose (deficiency of insulin), and Type 2 being the body’s
inability to use the insulin that is being produced in
sufficient or even excess quantities (insulin resistance).
Is hypothyroidism your problem?
Here’s a laundry list of the most common symptoms of both
types of hypothyroidism. Keep in mind that this is not
definitive since other conditions can cause the same
symptoms. But if you have more than two of these, it’s
worth investigating the possibility you have low thyroid
hormone function:
• Inappropriate weight gain
• Difficulty losing weight
• Fatigue, lethargy, mid-afternoon energy loss, sleepiness
• Depression
• Constipation
• Restlessness
• Mood swings
• Difficulty concentrating, memory impairment
• Cold hands and feet, cold intolerance
• Coarse, dry hair
• Hair falling out, brittle nails,
• Skin coarse, dry, scaly and thick, decreased perspiration,
acne
• Hoarse or gravelly voice, slowed speech
• Puffiness and swelling around eyes and face, wrists or
ankles
• Aches and pains in joints, hands and feet, arthritis, gout
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Irregular menstrual cycles, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic
breasts, PMS
• Low sex drive
• Frequent infections, especially skin problems
• Snoring/sleep apnea
• Shortness of breath and tightness in chest
• Tinnitus (ringing in ears)
• Thinning or complete absence of outer third of eyebrows
(Hertoghe Sign)
• Headaches, hypertension, hyporeflexia (diminished
reflexes)
Hypothyroidism is incredibly simple to diagnose, but
those who suffer from this debilitating condition often spend
years looking for a doctor who will confirm the obvious
diagnosis. That’s because modern medicine has become
fixated on blood tests with falsely expanded normal values
instead of good patient care and reliable patient histories
and ancillary data. Unfortunately, these blood tests often
complicate matters and deny treatment to many people
because of hard-headedness, ignorance and the practicing
of a seriously flawed belief system by our physicians.
 Here’s how to diagnose hypothyroidism with nearly 100%
certainty. You can do it yourself. If you’re a woman and still
menstruating, do this in the first ten days of your cycle, Day
1 being the day your period starts.
Basal Body Temperature
Get yourself a good oral thermometer (digital is easiest, I
recommend the Timex brand which takes only 6 seconds).
Put it by your bed when you retire for the night. First thing in
the morning, before you get out of bed or move around
much, take your temperature. If your average temperature
is 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit or less for three consecutive
days, it is almost certain your thyroid function is low and
your metabolism is slowed. You need an HTMA with a
reliable calcium/potassium ratio to make an accurate
diagnosis.
Getting a diagnosis
Over the past 30 years, the American Endocrinological
Association and independent laboratories have continued to
expand the “normal” ranges of TSH (thyroid stimulating
hormone, a commonly used marker to determine if a person
has low thyroid function) precisely because so much of our
population is affected with impaired thyroid function.
Laboratories are required to continually readjust their
normal values like a bell curve in school. Only a certain
percentage is allowed to be reported as abnormal. As the
population becomes increasingly abnormal in terms of
thyroid hormone production or resistance, the reported
number of abnormals has to stay the same, causing a
severe under reporting of this increasingly common disease.
Type 1 hypothyroidism is defined by an abnormal lab
test, a high TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level, with
normal ranges from .5 to 5.0 by today’s standards. Yet 30%
of patients with a TSH over 2.0 have been proven to have
thyroid antibodies (autoimmune thyroid disease), indicating
they have impaired thyroid function. Doctors typically
interpret levels below .5 as hyperthyroidism or overactive
thyroid and levels above 5.0 as hypothyroid or underactive
thyroid. Yet, in my practice, I have found that treating
patients with TSH levels over 2.0 with thyroid hormones and
other supplements almost always gives them relief from
their symptoms. I’ve learned over my years of practice that
if a treatment works, if there is good scientific evidence for
the effectiveness of the treatment, and if it is reliable and
reproducible, it deserves consideration.
Type 2 hypothyroidism or thyroid hormone resistance is
caused by an intracellular calcium/potassium imbalance in
all the cells of the body, caused by far too much calcium
and far too little potassium inside these cells, neutralizing
the effects of the thyroid hormones that are produced and
making them ineffective in governing our bodies’ metabolic
functions.
For people with Type 2 hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone
blood tests may be normal, so doctors won’t recognize this
syndrome unless they do a hair tissue mineral analysis
(HTMA) from a reliable lab reporting intracellular
calcium/potassium ratios, plus a careful symptom review
and reliable oral basal body temperatures taken three days
a month, before ovulation in menstruating women.
In reviewing my records for the past year alone, I found a
99% correlation between a HTMA result showing an
elevated ratio of calcium to potassium (above 4.2) and low
basal body temperature. This confirms to me that the
intracellular calcium/potassium imbalance causes Type 2
hypothyroidism. The degree of resistance can be calculated
by dividing the measured ratio by the normal ratio (e.g. a
42.0 calcium to potassium ratio would be 10 times below
normal in thyroid function).
Virtually every one of my patients who has a low basal
body temperature with an elevated calcium/potassium ratio
is put on thyroid hormones. Without exception, they get
better. Their energy improves, their skin conditions resolve,
their basal body temperatures improve, they warm up and
among other things they lose weight. What’s more, by
showing them their hair tissue mineral analysis and by
giving the patients specific dietary and supplement
recommendations, we begin to reverse the underlying
disease process and eventually eliminate the need for the
thyroid medication. I convince them to give up their calcium
supplements and dairy products and take ionic mineral
supplements to restore their mineral levels and balance.
What could be simpler?
This may not be a gold standard randomized, double
blind, placebo-controlled study like the drug companies put
out at the cost of millions of dollars, but no one will ever pay
for a study like that because it would eliminate the need for
the prescription drugs that have become the foundation of
our society. I have treated over 1,000 patients over the past
eight years, however, and have had amazing success in
treating the underlying medical problems related to
hypothyroidism, including weight gain, acne, cold
intolerance, dry skin, constipation, carpal tunnel, tinnitus
(ringing in the ears) and many more medical conditions.
Most importantly, this treatment plan works in every
compliant patient. It is reliable, scientifically valid, and
reproducible. I know without a doubt, it is absolutely true. I
have proven it time and again in my practice.
If you are hypothyroid, as diagnosed by low basal body
temperature, you’ll need thyroid hormone replacement and
ionic mineral supplements. Plus you’ll need to make some
dietary changes that will almost certainly include
eliminating dairy products, high-calcium cruciferous
vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower and
increases of potassium-rich foods like asparagus, peas,
beans, beets, celery, oranges, dates, plums, raisins,
cantaloupe and, in some cases, bananas.
We’ll warn you: Your return to health won’t be
instantaneous. It may take a year or more to begin to get
your mineral levels back into balance and rein in the
calcium excess, but you’ll feel better and better every day
along the way.
In my experience of over eight years with reliable HTMA
testing, this test has had a greater impact on my patients’
health in the short and long term than any other lab test
known to medical science. This test has the potential to
bring science to nutrition and rational thought to health care
practitioners who choose to help their patients get better
health.
The mainstream medical community and the holistic
medical community have been debating the existence of
Type 2 hypothyroidism for more than 30 years, since the
development of accurate thyroid hormone blood tests in the
early 1970’s. Conventional docs insist that you cannot be
diagnosed with hypothyroidism unless blood tests confirm it,
regardless of your symptoms. The alternative practitioners
generally recognized the clinical symptoms, measured the
lowered metabolic rate with basal body temperatures and
treated the symptoms, without knowing the cause or why
they were treating the symptoms, except to attempt to
correct them with medication. Unfortunately, these
alternative practitioners have been criticized
indiscriminately and unjustly.
I’ll warn you: If you attempt to talk to your doctor about
the possibility you might have Type 2 hypothyroidism,
you’re likely to get a blank stare. Most doctors have no clue
of the existence of this syndrome. If you get this response,
give this book to your doctor or, at the very least, copy
Chapter 9 (Doctor-to-Doctor) or download it from our
website, www.calciumlie.com and pass it on.
Mainstream medicine’s bulldog-like determination to
diagnose hypothyroidism based on only one criterion has
led to The Thyroid Lie, which has left millions to suffer
needlessly.
Also, 30% of patients with a TSH (thyroid stimulating
hormone) level above 2.0 also have one or another form of
autoimmune thyroid disease, sometimes referred to as
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It is not normal to have antibodies
against your thyroid gland or its hormone. TSH levels
continue to rise because thyroid hormone production is
impaired from various nutritional deficiencies of minerals,
whole food vitamin C complex, amino acids, and
monosaccharides for protein receptors (discussed in
Chapter 8) leading to the development of anti-thyroid
antibodies. Hashimoto’s or autoimmune thyroid disease can
also be treated and reversed with appropriate
supplementation, in my experience.
Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance, whether it manifests as Type 2
diabetes or as some sort of “pre-diabetes” often called
metabolic syndrome, means blood sugar metabolism is
impaired. Insulin resistance affects 1 in 4 Americans or
about 68 million people. In the coming decades, this
horrifying statistic will play havoc with our health as a
nation, not only in the physical sense, but in lost
productivity and skyrocketing medical costs that are already
in the stratosphere.
Insulin resistance has few, if any symptoms. Most people
have no idea they have it. However, people with chronic
hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) already have insulin
resistance. They are merely overcompensating for the blood
sugar drops by eating more sugar, setting up a cycle of
sugar highs and lows and interim hyperinsulin releases.
Insulin resistance is a nutritional deficiency disease, not a
hereditary illness as we have been brainwashed to believe.
It is our eating habits and, therefore, mineral deficiencies
and imbalances that run in families. I refer to this as familial
nutrition. It is the pathway to nutritional disease.
If you typically get very tired, cranky or ravenously
hungry if a mealtime passes without food, you may have
insulin resistance.
Here are the most common symptoms of Type 2 diabetes:
 • Extreme thirst
• Excessive urination
• Hunger
• Unintentional weight loss
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Slow wound healing
• Blurred vision
• Tingling or numbness in hands or feet
• Recurrent infections
How do you know if you have insulin resistance?
In Type 2 (insulin resistant) diabetes, large amounts of
“free” insulin circulate through the body, since the cells are
unable to use it to balance blood sugars. Since insulin
belongs in your cells, excessive amounts of insulin
circulating through your bloodstream in proportion to blood
sugar levels taken at the same time are the best indicators
for diagnosing insulin resistance.
Ask your doctor to test your blood insulin level, along with
your glucose level, to determine your G/I (glucose to insulin)
ratio. These two tests must be done simultaneously to be
meaningful. A low ratio, especially below 7 is very abnormal
in my experience and suggests significant insulin resistance.
When most doctors test for diabetes, they check blood
glucose levels, not insulin levels. The beauty of knowing
your insulin level is that it can help you diagnose insulin
resistance long before it actually becomes Type 2 diabetes.
You’ve no doubt heard that diabetes is not curable. You’ve
heard of the multitude of expensive drugs used to treat it.
You’ve also probably heard that the risk of heart disease
that actually kills 2 out of 3 diabetics, not to speak of the
risk of kidney failure, blindness and peripheral neuropathy
that leads to impaired wound healing and necessitates more
amputations than accidents cause.
Insulin resistance is part of the Calcium Cascade. When
excess calcium and mineral shortfalls combine with amino
acid deficiencies, they lead to the failure of the sodium
pump, the body’s only means of getting essential amino
acids and glucose into all of your cells, except fat cells.
These cells (again, except fat cells) become starved for
glucose and trigger cravings for more and more sugary
foods, setting up another vicious cycle of craving for more
sugar, more resistance to the insulin needed to normalize
glucose levels and absorption of the excess glucose into
wildly reproducing and growing fat cells. It’s a downhill slide.
What mainstream medicine refuses to recognize is that the
insulin receptors that live on the outer lining of those cells
can be regenerated through proper nutrition. At the risk of
sounding like a broken record, you know what that means:
Increase your intake of sodium through easily absorbable
natural sea salt, rock salts, and ionic mineral supplements,
and chromium polynicotinate with every meal (sold as
ChromeMate™ under many brand names) to resupply the
body with the correct form of the essential amino acids and
chromium needed to redevelop insulin receptors.
Early on, Type 2 diabetes is treatable and reversible. I’ll
defend that statement to the death. I have personally
treated more than 80 patients with clinically diagnosed Type
2 diabetes of less than two years duration. In every single
case, the diabetes was reversed. That’s 100%. That’s
something that rarely happens in the medical world. That’s
why I’m so sure I am on the right track in terms of the cause
and treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
I find that any patient can do this, not by particularly
rigorous diet and exercise regimens (although these don’t
hurt), but by starting the correct mineral replacement and
supplementation program and sticking with it. What is
amazing is that, over time, the blood glucose levels remain
normal and steady, even if the patient misses taking food
supplements now and then. Weight returns to normal,
energy and healing improve, cancer and heart disease risk
are severely reduced and insulin levels decline to normal,
over time.
Adrenal insufficiency/suppression
Your adrenal glands, two walnut-sized glands that sit on
top of your kidneys, produce hormones that help control
heart rate and blood pressure, fight infection, respond to
stress, regulate the way your body uses food and many
other vital functions. More importantly, the adrenals
produce natural steroids that regulate mineral levels in your
blood, especially magnesium, sodium and potassium.
No doubt you can see where this is going.
If your body has a calcium excess, the adrenal glands are
reducing their function or being suppressed in order for the
body to retain the necessary magnesium, to attempt to
balance the high calcium levels. This is a normal body
response gone awry. When the adrenal hormones called
mineralocorticoids are suppressed, sodium and potassium
are continually lost in the urine and your body becomes
deficient in these critical minerals.
Symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, suppression, exhaustion
and impending failure include:
• Headache
• Profound weakness
• Fatigue
• Dry skin
• Slow, sluggish movement
• Loss of appetite
• Unintentional weight loss
• Joint pain
• Abdominal pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Low blood pressure (orthostatic, drops with standing up
more than normal)
• Dehydration
• Unusual and excessive sweating on face and/or palms
• Skin rash or lesions
• High fever
• Shaking chills
• Confusion or coma
• Darkening of the skin
• Rapid heart rate
• Rapid breathing
• Flank pain
• Decreased resistance to infection
• Constipation
• Increased allergies
Since most people today believe The Sodium Lie, that
they should reduce salt intake to avoid high blood pressure,
they become progressively sodium depleted. They begin to
suck sodium out of their cells to make up for the deficiency.
The loss of sodium from our cells eventually leads to failure
of the sodium pump and inability to get amino acids and
glucose into our cells (except fat cells), inability to produce
stomach acid correctly and poor protein digestion, as we
discussed at length in Chapter 4.
Increasing adrenal hormone suppression due to excess
calcium leads to:
• Further slowing of the metabolism;
• Inability to cope with stress;
• Adrenal exhaustion from release of increasing amounts of
adrenal hormones to try to compensate;
• Lack of sufficient energy production;
• Various mineral and vitamin deficiencies;
• Decreased or diminished immune responses;
• Increased cancer risk;
• Increased infections, especially viral illness, and more.
Adrenal malfunction can have long-reaching emotional
consequence, including anxiety, withdrawal and indecision
and physical ones as well, including increasing numbers of
infections, viral illnesses and increased cancer risk.
How do you know if you have adrenal malfunction?
Adrenal insufficiency or suppression is much more common
than conventional medicine acknowledges, and it often goes
hand-in-hand with the other metabolic malfunction, insulin
resistance and thyroid hormone resistance.
Tissue mineral analysis for calcium/potassium and
sodium/magnesium ratios and thyroid function tests along
with basal body temperatures are useful in establishing a
diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal hormone levels
may also be measured with saliva and urine testing.
In HTMA testing, the minerals most often linked with
adrenal hormone function are the sodium and the
magnesium. The correct ratio of sodium to magnesium has
been established to be 4.0. Therefore, if a patient has a ratio
of 1.0, the patient would be expected to be four times below
normal in adrenal hormone response.
CAT scans or MRIs may actually show calcium deposits in
the adrenal glands. That’s an interesting confirmation of the
problems of excess calcium.
I treat adrenal insufficiency or suppression with increased
amounts of sodium (as sea salt) and HTMA-guided
nutritional supplements. This helps re-awaken the sodium
pump and helps the body to resume the digestion of
proteins carrying the essential amino acids that can help
restore the adrenal hormone levels and the mineral balance.
Of course, I also use ionic trace minerals and I frequently
add supplements like DHEA, taurine, tyrosine, iodine,
copper, vitamin C complex (not ascorbic acid—see Chapter
7), methyldonors like MSM and, in some cases, low dose
bioidentical cortisol.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
In the midst of unparalleled food wealth and
unprecedented obesity, we as a nation are literally starving
for the minerals we need in the proper balance so our
bodies can function properly. Rebalancing minerals and
reducing insulin resistance, thyroid hormone resistance and
adrenal suppression effectively treats obesity and changes
metabolism over time.
Metabolic failure is characterized by Types 1 and 2
hypothyroidism, insulin resistance and adrenal suppression.
All of these are downstream results of the failure of the
sodium pump and intracellular calcium excess. When
mineral deficiencies cause sodium pump failure and prevent
the digestion of protein and the absorption of amino acids, a
host of metabolic imbalances take place. These can be
corrected with proper supplementation, specific nutritional
changes and rebalancing the body’s mineral levels.
Hypothyroidism can be definitively diagnosed by a simple
basal body temperature test. If your body temperatures on
awakening are consistently low, less than or equal to 97.8
degrees Fahrenheit, treatment with thyroid hormones will
almost always produce positive results. Thyroid hormone
resistance and Type 2 hypothyroidism is caused by an
abnormal intracellular calcium/potassium ratio. It is
measurable, reproducible and can accurately predict the
degree of thyroid hormone resistance and the need for
thyroid hormone supplements. Correcting the
calcium/potassium ratio also reverses the disease process
leading to this hormone resistance.
Type 2 diabetes can be treated and reversed in the early
stages with mineral and nutritional supplementation.
Adrenal insufficiency is often diagnosed by excess
calcium in the blood or calcium deposits in the adrenal
glands themselves. Determining the sodium/magnesium
ratio from the HTMA specifically reveals the degree of
adrenal hormone resistance or reduced ability of this
hormone to do its work. Salivary hormone levels or, even
better, urine hormone levels can also be reflective of
adrenal hormone deficiencies or suppression. Increasing
sodium intake to re-awaken the sodium pump and adding
other supplements and, in some cases, hormone
supplementation, in addition to dietary changes will almost
always reverse the condition over time.
CHAPTER 6

Women’s Issues: Pregnancy, Childbirth

and Menopause
I
’ M A GYNECOLOGIST AND OBSTETRICIAN or an ob-gyn in the lingo.
I admit, I’m a little mushy when it comes to pregnant ladies
and babies. I love them! In more than 30 years of nurturing
women through their pregnancies and catching their babies,
I have learned wonderful ways to help women stay healthy
throughout their pregnancies and to deliver healthy babies.
It breaks my heart to see the lack of nutritional guidance
our pregnant patients get from conventional doctors. I have
to believe that this lack of proper care comes from
ignorance on the part of their doctors (I suffered from it, too,
for many years), from lack of nutritional training, intellectual
laziness and a propensity to believe the status quo, the drug
company reps and, once again, from unfortunate amnesia
when it comes to their biochemistry courses during their
medical training.
The truth is that when women become pregnant, they
become hypervigilant about their health, since that health
directly affects their babies. I can say without doubt that
this is a medical message that has “gotten through” and
this one is to their benefit. While this attention to our health
should be in place throughout our lives and, for women, it
should be especially a concern when you are planning a
pregnancy, we’ll take what we can get.
If you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, pay
attention here. This chapter has information vital to your
health and your baby’s well-being.
Bear with us. We don’t mean to be insulting here, but this is
important.
Human beings are animals. In fact we are mammals and all
mammals have similar physiology.
While I don’t agree with much that Joel Wallach says in his
1994 book, Rare Earths Forbidden Cures and his later tape
and his 1999 book, Dead Doctors Don’t Lie, Wallach was
right on target when he noted that farmers have 73
known for more than 50 years that their animals need
unrefined salt in order to remain healthy and to breed
without birth defects. Wallach is a veterinarian, not a doctor
or a biochemist, which is why he is so wrong about so many
things he espouses, especially the use of colloidal minerals.
He is a slick salesman, in my opinion, performing the classic
bait and switch, telling you about a problem and then selling
you something else. Unfortunately, he espouses colloidal
minerals, not ionic or salt from minerals.
Yet there is a ring of truth in much of what Wallach says
when he proposes that humans can achieve their maximum
biological life span through proper nutrition and an
adequate supply of vitamins and minerals. To attain a long
life, he advises people to take charge of their own health
rather than rely on the advice of their physicians, who, in his
view, make poor role models in terms of their own health
and longevity.
As a boy who grew up on a cattle ranch and studied
animal husbandry in college, Wallach knows his stuff about
salt on the farm.
He writes, “What’s the first thing a farmer or a rancher puts
out for his livestock? A big salt block, right? Nobody gives
any restriction on a cow, she goes out and has all the salt
that she wants.”
Any farmer worth his salt (pardon the pun) knows that
unrefined salt is essential to the health of his animals and
his livelihood. Wallach talks in great depth about the
incidence of birth defects on farms where animals do not
have free access to salt. Lack of unrefined salt is
synonymous with birth defects, miscarriage, organ failure,
premature aging and death at a young age.
Salt is so essential to the health of mammals that wild
elephants will risk their lives to get to the salt licks in
remote caves.
Why do mammals need salt? If you’ve been paying
attention to the first five chapters, you already know the
answer: Natural unrefined sea salt or rock salt from ancient
sea beds, the type used on most farms, contains all of the
minerals we need for survival, in perfect proportions.
In the biological sense, our cells are no different from those
of farm animals and wild elephants in their basic
biochemistry. We need our salt and all of the minerals it
contains, not just iodine or sodium or chloride or calcium.
WHEN YOU’RE PREGNANT . . .
 Now think about what happens in a woman’s body when she
becomes pregnant. She has a little life growing inside her
that has needs. That baby will get those needs fulfilled as
much as possible, no matter what.
Let’s say that the average woman weighs 150 pounds.
We know that the human body is approximately 72% water
and 28% minerals. Extrapolating that to body weight, that
means she is carrying around 42 pounds of minerals—or she
should be, if she is completely healthy.
As the baby grows, he or she draws minerals from Mom’s
body. Over the course of a 265-day pregnancy, the baby
takes about four pounds of minerals from the mother or
about 10% of her total mineral supply.
Now, babies are not parasites. Biologically they are called
saprophytes. This means that, by perhaps some law of
survival of future generations, that babies get what they
want and need, at the expense of the mother’s health if
necessary, even in utero. So if the baby needs a mineral
that is in short supply in the mother’s body, the baby will
take it anyway, leaving Mom even shorter on some essential
mineral than before. On the other hand, if the mother has
an excess of a mineral, for example calcium or copper, that
excess will be passed on to the baby as an exact mineral
fingerprint of the mother. This is nature’s plan for babies to
be born with as near a perfect mineral balance as possible.
Every pregnant woman needs major mineral replacement
through a high-quality ionic mineral supplement in
quantities to bring her mineral levels up to normal before
pregnancy and to replace those that are inevitably lost
through pregnancy, childbirth and breast feeding.
For every pregnancy, a woman pays a price. Pregnancies
that are too close together take an even bigger toll. One of
the earliest signs of mineral depletion is dental cavities and
broken teeth. I always ask my patients about their teeth and
they usually seem a little surprised at the question. A recent
rash of cavities is a sure-fire sign that the woman is
minerally depleted.
Think back to Chapters 2 and 3. Bones are made of at
least 12 different minerals. Bones and teeth have generally
the same basic mineral composition, so signs of a
breakdown in the teeth are also a sign of mineral deficiency.
Listen up, dentists, you can help resolve this problem too!
When we start looking at the impact of a number of
illnesses that commonly effect pregnancy, including
hypertension, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and
excess weight gain, it becomes clear that these are related
to nutritional deficiencies and imbalances that are totally
preventable and treatable with supplements and minerals.
Conventional medicine seems to agree that pregnant
women need supplements, so a prescription “vitamin”
supplement is provided that is little more than calcium, iron
and folic acid, a B vitamin (folate) known to help prevent
one type of birth defects. (More about birth defects later.)
Now, conventional medicine is telling pregnant women that
they need calcium to keep their bone density during
pregnancy when the baby is drawing on the mother’s
mineral supply. Duh! It’s the mineral supply, not the calcium
supply moms need. See, you’re already smarter than your
doctor! Moms need a complete mineral supplement that
they can absorb and use, not just calcium! Patients often tell
me their “vitamins” have minerals. Unfortunately, very few
supplements have the right minerals or the right kind. They
may even have the wrong minerals. If the mother doesn’t
know her exact needs from a reliable hair tissue mineral
analysis (HTMA), she may be making a big mistake. The
minerals in her “vitamin” may be the wrong ones for her
and her baby and they could actually even increase the
mineral imbalances and deficiencies.
The mineral drawdown during pregnancy can cause a
host of postpregnancy problems. What woman hasn’t
struggled with shedding excess poundage acquired during
the pregnancy? Many suffer from post-partum depression.
And down the road a few years, 70% of the women who had
gestational diabetes will develop Type 2 diabetes.
For the most part, conventional medicine only uses drugs
to deal with these problems during pregnancy and
afterward. You’ve read far enough in this book now to know
that Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 hypothyroidism, obesity,
migraine headaches, insomnia, anxiety and depression are
all related to mineral status and that correcting deficiencies
and imbalances will treat and prevent these diseases.
It’s worth a few paragraphs to discuss gestational
diabetes here, since it is such a serious and increasingly
common problem that leads to even more serious problems
years later.
Doctors fail to diagnose at least 20% of today’s cases of
gestational diabetes because they have failed to consider
the significance of the insulin resistance measurement in
accurately diagnosing the problem. Unfortunately, when
they do make the diagnosis correctly in the other 80%, they
treat gestational diabetes with caloric restriction, insulin and
sometimes drugs.
 You’ll remember in Chapter 5, we talked about a
glucose/insulin (G/I) ratio that gives us a definitive diagnosis
of Type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes as well.
Impaired blood glucose tolerance because of insulin
resistance is impaired glucose tolerance, whether you’re
pregnant or not.
The only good thing about gestational diabetes is that it
usually goes into remission after the baby is born, although
the risk of its return in later years is over 70%, because the
underlying problem has not been treated. This underlying
problem, insulin resistance, contributes to difficulty with
weight loss and often continued weight gain after
pregnancy. If the doctor would merely perform an insulin
level with every blood glucose test, elevated insulin levels,
low glucose/insulin level and insulin resistance can be
accurately diagnosed.
Instead of these simple blood tests, conventional doctors
merely rely on a blood glucose reading, which is often
inaccurate and then they leap to a grueling three-hour
glucose tolerance test, leaving out essential information, the
G/I ratio. It is important to remember that in the practice of
medicine, any abnormal test is more significant than a
normal one in most cases. If the blood glucose level is
above normal or the G/I ratio is below normal, this is
significant in every case and implies insulin resistance. Ask
your doctor to perform an insulin level and calculate the G/I
ratio every time a glucose level is taken. If this is not done,
you risk missing the diagnosis of insulin resistance before it
can hurt you or your loved one.
Medical science tells us several things about what happens
to a woman after multiple pregnancies:
 • If a woman has repeated pregnancies that are less than 2
years apart, her risk of miscarriage and her baby’s risk of
birth defects increases.
• With each pregnancy, the risk of miscarriage and birth
defects increases.
• As a woman ages, her risk of birth defects and
miscarriages increases.
• If she has a previous pregnancy affected by a birth defect,
her risk of having another is increased.
 • If a woman has had more than three miscarriages, her
rate of subsequent miscarriage goes up significantly.
All of the above problems of multiple pregnancies are
largely due to increased mineral depletion and imbalance.
Miscarriages are also related to mineral deficiencies. Also, it
has been shown that over 70% of all miscarriages are
related to chromosomal abnormality, which is nearly always
associated with birth defects, as well as mental retardation.
Almost all other serious birth defects which cause infant
death are sporadic, not chromosomal. More than 50% of
infant deaths in the United States are caused by one of
these two factors. Imagine the impact if
Teresa’s Story
I think of Teresa as the candle lady because she always
brought a small gift when she came to my office, for me or
my wife or my staff. Often she gave us little candles, a
thoughtful gesture we don’t often see.
Teresa had great difficulty getting pregnant. She had
suffered two early miscarriages and, at 38, she was afraid
her biological clock was running down. Her HTMA showed a
variety of mineral deficiencies and imbalances, and I
thought her infertility might be related to her mineral status,
so I started her on ionic minerals.
We all rejoiced when, four months later, we confirmed
Teresa was pregnant. Her pregnancy was routine until we
got to the 22nd week, about five and one half months, when
she began to gain weight rapidly. She had already
eliminated dairy products from her diet, so I was concerned
she might be showing signs of developing gestational
diabetes. I ordered a glucose/insulin screen that wouldn’t
normally have taken place until six weeks further into her
pregnancy.
The results came back as I had suspected: her
glucose/insulin ratio was very low. A glucose tolerance test
with insulin levels at every increment confirmed the
diagnosis: Teresa had gestational diabetes. Needless to say,
she was very worried since she had such difficulty
conceiving, and she had successfully carried her baby
through the most dangerous first trimester.
“What can I do, Dr. Thompson?” she pleaded with me as she
dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
I placed her on gradually increasing levels of ChromeMate™,
a patented nicotinic acid-bound form of chromium, with
every meal. She also started on 100% whole food vitamins
and large amounts of trace minerals. She was testing her
fasting blood sugars every morning and two hours after one
of her meals, until her glucose readings were within the
normal ranges.
It took about three weeks for Teresa to get her
ChromeMate™ intake to the place where her sugars were
normal. From there, it was smooth sailing. Her weight gain
was within the expected amounts and she went on to
deliver an 11-pound baby boy with completely normal blood
sugars after birth.Teresa’s sugars also remained normal
after the stress of the delivery.
As an interesting (and sad) aside, several of my fellow
doctors and some of the nurses noticed that Teresa’s and
her baby’s blood sugars were perfectly normal after
delivery, but none of them asked me how this could be in a
mother diagnosed with gestational diabetes or asked what I
had done to address the problem. I volunteered the
information, explaining the reason for the wonderful
outcome for Teresa and her baby, but they just shrugged
and dismissed it as an “unexplained” improvement.
The patient went on to lose her pregnancy weight and then
some. Baby and Mom are beautifully healthy today and
share their story often, but their success usually falls on
deaf ears. Maybe the health concerns of pregnant women
blind them to possibilities of better health, and they
invariably tell Teresa they’ll just follow their doctors’
recommendations. It’s their loss and that of their precious
babies.
we merely treated the human animal as well as our farm
animals and provided the missing and deficient minerals,
not just calcium and assorted other imbalanced chelated
minerals as are found in the typical prenatal “vitamins”!
What is the common denominator in all these
circumstances? The common denominator in these sad
scenarios is that the mother’s mineral storehouse has been
consistently depleted by her babies and she has not taken
the time or the necessary minerals to regain or replace what
she has lost. These mineral deficiencies and imbalances get
worse with age and are rapidly depleted in pregnancy for all
the reasons we have previously discussed: the lack of ionic
minerals in our diet.
Imagine a woman who has had five children who
potentially would have had her mineral storehouse depleted
by 50%! If she’s like most women, she would not have
started with optimal mineral levels and balance. It’s hard to
imagine how she could be walking around, much less caring
for five kids and doing all the things that modern moms do.
Life alone would make her tired, but when you consider the
mineral depletion the pregnancies have caused, it’s no
wonder she has problems with depression, weight, energy,
migraines, hormones and mood.
It’s also amazing how forgiving and adaptable the human
body is. It never ceases to amaze me when I see someone
who, on paper, looks like she should be at death’s door, and
she is actually coping rather well.
These conditions are reversible. Time and time again,
I’ve seen how quickly a woman can regain her mineral
stores, her energy, her optimal weight and recover from
blood sugar imbalances experienced during pregnancy with
a simple regimen of the right minerals, supplements and
eating habits guided by her HTMA.
CALCIUM PROBLEMS
 There are two common complications of pregnancy that we
haven’t mentioned yet, which bear some discussion.
The first is pregnancy-induced hypertension or high blood
pressure. In Chapter 5, we explained how the Calcium
Cascade can lead to sodium pump failure and the process
by which that can cause high blood pressure, vascular
dysfunction and a shortfall of nitric oxide production that
dilates blood vessels. As with many complications of
pregnancy, it’s best to prevent them rather than to treat
them, so getting your minerals and amino acids in balance
before a pregnancy is your best bet. However, experts
estimate that half of the pregnancies in the U.S. aren’t
exactly planned. So it’s best to be at optimal mineral and
nutritional levels all the time.
Another relatively unfamiliar complication is calcification
of the placenta. This is caused by excess intracellular
calcium. The placenta is a fascinating organ, programmed
to be born, serve its purpose of protecting and nourishing
the fetus and die in about 9.5 months. Because of its fast
forward lifespan, the placenta is a good reflection of general
body health. If the placenta starts to harden (just like a
hardening artery), the pregnancy is in trouble. If we see a
fully mature placenta two, three or even four weeks before
term or more, very often the baby isn’t getting the nutrients
it needs, growth starts to slow and sometimes we even have
to deliver the baby early.
A blood pressure drop is standard at about 20 weeks of
pregnancy. If that blood pressure drop doesn’t occur or if the
blood pressure is above normal early in pregnancy, I
immediately put the mother on ionic minerals and shark
liver oil (high in healthy fats and alkyl glycerols). In every
case, for over 12 years now, blood pressure problems have
been stopped and the pregnancy continues normally.
 Avoiding calcium excess is the best way to prevent both
pregnancy induced hypertension and calcification of the
placenta. I think every woman who becomes pregnant
should have an HTMA (if she hasn’t already) and she, like
nearly everyone else in the country, needs ionic mineral
supplements. In my experience, this treatment pretty much
eliminates every hypertension complication in pregnancy.
Since I learned about whole food supplements, trace
minerals and shark liver oil in 1996, I have not had to
deliver a baby early because of hypertension or
preeclampsia. Shark liver oil high in alkyl glycerols is my
recommended supplement. Other fish oils do not work, or
not as well.
THINKING IT THROUGH
 Let’s think about this for a moment.
We now know that most American adults have only about
10–20% of the intracellular sodium reserves we need, due to
calcium excess inside their cells.
That includes women.
So when a woman becomes pregnant, she has only 10% to
20% of the sodium she needs to drive her sodium pump and
bring minerals and essential amino acids into her cells.
She then passes on this depleted mineral status to her
baby, as she gets more critically nutritionally deficient with
each pregnancy.
Perhaps one of the first things that happens is that the baby
gets gas and indigestion in the first month of life. Already,
the poor little tyke is experiencing protein digestive failure.
Maybe the pediatrician even prescribes proton pump
inhibitors. You can see where this is going. The Calcium
Cascade (Chapter 2) is already taking place in a tiny baby!
What lies ahead for this little one?
We know that kids have poor eating habits today. My heart
aches when I see what people feed their kids these days:
Comfort foods, fast foods, juice by the gallon, even soft
drinks. Wow! No wonder these kids are sick all the time.
Over time, these little ones grow, but not very well. We hear
of more and more life-impacting sports injuries in Little
Leaguers and increasing allergy problems that indicate
severe immune system compromise. I know here in
Anchorage, Alaska, the number of children carrying epi-pens
to school because of life-threatening allergies has increased
by 500% in the last ten years.
By the time a child is in elementary school, she’s probably
overweight or he has at least one chronic health problem.
The failure of protein digestion and the sodium pump can
occur at an astonishingly young age. We know this because
we are seeing more and more cases of metabolic failure, like
Type 2 diabetes, in young children and teens. Type 2
diabetes was once called Adult Onset Diabetes, but that
name has become inaccurate, since so many children and
teenagers are being diagnosed these days. Obesity is the
common factor among almost every single child with Type 2
diabetes and, even before they become obese, almost all of
these children have Type 2 hypothyroidism.
You don’t have to re-read the earlier sections of this book to
understand how failure to digest protein, sodium pump
failure and metabolic dysfunction lead to these problems.
This is a national catastrophe of untold proportions. Where
once a 50-or 60-year old might be diagnosed with Type 2
diabetes and expect that the terrible diseases that
accompany diabetes—like heart disease, kidney failure,
vision problems that lead to blindness, circulatory problems
that cause poor wound healing and necessitate amputations
in 10 or 15 or 20 years, we face a much more grim reality
today.
Now think of a 15-year old diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes
and with high cholesterol at 21. Fifteen years later, he is
only 36 and already suffering from hypertension, morbid
obesity and high cholesterol. Think of a 15-year old girl with
the same problem and as soon as she has a baby, her
mineral status is even further compromised. As teenagers,
both of these hypothetical kids suffer from Type 2
hypothyroidism and, by the age of 40, they are in need of
heart bypass or gastric bypass surgery. Their life
expectancies are dramatically shortened and the quality of
what life they have left is severely compromised. This is one
of the reasons why experts say that, for the first time in
modern history, our children’s life expectancies are shorter
than our own.
Frightening, isn’t it?
I actually find it exasperating, because all of this could quite
simply be prevented and treated by increasing and
balancing minerals, adding whole food nutritional
supplements and making HTMA directed dietary changes.
BIRTH DEFECTS ARE PREVENTABLE
What would you say if I told you that I have a formula
that will eliminate more than 50%, if not all, birth defects?
It’s true and it’s based on the same basic biochemistry that
any pre-med student must understand to proceed to
medical school.
Half of the children born with major birth defects in the
U.S. will die within the first six months of life. Statistically,
those children with severe birth defects probably have little
chance for survival, as sad as it may seem.
Some major birth defects are associated with carried
genetic traits. Many other defects are caused by
spontaneous chromosome abnormalities, like Down
Syndrome. These two types of birth defect-related problems
are the most likely to be prevented through aggressive
mineral supplementation and balancing.
This is where animal husbandry on the farm has made
the greatest strides. A 70% reduction in miscarriage and a
98% reduction in birth defects with mineral supplementation
in animals is easy to translate to the human experience. If
we eliminate mineral deficiencies and imbalances before
conception, 98% of these birth defects would be prevented.
This would mean we could reduce infant deaths by more
than 50% in as little as one year.
The other half of the children born with major birth
defects have chromosome abnormalities and their
associated birth defects, and somehow, these pregnancies
escape miscarriage and the children go on to be born. It
remains unclear as to whether mineral replacement could
completely reduce or eliminate these birth tragedies. Again,
however, based on animal husbandry data, a reduction of
up to 70% could be expected.
There is no intervention in health care history that could
have a greater impact on life and death. Neonatal mortality
has an impact that goes on for generations. The pain and
suffering lasts a lifetime. This is not an expensive fix. We
must give our children the healthiest possible start in life.
This simple fix would obviously also have a major impact on
healthcare expenditures in the US.
If we are smart enough to give our farm animals sea salt
to prevent birth defects, why aren’t we smart enough to do
it for ourselves?
Several years ago, it was recognized that folic acid
deficiency was a major factor in neural tube defects, one
type of birth defect. The neural tube is a structure present in
embryos that eventually develops into the central nervous
system. Defects in the neural tube, developed in early
pregnancy, can result in a variety of deformities in spine
and brain development in children. What followed was a
folic acid frenzy. It became a necessity in prenatal vitamins
and the government mandated the addition of folic acid to
common foods (primarily flours and cereals).
That is all well and good. The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention says that since 1996, when the Food and
Drug Administration mandated the folic acid fortification
program, the number of neural tube defects has declined by
about 25%.
That’s excellent, but it’s only a tiny part of the picture. It’s
only one type of birth defect. Only about 2,500 babies are
born in the U.S. each year with neural tube defects. About
half of those are linked to folic acid deficiency in mothers.
That is about 1% of the babies born with birth defects every
year. The March of Dimes estimates there are 120,000
babies born with major birth defects in the U.S. each year.
The cause of 70% of those is “unknown” to medical science,
but I think we can make a pretty good guess.
I have no problem with the folic acid fortification program,
but I think it doesn’t go far enough. I firmly believe, and it
has been substantiated in my practice, that we could
eliminate 98% of birth defects in the United States with a
simple trace mineral supplementation program for every
women.
It would be even more effective if the supplementation
began before the woman became pregnant, maybe even in
the teenage years, since the majority of birth defects occur
in the first month of pregnancy, often before a woman is
even aware she is pregnant. Obviously, there are other
factors to consider, since minerals are a nutritional
necessity for strong bones and good health. Ongoing
supplementation simply makes common sense.
MENOPAUSE
What we have covered in this chapter and the previous
chapter applies very well to menopause. It is estimated that
as many as 40% of perimenopausal (pre-menopausal)
women have low thyroid function that adds to their
symptoms when hormones begin to fluctuate as full
menopause approaches. I believe this statistic is
conservative.
If you think back to the symptoms of Types 1 and 2
hypothyroidism, the fatigue, irritability, insomnia, weight
gain, mood and energy swings, and more, these sound
remarkably like the symptoms of menopause. That’s
because the underlying factors of impaired hormone
production and impaired hormone function are the same:
excess intracellular calcium (remember the Calcium
Cascade), incomplete protein digestion, sodium pump
failure, and ultimately, clinical symptoms.
In addition, the major female hormones estrogen and
progesterone lose their effectiveness when there is a
zinc/copper imbalance, which frequently occurs with calcium
excess and mineral imbalances or deficiencies. In fact,
hormones need minerals in order to do their work, so when
minerals are missing or unbalanced, hormones will be out of
whack. Add that to the hormonal fluctuations that begin as a
woman nears the end of her childbearing years and her
hormones start to spike and bottom out in unpredictable
ways. You get the picture.
To make matters worse, many menopausal women begin
to take more and more calcium supplements because of the
widely espoused fear of osteoporosis. We know that by
taking these supplements, they are causing their mineral
status to become more unbalanced and this further
aggravates the Calcium Cascade.
Finally, there are political and pharmaceutical forces
afoot that are trying to take away a woman’s right to use
the only safe hormone replacement therapy, bioidentical
hormones. These are the exact same hormones that replace
the hormones already naturally occurring in women’s bodies
with hormones identical to those present before
menopause. These are available only by prescription and
only from specialized compounding pharmacies, because
they are not patentable. They are basically generic. I’m not
much of an activist, but this is an outrageous, most blatant
effort by drug companies to squelch competition and, if all
of us don’t fight back, we’ll all lose. You can contact your
elected officials through the FANS (Freedom of Access to
Natural Solutions) website at: www.projectfans.org/law-
legislation.cfm.
Never, ever take synthetic or “equine-based” hormones.
These are hormones made from the urine of pregnant
mares, and they contain estrogens never ever before found
in women’s bodies. Most notably, these are Premarin
(PREgnant MARes’ urINe) and Prempro, which contains
Premarin and synthetic “progesterone” or progestin (it’s
actually a testosterone derivative). These drugs have been
proven by large studies not only to increase the risk of
breast cancer and blood clotting, but they dramatically
increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and Alzheimer’s
disease. Don’t do it! Remember, there can be no
comparison of these chemicals to bioidentical hormones
that naturally exist, safely in women’s bodies.
Now here’s the zinger: Guess who filed the complaint
that may lead to the end of the era of compounding
pharmacies and bioidentical hormone replacement? Wyeth
Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Premarin and
Prempro. That’s the same company whose sales suddenly
plummeted into the toilet after research proved their
products were downright dangerous to women. So far they
have lost nearly $1 billion or more in sales.
These were products that had been in use for 50 years,
and virtually every doctor had been brainwashed into
believing these horse-estrogens would protect women from
osteoporosis, heart disease and strokes. The Premarin Lie
has probably killed hundreds of thousands of women over
the years. And now Wyeth wants to kill the competition, the
place where many women have turned for safe hormone
replacement. It’s an outrage!
Interestingly, Wyeth is doing this in the name of “safety
and protecting the public.” And they are getting away with
it, so far. This company should be ashamed and so should
the politicians and FDA bureaucrats who have listened to
their lobbying efforts. In my opinion, Wyeth should be
banned from selling products related to women’s health
forever. They care only about money. They have misled
enough doctors and patients and caused enough death and
heartache already! Worse yet, they have yet to be held
accountable.
POINTS TO REMEMBER Pregnant women lose
approximately 10% of their total mineral supply to their
babies.
Too many pregnancies too close together can severely
compromise the mother’s health and increase the risk of
birth defects from excessive mineral loss.
Babies are programmed to take the minerals they need,
even if the mother can’t afford to lose them, because of
their own deficiencies and imbalances.
Babies are born with an exact fingerprint of their mother’s
mineral status. Imbalanced minerals on the part of the
mother are passed on to the baby, resulting in mineral
imbalances and deficiencies from birth.
Infants and young children suffer the effects of calcium
excess and mineral imbalances and deficiencies. These
problems increase throughout a lifetime, due to the lack of
ionic minerals in the diet, continued mineral loss and
calcium excess in the diet.
Birth defects can be reduced by over 50%, if not
completely eliminated, miscarriage reduced by over 70%
and infant death reduced by over 50% with adequate ionic
minerals and supplements. These figures are based on more
than 50 years of animal data.
The problems many women experience with menopause
are largely attributable to calcium excess, impaired protein
digestion, and sodium pump failure. Mineral balancing,
nutritional corrections and bioidentical hormones will keep
hypothyroidism, weight gain, depression, irritability and
insomnia at bay and greatly improve the quality of life of
women.
There is overwhelming biological evidence that
bioidentical hormone replacement is not only natural and
safe, but it improves the quality of life and reduces breast
cancer incidence.
CHAPTER 7

The Vitamin Lie

W
E ALL KNOW WE NEED VITAMINS in order to survive. Without
minerals, none of these vitamins, sometimes called co-
enzymes, can be used by the human body, since minerals
are part of the transport system that brings the vitamins
into the cells where they are needed.
Minerals are also needed to donate the electrons for all
biochemical reactions that vitamins help to take place.
Vitamins simply do not work without minerals. Furthermore,
vitamins cannot be formed without minerals and trace
minerals.
So, not only do we all need minerals in the proper
balance, we also need vitamins. Imbalances in both
vitamins and minerals can cause disease, pure and simple.
Getting too much of a single vitamin or mineral can be just
as dangerous as getting too little. Sometimes it’s hard to
know exactly what we need.
Here’s the crux of The Vitamin Lie: Almost all vitamins
sold on the market today are not vitamins. They are drugs.
Yes, drugs! How could this be?
Let’s start with a couple of simple definitions:
What is a vitamin? A vitamin is a naturally occurring
essential nutrient that either the body manufactures or the
body derives from food or other sources (such as sunlight in
the case of vitamin D). Vitamins are complex molecules,
combinations of enzymes, amino acids and various trace
minerals.
What is a drug? It’s a chemical compound that does not
normally occur in the human body. Drugs are substances
synthesized by laboratories. Drugs may have some basis in
naturally occurring nutrients, but they have been
synthetically or chemically altered, broken into pieces and
are not biochemically identical to the naturally occurring
complex vitamin molecules.
Vitamin C is a great example. Vitamin C is absolutely
essential to human
87
survival. We’ll go into this in much greater detail in the
coming pages, but vitamin C is not ascorbic acid, despite
what most of us believe. Yes, ascorbic acid is one of many
nutrients in the vitamin C molecule. Vitamin C molecules
also contain P, K and J factors, tyrosinase enzyme, 14 known
bioflavonoids, various ascorbigens, five copper ions, iron,
manganese, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, magnesium, and
yes, ascorbic acid.
That’s just what we know about it. Nutrient vitamins like
vitamin C are extremely complex molecules and there are
probably dozens, if not hundreds, of other nutrients present
in that molecule that we have not yet discovered.
The body is completely dependent on the whole vitamin
C molecule. We cannot make it ourselves, so we must get it
from our food in order for us to survive. There is no evidence
that pieces of that molecule have any of the same effects as
the whole C molecules. Ascorbic acid on its own may have
some effects, like a drug. It has been shown to have some
antibiotic-like effects, which would be good in some cases,
but it also blocks the absorption of the whole C molecule, as
well as interfering with its benefits and causing its excretion
in the urine, depleting our body’s stores of this important
molecule.
But here’s the economic reality: Almost all “vitamin C” on
the market today is ascorbic acid or variations thereof. It
says so right on the label in the parentheses, “Vitamin C (as
ascorbic acid).” Why? Ascorbic acid is incredibly cheap to
synthesize and/or isolate in a lab, with very little or no
natural plant material.
 Vitamins cannot be patented, so drug and supplement
companies have no interest in producing quality,
unpatentable, whole food products. They know we have
bought into The Vitamin Lie and that most of us believe we
must have “vitamin” C to prevent colds and a host of other
maladies, so they know we’ll buy it. What we don’t know is
that, at best, the ascorbic acid you bought at the drug store
is doing nothing for you, and it is actually depleting your
vitamin C levels. In some unique circumstances, it might
even kill you.
“Vitamin” C is only one of the multitudes of so-called
“vitamins” and their derivatives and combination formulas
on the market today that qualify as drugs. They are not
natural, no matter what the label says. These are only tiny
pieces of the whole food that is the source of the vitamin
you need. Vitamins are extremely complex molecules, most
of them with more components than science has yet been
able to detect. For example, vitamin A is actually a family of
three groups of biochemical compounds (retinoids, retinols,
and retinoic acids) and there are over 600 known forms of
retinoids alone, with at least 19 of these found in the human
body. Only one of these is the betacarotene molecule, part
of which is present in most synthetic forms of “vitamin A.”
These nutrient components work synergistically. In simple
terms, this means that the whole is greater than the sum of
the parts: Each little component of a vitamin molecule
enhances the function of the others.
It’s another “aha!” moment when we realize how whole
foods are designed to contain all the nutrients our bodies
need.
Think of it this way: If you take ascorbic acid or
betacarotene or another single component of a “vitamin,”
it’s like taking calcium only when your body needs all 78
minerals for survival. Calcium is a necessary mineral for
everyone, but to take calcium without all the other minerals
or in excess is inviting disaster, as you’ve learned in the
earlier chapters of this book.
Along the same lines, to take part of a vitamin without
taking the whole vitamin invites similar disaster. Any
vitamin you take should be carefully collected from whole
foods that have been vine ripened in minerally balanced soil
and picked at their nutritional peak. In addition, they should
be alcohol extracted and processed without heat, which is a
notorious destroyer of these delicate life-sustaining
nutrients.
How do you know if your vitamins meet these requirements?
That’s the $64,000 question considering the artificial need
that drug and supplement companies have created for
products that aren’t what they promise. Buyer beware! Your
health is at stake.
Here are my suggestions:
• If the label doesn’t tell you that your product is made
from vine ripened, organically produced, alcohol extracted
whole foods, without heat, it probably is not of the quality
you are seeking. It is a drug.
• Here’s a great clue: If the label says vitamin C (as
ascorbic acid) or vitamin A (as beta carotene), don’t waste
your money. Those parentheses mean a substitution has
been made; only one piece of the whole food is in your
multi. If it costs $10 at your drug store, it definitely is not
whole food or truly a vitamin and it may be harmful.
Conversely, if it says 100% whole food and costs $30 to $70
at your local health food store, or enlightened doctor’s
office, it still may not be what you need, but you’re on the
right track. Whole food vitamins cost a bit more, but they
are definitely worth it because you are worth it. To take
anything else is to waste your money and possibly to
jeopardize your health.
• Check out the resources section of this book and look at
our website— www.calciumlie.com—for recommendations
on quality products and for updates and expanded
information.
• If you’re in doubt and you have a product in mind, contact
the company and ask about contents, growing conditions
and processing.
Take your vitamins and minerals separately. Avoid
multivitamins that have minerals added. They are usually
undissolvable, poorly unabsorbed and they may be harmful
to you, based on your tissue mineral levels. Your mineral
needs should be determined by your hair tissue mineral
analysis (HTMA). Your mineral intake should be carefully
balanced so the vitamins can get the minerals where they
are needed and both can do their jobs.
Don’t pay attention to the government’s RDAs or
recommended daily allowances or RDIs, recommended daily
intakes for “vitamins.” I don’t think anyone really knows the
basis for these government-recommended amounts of
“nutrients,” but at least one author has theorized that they
came from the nutrient profile of the needs of a World War I
soldier, later revised and translated to women’s needs
without any scientific basis! How absurd! Considering the
relative nutrient status of some 90-plus years ago, and the
comparatively primitive nature of the laboratory equipment
of the time, it makes absolutely no sense to make such a
determination to apply to today’s humans.
Today, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National
Academy of Sciences meets every five years and sets or
readjusts the RDAs. RDAs should not be confused with the
needs or requirements for a specific individual. The key is to
consume 100% whole food vitamins and balanced mineral
supplements.
THE VALUE OF FOODS
Of course, you should eat foods that provide the greatest
amounts of the nutrients you need, hopefully based on a
reliable tissue mineral analysis. Vine ripened, fresh, fresh
frozen, naturally dried and raw foods grown in minerally rich
soils generally contain the perfect proportions and perfect
balance of most of the nutrients we all need.
 There are problems with this, as you might imagine. Few
of us eat exactly as we should. Most of us eat what we like
and do so repetitively. We eat what we grew up liking and
what our parents fed us. We buy what we like every time we
go to the store, so we grow up and develop “hereditary”
nutritional medical problems. These are not inherited family
medical problems, but a family-based nutritional shortfall
translated into nutritional diseases.
It is difficult to avoid junk foods, fast foods and processed
foods that are downright harmful to our health. Even if
you’re getting the greatest foods possible, grown locally
without pesticides or other harmful chemicals, vine ripened
and shipped a short distance to your table while the
nutrients are still at peak value, you’re still probably missing
essential minerals and vitamins.
Having a well balanced diet with adequate minerals is a
nice thought, but it’s not very realistic. We already know
that our minerally-depleted soil makes it nearly impossible
to get all of our essential nutrients through food, and the
majority of our food is not vine ripened. That makes
supplements a necessary part of our nutritional system in
order to make up the shortfalls. This doesn’t mean you can
compensate for a cheeseburger and chocolate cake diet by
taking a few vitamins and minerals. Good nutrition is at the
heart of good health.
So, OK, you’ve got your minerals balanced and now it’s
time to go on to the best vitamins. Here are the ABC’s, and
beyond, of what’s good—and what’s not.
ABC’S OF VITAMINS
There are five different classes of vitamin compounds or
vitamin complexes. It’s important that you remember that
vitamins are complex and they are never, ever made up of
one single nutrient.
Here are the A, B, C, D, E and F’s of vitamins:
 Vitamin A
 Here’s what vitamin A does:
• Maintains health of immune system;
• Regulates inflammation, tissue repair and wound healing;
• Formation of skin cells and mucous membranes
throughout the respiratory, digestive, urinary and genital
tracts;
• Formation of bones and soft tissues, including muscles,
cartilage and ligaments;
• Assists in adrenal and thyroid gland function;
• Essential for good eyesight, night vision and corneal
health;
• Formation of tooth enamel;
• Assists in maintaining a normal pregnancy and embryonic
development;
• Assists in reproduction, fertility, lactation, sperm and egg
formation;
• Supports nervous system;
• Protects liver.
Dietary sources of the fat soluble vitamin A include meat
and cheese, red, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables,
and dark green, leafy vegetables. Fish oils, egg yolk and
butter are excellent natural fatty sources of this fat soluble
vitamin.
Vitamin A is actually a complex family of nutrients that
includes retinols, retinoic acid, and retinoids. There are
actually over 600 known different kinds of retinoids,
generally referred to as pro-vitamins, 19 different ones have
been found in humans, among them a group called beta
carotenoids.
Vitamin A is not betacarotene, although that is what
you’ll see on most vitamin bottles: “vitamin A (as beta
carotene).” Beta carotene is a drug and has, in fact, been
shown to cause birth defects. The medical establishment
has largely removed betacarotene from prenatal vitamins
because of its direct link to birth defects. This should have
been a clue that something was wrong. Unfortunately,
physicians have bought into The Vitamin Lie for so long,
they didn’t recognize the warning sign or the difference
either. This shocked me when I first learned it since I too had
been giving my patients prenatal vitamins with beta
carotene in them without questioning the label.
This is another occasion for my “whole food” speech. It
may be that the vitamin companies don’t realize the fraud
they are perpetrating on the American public. I’d like to
think that is true, but I fear they are very aware that the
products most of them are selling are ineffective or even
harmful. They are drugs.
Too much beta carotene can cause birth defects, hair
loss, cirrhosis of the liver, water retention, skin diseases and
more unpleasant problems. Yet, you could drink carrot juice
all day long, to the point where your skin turns orange, and
while you might look a little strange, you wouldn’t have any
physical problems or cause your developing child to get
birth defects. That’s because the carrot juice is a whole
food. The beta carotene found in carrots is a pro-vitamin or
precursor of active vitamin A and is stored up in the body
(liver, fat, and skin) and only converted to vitamin A as it is
needed. Vitamin A has no known toxicity. It is 100% whole
food and not a drug. This is one of the strongest examples
we have in the difference of these chemically isolated
compounds (drugs) and organic 100% whole food vitamins.
Vitamin B
Most of us know that vitamin B isn’t just one vitamin, but
most of us think there are just 12 B vitamins. You’d probably
be surprised to know there are at least 56 vitamins in the B
family. These water-soluble vitamins are known as B1
(thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacinamide), B5 (pantothenic
acid), B6 (pyridoxine). B7 (biotin), B9 (folic acid) and B12
(cobalamin). These vitamins are frequently referred to as B-
complex, although most of the drugs sold as “vitamins”
contain only these most common B “vitamins” and not the
whole B vitamin complex molecules. While all of the
components of the B-complexes can be separated, they
always occur together in nature and no single B vitamin is
ever found alone in a food.
Here’s what the B-vitamins do:
 • They have a vital function in cellular metabolism as co-
enzymes to speed up biochemical processes;
 • They help form DNA, the genetic material from which all
cells are created and reproduce;
 • They are necessary for the health and normal function of
the nervous system;
 • They maintain healthy skin, heart, liver, eyes, hair, spleen,
thymus, pancreas, kidneys, red blood cell production and
muscles;
 • They stimulate digestion, secretion of digestive enzymes
and insulin;
 • They are essential for immune system function, resistance
to infection and injury;
 • They are a key part of endocrine gland system function
(thyroid, adrenals, pituitary, ovaries and testes);
• Promote cell growth and division, including healthy red
blood cells;
• They facilitate carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism
and cellular energy production;
• As a complex, they work synergistically to reduce and
prevent stress, depression and cardiovascular disease.
B vitamins are found in clams, salmon, halibut, trout,
salmon, beef, dairy products, brown rice, eggs, raw seeds
and nuts, peas, avocados, nutritional yeast, bananas,
oranges, grapes, pears, barley, oats, yams, corn, rye, dried
beans, peppers of all types, dark green leafy vegetables,
potatoes and tomatoes.
Strict vegetarians need B12 supplements, since the
essential factor, methyltetrahydrocyanocobalamin, is found
only in animal products.
Any kind of refining, cooking or processing damages the
molecular structures of the B complex vitamins, which is
again why raw foods are the best sources of vitamins.
I prefer to use raw seeds and nuts (use raw nuts only if you
are at your ideal body weight because of their high caloric
values), which contain good amounts of the B-complex
vitamins undamaged by a heating process. Sprouts are also
a good source of B-complex vitamins.
Would you pay for a tune up for your car and change only
one spark plug? If you have several kids, would you feed
only one? Would you pay for cable TV if there were only one
channel? Taking only one B-vitamin is neither logical nor
efficient. So avoid doing it unless there is a good reason.
Get your B-vitamins from whole foods. There is such a close
relationship between the various B-vitamins that a shortfall
or excess of any one of this complex will affect the functions
of all the other B-vitamins. Large doses of one of the
synthetic “vitamins” can also create an imbalance and
cause a relative deficiency of other members of the B-
complex.
The need for whole foods is underscored by the story of
World War II American troops held in Japanese prisoner-of-
war camps who were being fed a diet of white rice only.
They were getting beri-beri, a thiamine deficiency disease
that results in nerve and heart damage, lack of coordination,
numbness, stumbling gait, degeneration of nerve tissue,
loss of reflexes, memory loss, loss of muscle tone, nausea,
emotional instability, confusion, depression and leg edema.
The situation became so dire that the Red Cross was given
permission to bring in vitamin B1 (thiamine) to help them.
But the Red Cross vitamins didn’t work, precisely because
they contained thiamine alone. What did work? Tiny
handfuls of rice bran given to prisoners by their more
compassionate guards. The POWs found that four men could
share one tiny rice bran kernel and get enough of the B-
complex vitamins they needed to regain their health, at
least enough to reverse the severe thiamine deficiency. I
think this example can be translated to many Westerners
today who subsist on a diet of processed and nutritionally
void foods with few nutrients, including B-complex. That
gives us another explanation for the widespread depression,
anxiety, fatigue, Type 2 hypothyroidism, intestinal disorders
and adrenal insufficiency we see on our society.
The above is a brief discussion of only one form of B-
complex vitamin. There are more than 50 B vitamins. It’s
important to understand that no natural vitamin exists as a
single chemical entity. Separated from their whole food
complex molecules, the single-structure chemical “vitamin”
has had numerous co-enzyme factors removed that are
essential for the actions of these vitamins in humans.
Vitamin C
We’ve already gone into vitamin C as an example, but
this important nutrient complex bears further examination.
Ascorbic acid, a component of vitamin C, serves as the
molecule’s antioxidant envelope, where it protects the other
nutrients in the molecule from deterioration. Ascorbic acid is
only as much representative of vitamin C as is the wrapper
is part of your candy bar. It’s holding in and protecting the
“good stuff” inside.
Here’s what the components of the vitamin Ccomplex
molecule do:
 • Rutin (also called the “P” factor) strengthens blood vessels
and other collagen containing tissues, like cartilage;
 • The “K” factor supports proper blood clotting, limits
bruising and contributes to bone strength;
 • The “J” factor supports the oxygen-carrying capacity of the
blood to the benefit of all organs and tissues;
• Tyrosinase activates organic copper, allowing copper to
function in stimulating metabolism, energy production,
hemoglobin formation, thyroid hormone production and
cholesterol metabolism;
 • That copper also helps iron to be incorporated into
hemoglobin for healthy red blood cells with the help of
tyrosinase;
• The entire complex is key to all metabolic processes;
• It is involved in the formation of collagen, which forms
connective tissues, gives them strength and is responsible
for many cellular functions, including skin health and wound
healing;
• Immune system function is dependent on vitamin
Ccomplex;
• Hormone actions are dependent on Ccomplex;
• Assists in amino acid metabolism and absorption;
• Regenerates the active form of vitamin E-complex.
Vitamin C is found primarily in vine-ripened citrus fruits,
berries, peppers, cantaloupe, broccoli, sweet potatoes,
cauliflower, pineapple and mangos. Vitamin C is easily
destroyed by heat, so it’s best to eat these foods raw. All
store-bought juices, whether fresh or frozen, have to be
pasteurized by law. They are heated to 162° F for at least 30
seconds. This heat literally explodes the C molecule,
completely destroying its nutritional value.
Vitamin C deficiency is probably one of the most
significant health problems we face in our society today,
largely because we’ve fallen prey to a subset of The Vitamin
Lie, The Ascorbic Acid Lie. Our belief that vitamin C is
ascorbic acid has led to an overall consciousness of some of
the function of the Ccomplex molecule, including its role in
immune function and healing. So, we pop a handful of
ascorbic acid tablets at the first signs of a cold and think
that will take care of the problem.
It was Linus Pauling, the brilliant Nobel Prize laureate,
who woke us up to the value of vitamin C, but Pauling used
whole vitamin C in his research, not ascorbic acid.
When you take ascorbic acid to ward off a cold, you are
actually getting an antibiotic or drug-like effect of the drug
ascorbic acid, not Vitamin C. You also deplete the whole
food molecule, the real vitamin Ccomplex molecule, from
your body, shunting it off along with all of its other
beneficial parts in to your urine, without leaving behind
anything good.
Conventional doctors pooh-pooh the idea that vitamin C
deficiency is widespread in today’s society. They think they
haven’t seen a case of scurvy in over 200 years since the
link between citrus fruits and the sailors’ vitamin deficiency
was established and the potato blight of the 1800’s
occurred.
So what are the symptoms of scurvy? Thin skin, frequent
bruising, bleeding from old wounds or even scars, purple
swollen gums, bleeding gums, pale skin, fatigue, thinning
hair, premature graying, poor wound healing and muscle
aches and pains, among others. Doctors see it every day;
they just don’t recognize it.
Have you ever seen an elderly person with thinning hair
and thin skin that bruises and breaks and bleeds easily?
Perhaps she’s losing her teeth or he’s getting frequent
nosebleeds. Of course, they’ll complain of fatigue and body
aches and pains. We’re all related to someone like that and
maybe we’ve even suffered some of those symptoms
ourselves. Patients often tell me, “I bruise easily.” All of
these problems are signs of vitamin C complex deficiency
and all of them are easily and quickly corrected with whole
food Ccomplex.
You don’t have to be elderly to experience Ccomplex
deficiency. Vitamin C is crucial to the production of soft
tissues, like cartilage and ligaments and tendons. We’re
seeing injuries to these tissues in many teenagers and
people in their 20s and 30s. Joint replacement has become
common in people in their 40s and 50s because of their
weak and deteriorating soft tissues due to vitamin C
deficiency. Back problems and herniated discs are the
product of the same deficiencies.
 In addition to your whole foods Ccomplex, you’ll need to
increase your intake of C-rich foods. I eat at least half an
orange every single day, even though I know it came from
Florida or California all the way to Alaska. Sorry, we just
can’t grow oranges in Alaska. The thick skin of oranges
helps preserve the vitamin content and most oranges are
tree-ripened before they are picked, since they won’t ripen
off the tree. I fortify my orange drink in the morning with
fresh frozen rose hips I pick every year in Alaska, and fresh
frozen raspberries also picked from my raspberry patch,
along with rice bran and fiber added. It’s so good!
I’ll tell you a little personal story: Four years ago, I fell
during a “home improvement” project. I completely burst or
exploded the bone of one vertebra T9, and had a
compression fracture of T12 and broke all the ribs in
between. Doctors told me the chances were a million-to-one
that I would ever walk again. I refused to accept that
diagnosis because I knew some things they didn’t. I had
great faith and had been taking whole food Ccomplex for
nearly four years by then. My disc tissue was so strong that
it did not rupture. Even thought the bones were broken and
literally exploded, the discs remained intact. My recovery
was painful and slow, but I am fully functional, pain free and
walking perfectly today. Walking is a blessing we so easily
take for granted. In fact, I passed my military physical
fitness tests, part of my Army Reserve officer’s status while
on active duty in Operation Enduring Freedom, less than two
years after the accident. I continue to thank my God, my
loving wife, many prayers and whole food Vitamin Ccomplex
for my recovery.
Vitamin D
This oil-soluble vitamin is also a complex with at least 10
compounds in the D family, so it is important to get all the
elements of vitamin D, not just one. Vitamin D-complex is
essential to proper mineral metabolism. If you remember
the composition of bones and the mineral storehouse
function of bones from chapters 2 and 3, it’s important to
add here that vitamin D helps in the movement of minerals
in and out of the bones as they are needed elsewhere in the
body.
What else vitamin D does:
 • Monitors excretion of calcium through the urine and
maintains proper blood calcium levels;
• Helps minerals harden bones;
• Helps maintain bone growth;
• Helps keep the nervous system healthy by regulating
calcium levels in blood;
• Plays a role in production and release of insulin to
balance blood sugars;
• Works with parathyroid hormones to keep calcium at
proper levels;
• Regulates cell growth and so may be protective against
certain types of cancer, and may help prevent heart
disease;
• Enhances immune function;
• Has a role in mood and depression;
• Contributes to muscle strength.
Vitamin D is a strange nutrient in that we get most of our
supplies from sunshine on bare skin. This isn’t very practical
in January in Alaska, where I live, or even if you live in New
York, Illinois or Minnesota. Heck, Kathleen says it’s a bad
idea in the mountains of North Carolina where she lives.
Fatty fish (think salmon and tuna) are the main food sources
of vitamin D, with cod liver oil as the huge winner on the
vitamin D scale with an impressive 1360 IU per tablespoon.
We know that the body’s ability to absorb vitamin D falls
off as we age, and that the deficiency can result in
osteoporosis. Studies estimate that 30 to 40% of elderly
people with hip fractures are D deficient. Excess synthetic
“vitamin” D, however, like the drug added to milk, can lead
to excess calcium with the cascade of effects we already
know about.
 There is a Vitamin D Lie, too, unfortunately, that comes
from the notion that synthetic vitamin D added to foods will
make up for a shortfall. Synthetic vitamin D is like all the
other so-called vitamins that are made from one element of
a complex molecule. There has been a great deal of
research on vitamin D recently and it is very promising, but
we still don’t know enough to take the risk of swallowing
handfuls of supplements. In particular, synthetic vitamin D
added to homogenized cow’s milk has been shown to cause
adverse effects on heart, muscle and artery cell walls,
probably because of the excess calcium. Worse yet, one
study showed that infant formulas fortified with synthetic
vitamin D had excessive amounts of this drug/imitation
vitamin.
The issue is how to get a dosage that will be sufficient
without overdosing. Before deciding to take a vitamin D
supplement, you need to know your calcium to magnesium
ratios from a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) and your
overall tissue calcium levels. If you have an imbalance in
your calcium/magnesium ratio, or a significant calcium
excess in your tissues, Vitamin D and cod liver oil may be
harmful to you, until you correct the imbalance. Taking this
vitamin without knowing your levels, or taking it in large
amounts, could greatly accelerate all the disease changes
discussed in this book due to excess calcium. Your needs are
also dependent upon your body fat levels because fatty
tissues store up vitamin D. You should not take vitamin D
unless you know you need it and you are paying careful
attention to your intracellular calcium levels based on your
HTMA.
This one is really a no-brainer. You can get what you need
from sunlight, free of charge. It doesn’t take a lot and you
don’t have to worry about skin cancer. Just go out in the sun
with your face, head and arms uncovered, for less than ten
minutes a couple of times a week and you’ll be covered
(pun intended). While our bodies can’t store vitamin D for a
very long period of time, this kind of exposure as often as
you can do it will get you through most winters in the lower
48. In Alaska, we’ve learned the value of fatty fish, halibut,
and salmon to help us get the vitamin D we need to get
through those long winters.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is the subject of yet another of these endless
lies. The Vitamin E Lie goes like this: We need the alpha
tocopherols in vitamin E as an antioxidant protection against
a variety of diseases of aging, including heart disease,
cancer and diabetes. The Vitamin E Lie is similar to the
Vitamin C Lie in the sense that, much as ascorbic acid is
only one part of the vast Ccomplex, alpha tocopherol is only
one of a large number of complex compounds that make up
vitamin E.
Vitamin E:
 • Is essential to reproductive health. Lab animals deprived
of vitamin E were infertile;
• Required for normal sexual development in both sexes;
• Is essential to the central nervous system, mental
alertness;
• Part of the endocrine gland system and has a role in
thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glandular function;
• Assists in controlling inflammation and repairing tissue
damage;
• Participates in the maintenance of smooth, skeletal and
heart muscles;
• Is involved in iron absorption and the production of red
blood cells;
• Contributes to skin and hair health;
• Contributes to kidney, liver and lung health;
• Has a role in blood sugar metabolism;
• Has powerful antioxidant and free radical taming
properties;
• And much more.
 Vitamin E is found in raw nuts, raw seeds, unrefined cold
pressed vegetable and nut oils, wheat germ, flax seed meal,
green leafy vegetables, broccoli, liver, alfalfa and corn.
So, back to the Vitamin E Lie: Like all vitamins, vitamin E
is a complex molecule with many components. The main
components are tocopherols and tocotrienols, but among
these two main categories, there are eight known forms of
tocopherols and four known forms of tocotrienols, four
essential fatty acids, selenium, lipositols and xanthenes.
This is the same story as with other vitamins: Making a
pronouncement that just one piece of such a complex
vitamin is the vitamin is plain and simple dishonesty and
can be dangerous to your health. This is also why many of
the research studies on “vitamin E” have shown no effect or
benefit, because researchers are using an inert drug, not
the real vitamin E-complex molecule.
For some inexplicable reason, the original study on the
“vitamin” E isolate was a rat fertility study using alpha
tocopherol succinate. This study became the gold standard
to determine how much of this substance was necessary to
reverse infertility in rats fed a rancid diet. The naturally
occurring vitamin E complex is a relatively stable molecule.
The alpha tocopherol has been shown to have the strongest
antioxidant property of all the tocopherols in the vitamin E
molecule. In order to market the alpha tocopherol as
“vitamin” E, the supplement companies must use a
stabilization process called “esterfication,” which gives the
product a long shelf life and prevents it from becoming
rancid or oxidized. This process makes the alpha tocopherol
ineffective as an antioxidant in humans since it has been
processed, so it won’t interact with oxygen. It is
biochemically inert or inactive in humans. It works in rats,
however, because they have different biological processes.
Therefore, alpha tocopherol has no antioxidant or vitamin E
effects in this form in humans.
 What’s more, in one study, vitamin E deficient laboratory
animals fed mixed tocopherols only died sooner than control
animals who received no vitamin at all.
Another study, this one on humans, showed that a low
concentration of vitamin E in the blood plasma was a
greater risk factor for death from heart disease than was
elevated cholesterol or high blood pressure. This should
have been a clue, that scientists were testing a drug, not a
vitamin. Yet, we need vitamin E to survive. What’s the
answer?
This one is simple, and cheap, too: Get your vitamin E
from raw nuts and seeds, from unrefined cold pressed
vegetable oils or 100% whole food vitamin E supplements.
Vitamin F—essential fatty acids
OK. There is no such thing as vitamin F, although it is a
name once attached to the need for the healthy fats we all
need. Anyway, it fits neatly into our alphabet soup of
vitamins and it makes them easier to remember. We all
need vitamin F (essential fatty acids) and, sadly, it is
another part of The Vitamin Lie. We all need unsaturated
fatty acids, sometimes called UFAs, or unsaturated fatty
acids.
Yet, sometime in the early 1980’s, we as a nation got into
a fat phobia. I’m not sure who started the idea that all fats
are bad and that all fats make you fat. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. However, we all started eating low-
fat everything. Not coincidentally, we then started gaining
weight. If you look at the graphs of the national obesity
epidemic, its beginnings can be traced to exactly this same
time period. We decided that it was OK to eat ice cream by
the gallon, as long as it was low fat. Nothing slowed our
national craving for French fries and our intake of lethal
trans fatty acids went through the roof. We got supersized,
literally. We now face dealing with a new “generation XL.”
We all need fat in our diets. Without it, we die. Every one
of the trillions of cell membranes in our bodies has two
layers of fat and only one layer of protein.
The key is we need the right fats, the UFAs that come
from unrefined coldpressed vegetable oils, raw nuts and
seeds rich in linoleic and linolenic acids and the Omega-3s
that come primarily from deep water fatty fish and flaxseed.
Here’s what UFAs do for you:
 • Protect our hearts by controlling cholesterol and
triglyceride (blood fat) levels and minimizing disease-
causing inflammation;
 • Combine with cholesterol and protein to form the
membranes that hold cells together;
• Help transport oxygen to all cells and tissues;
• Establish normal growth patterns in children;
• Improve mental and neurological health by easing
depression and anxiety and enhancing attention and
learning abilities;
• Keep brain cell communication healthy, reducing the
risk of Alzheimer’s disease;
• Slow the course of arthritis and ease chronic pain and
inflammation;
• Improve the course of pregnancy, promote healthy
outcomes for the mother and long term physical and mental
health for her child;
• Promote healthy physical and mental development for
our children;
• Enhance energy production;
• Produce hormones;
• Lubricate skin, our largest organ.
The earliest sign of fatty deficiency is often dry, red, itchy
skin and the onset of dermatitis and other skin diseases.
We get our vegetable-sourced UFAs from raw nuts and raw
seeds and oils made from them. Most UFAs are destroyed by
any heat over 160 degrees Fahrenheit, so roasted nuts and
seeds and heat-processed oils are nutritionally without
value and potentially toxic. Check your labels carefully,
because most oils are processed with heat and chemical
solvents. The label should say your oil is cold pressed,
unrefined or expeller processed, not cold processed, which
includes heat in the process as well as cooling.
We get Omega-3s primarily from fatty fish like salmon, tuna
and cod. Omega-3 is also present to a somewhat less usable
degree in flaxseed, some cold pressed vegetable oils and
green leafy, vegetables.
The Omega-3s in fish oil are the most common source of
these essential fats and two major elements are responsible
for the health benefits:
• DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) has many positive effects,
but perhaps the most impressive is its ability to help lower
triglycerides. High triglycerides are linked to heart disease
in most, but not all, research. Research also shows that DHA
is important for helping pregnant women carry their babies
to full term and gives their babies the maximum
nourishment through breast milk, for visual and neurological
development in infants, learning in young children,
normalizing brain function, emotional and psychological
well-being, preserving eyesight, insulin resistance (pre-
diabetes and diabetes) and easing digestive and
reproductive difficulties.
• EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) is credited with reducing
excessive blood clotting that can lead to heart disease. EPA
also plays a role in reducing stress, keeping physical energy
levels up, eye health and good brain function.
Alpha linoleic acid, a third element of the Omega-3s from
plant sources, is converted to DHA and EPA in the human
body, but the transition is inefficient, so it requires
approximately ten times the vegetable-sourced Omega-3s
to receive the amount of DHA and EPA found in salmon,
tuna or other coldwater fish, best eaten as unheated or raw
sushi to get the maximum nutritional value.
Most fish oil products on the market are genuinely made
from fish oil, so the composition of the product is not in
question; it is the source and the processing that can be
problematic. Mercury and heavy metal contamination are
serious concerns for anyone who eats fish caught almost
anywhere in the world. Wild-caught Alaska salmon is one of
the few exceptions to this rule. Farmed fish are not worth
your money because they are fed an unnatural diet that
limits their Omega-3 content and the farming methods
include toxic chemicals that contaminate the fish as well as
the ocean and even wild fish in the vicinity. There are
supplements that are processed in such a way that they are
safe and any heavy metal contamination is removed.
Among them is a shark liver oil product I like with amazing
healing properties, but there are probably others as well.
Molecularly distilled products also have a high degree of
purity.
FINALLY . . .
I wish I could say to you, “Take this multi or this
individual vitamin or that mineral formula.” I can’t. There
are some very good products on the market, and some are
even excellent. But there are very few I can unequivocally
recommend as the perfect product and none that can be
considered the save-all and end-all of all products. I
approach all supplements the same as I am trained to
recommend medications. I want the best for my patients,
the best for their needs and their budgets. But most
importantly, I want what helps my patients get better.
Whole food is a very important key, as is balance. Know
your balance and imbalance, know your needs and excesses
and eat as if your life and health depends on it. It does. Take
a look at the resource section of this book and check in with
us regularly at our website, www.calcium lie.com, as we add
new product recommendations and updates to material in
this book. We welcome reader recommendations through
the website so we can expand our list of recommended
products.
POINTS TO REMEMBER A vitamin is a naturally occurring
essential nutrient that the body either manufactures or
derives from fresh food or other whole food sources.
A drug is a chemical compound that does not normally
occur in the human body. Drugs are substances synthesized
or isolated by laboratories. Drugs may have some basis in
naturally occurring nutrients and may even be marketed as
“natural,” but they have been synthetically or chemically
altered. They have effects, some good and some bad.
Almost all “vitamin” supplements on the market today are
actually drugs.
All vitamins are complex molecules. Avoid any
“supplements” that are made of only one ingredient, i.e. so-
called vitamin C that is composed exclusively of “(ascorbic
acid).” These are drugs, not vitamins, and they can be
harmful or have drug-like effects.
The multiple nutrient components that compose a vitamin
molecule act synergistically, each enhancing the effects of
the others.
There are medical myths about what each of the most
common vitamins should be. Despite the depletion of our
soils, it is still possible to get most of our essential vitamins
from food. Your vitamins and supplements should all be
made from vine-or tree-ripened whole foods. End of story.
CHAPTER 8

The Road Back to Health

S
O NOW YOU ’RE ARMED WITH A LARGE VOLUME
of information and
perhaps more biochemistry than you’d like. We’ve made it
as painless as possible and only burdened you with what
you absolutely need to take action. When we’re facing lies,
information is our only weapon. You may have to read the
earlier chapters more than once in order to assimilate the
information we have presented here.
Now is the time for action.
 This is your action plan to find your way back to health.
It won’t happen instantly, although you’ll probably notice
some changes in a matter of days. Perhaps you’ll feel more
energy or some simple symptoms, like dry skin or restless
sleep, will smooth themselves out. There will be bumps in
the road, detours and days when you feel like all the effort
isn’t worth it. All we can say is, “Keep going.” I remember a
sign I once saw that said, “When you’re going through hell,
keep on going.” You will come out the other side and be
healthier and stronger for the experience. If there is a little
discomfort along the way, it’s a small price to pay for
avoiding the major health problems that our society has
come to associate with aging.
It’s possible to be vibrant and healthy when you’re 20, 30,
40, 50 or far beyond. It is possible to be 60 or 70, 80 or
even 90 and free from heart disease, diabetes, dementia,
cancer, cataracts and canes. It is never too late to start. I
have 60-, 70-and even 80-year old patients beginning this
program and loving it.
At the beginning, your road back to health will take some
extra focus, but it will become second nature within weeks.
Take it a day at a time and do what you can.
107
Little changes make big differences. You had to learn to
crawl before you could stand, stand before you could walk
and walk before you could run. You probably fell down a few
thousand times at first. To keep doing the same thing and
expecting different results is insanity. Improve one thing and
you will improve two, two and you will improve four. Getting
more healthy becomes a congruent lifestyle.
If you only follow the program and improve one meal a
day, you’ll be 33% successful. That’s highly significant in
scientific terms. If you do what I am asking for two meals a
day, that is 66% success. That’s off the charts in terms of
scientist’s gauge of results and you will get those kinds of
changes if you stay with the program. If you adopt this plan
as your lifestyle and adhere to it 99% of the time, your
results will be beyond your imagination. I’m living proof of
this. I’ll tell you more about that in Chapter 9.
FOOD IS STILL THE FOUNDATION
The great news: A very significant part of your road back
to health will come from eating the right foods. You can get
a large percentage of your necessary nutrients—vitamins
and minerals—from food. Choose the right foods, according
to your tissue mineral analysis food recommendations and
your return to health will be far less expensive in economic
terms than if you rely entirely on supplements.
This may seem like a contradiction of our earlier
statements, but despite the depletion of our soils, food is
still the best source of unrefined carbohydrates, protein,
vitamins (when they are made from vine-ripened foods),
minerals and most of the nutrients we need. Humans cannot
live on supplements alone, no matter how high the quality!
Based on our current food growing and marketing
practices, I believe supplements are essential and we
especially need minerals.
As much as possible, eat vine-ripened organic foods. You’ll
still have to add supplements, but this will give you the best
possible sources of vitamins and minerals from your food.
Here are a few great ways to get your vitamins through
whole food:
• Eat an orange a day for whole food vitamin C, or blend
it with fiber, rice bran and fresh frozen raspberries (my
favorite) or fresh frozen rose hips (these are very plentiful in
Alaska).
• Enjoy 1/4 to 1/2 cup of raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds
for essential fats, vitamin E and B vitamins. Mix your seeds
with organic raisins or cranraisins for vitamin C and
potassium.
• Eat as many vegetables as possible every day (not
including potatoes) and vary the types of fruits and
vegetables you eat. Minimize the amounts of fruit you eat
and maximize your vegetables.
• Use unrefined, unprocessed sea salt or rock salt
liberally. Remember, this type of salt contains all minerals in
perfect proportions. Table salt is essentially zero nutrition.
While this type of diet may not give you every single
nutrient you need, it will go a long way toward promoting
the best health you can achieve.
Go organic as much as your budget will allow. Buy locally
produced foods when they are available because their
nutrient content will be higher. Don’t let the lack of a budget
for organic foods or locally available produce be a stumbling
block for you. Do what you can. Anything you do will help
your body.
Start to think of food as the best possible nourishment for
your body. Anything you put in your body should be
dedicated to your return to health.
Fresh foods are almost always best, although there is some
argument in favor of frozen foods, which are picked at the
peak of their ripeness and quickly preserved by freezing.
Avoid canned foods except tomatoes and beans. The high
heat in the canning process destroys nearly all vitamins and
minerals in foods and the cans can be the sources of toxic
minerals like tin and aluminum. Tomatoes and beans are an
exception to this rule. Certain vitamins and fiber are actually
released during the cooking and canning processes for
these foods.
Avoid pasteurized foods as well, since the heating process of
pasteurization destroys enzymes, vitamins and nutrients.
Most foods are best eaten raw or cooked very lightly. Steam
or lightly sauté, bake or broil foods.
Avoid the microwave like the plague! Microwaves destroy
most of the nutrient value in foods and make them
worthless. Portuguese researchers found that broccoli
zapped in the microwave with a little water lost 97% of its
antioxidants, while lightly steamed broccoli only lost 11%.
Best, yet, eat the major proportion of your fruits,
vegetables, nuts and seeds raw.
I love the idea of pulverizing raw vegetables in a high speed
blender. This soup (never heated above 120 degrees
Fahrenheit, or better yet, not heated at all) offers our bodies
the most absorbable nutrients possible. Add a little organic
chicken broth, a clove or two of garlic, a dash of cayenne
and it’s a delicious quick meal in a glass.
I don’t recommend juicers. They take out the fiber, a very
important part of our diet. Always eat fruit 30 minutes
before or two hours after protein and never eat it with a
regular meal.
Shop often and buy small amounts so you’ll have the
freshest possible foods on hand. The longer a food remains
in the refrigerator, the more nutrients it loses.
If you have the space and the inclination, grow some of your
own food. Every little bit helps. You have complete control
over the garden and you can keep toxic chemicals out, even
if you have to sacrifice a small percentage to the birds and
the bees and other critters. Even a tomato plant on an
urban balcony or a jar of alfalfa sprouts on a New York
apartment window can serve as an inspiration to keep your
feet on the road to health. There are few greater pleasures
on this Earth than biting into a sun-warmed tomato you just
harvested from the garden you planted with your own
hands.
Take some time to savor and appreciate your food. There
was actually a study of prisoners fed a really terrible diet of
prison food. Those who gave thanks for their food, in
whatever spiritual tradition they preferred, actually gained
more nourishment from that food and had far fewer physical
illnesses than those who simply chowed down.
And speaking of chowing down, do take time with your
meals and chew your food thoroughly. Chewing and mixing
our food with the digestive enzymes in saliva while it is still
in your mouth is the first part of the digestive process. If you
are swallowing large chunks of barely chewed food, you’ll
gain little nourishment from it. Think of your mouth as that
high speed blender and pulverize your food into small
pieces so you can get the maximum nutritional value from
it.
Also, as a general rule, don’t drink with your meals, drink
before or two hours after. This extra fluid dilutes your
digestive enzymes and decreases your digestion of your
food.
GETTING STARTED
You’ll need a hair tissue mineral analysis. This is really
the only way you can determine your exact mineral status
and from that, learn what you need to do to improve your
health.
I’ve said before, the only laboratory that I recommend for
an accurate HTMA is Dr. David Watts’ Trace Elements Inc. in
Addison, Texas. This lab adheres to the highest possible
standards and I absolutely trust their results.
Dr. Watts is a brilliant scientist whose database of
800,000 HTMAs shows distinct patterns for various
deficiencies and toxic ratios of key minerals. This extensive
data pool gives scientific validation to the links between
mineral deficiencies and imbalances and manifestations of
disease, ranging from high blood pressure to osteoporosis to
thyroid dysfunction, and more.
You need to get an HTMA from Trace Elements Inc.
through a HTMA health care provider who uses this lab,
since Trace Elements, Inc. will only accept samples
submitted by physicians. The report will be much more
meaningful with help from a trained health care professional
to guide you to the correct ways to address imbalances.
Correct collection of the hair for the HTMA is a must.
Please carefully follow the collection directions.
We are gathering a list of practitioners who regularly send
samples to Trace Elements for HTMAs and this will be
included on our website, www.calciumlie.com. Be sure to
check back often, since the list will certainly expand and
other resources will change as we find more resources to
help you.
SIX STEPS ON THE ROAD BACK
 Here are six steps I consider most essential for good
nutrition. Do these and you’ll be well on the road to great
health and long life.
 1. Drink pure water
Water is the stuff of life. Most of us need more than we
drink. Everyone needs at least 64 ounces of water a day,
more if you are overweight, a heavy exerciser or live in a
very warm climate. As a general rule, we need to drink one
half of our body weight in ounces of water. For example, if
you weigh 150 pounds you would need to drink 75 ounces
of water daily, or two and one half quarts of pure water
every day. Remember 72% of your body’s weight is water
and you need to keep that balance in order to be healthy.
Water helps sweep toxins from your body.
Get the purest water you can. If you have municipal
drinking water, consider buying a good quality filter. These
can cost anywhere from $200 for a quality counter top filter
to $3,000 for a whole house filter. As a general rule, filters
that have a carbon block filter that is changeable put glue in
the water because the carbon is glued to hold it into the
filter. I recommend pressed carbon block without glue. I
think the best product is manufactured by Sun Aqua
Systems. See www.calciumlie.com for ordering information.
This topic is hugely complicated. Take your time and
identify your specific water needs carefully. Your life
depends on it.
Avoid bottled water since much of it is little more than tap
water put in a plastic bottle that will expose you to
xenoestrogens that leach from the plastics. Plastic bottles
are also environmentally unfriendly and extremely
overpriced. For the same reason, drink all of your water
from glass containers. If that is impossible when you are
traveling, buy a stainless steel water bottle and carry
filtered water from home or take a filter with you on your
trip.
Never drink distilled water, which has had virtually all
contaminants, nutrients and the very life of it removed. To
do so also increases your mineral requirements.
And think of the water you bathe in. Your skin is the body’s
largest organ and it absorbs toxins or nutrients. If you are
showering in chlorinated water, the warm water opens your
pores and your body literally drinks in the chlorine and other
contaminants and brings them into your body. Ditto for hot
tubs. If a whole house water filter isn’t in your budget, you
can buy an inexpensive shower filter that will cost you less
than $10 a month.
2. Take ionic sea salt derived minerals
 In nearly 1,000 patients I have tested in my practice, there
has been only one person who had a near perfect mineral
balance. (It wasn’t me!)
We all need minerals and virtually none of us get enough.
Ionic minerals are the only ones that are completely
available for our bodies to use because they are water
soluble and they naturally carry an electrical charge that
allows them to be carried through the cell membranes.
Besides the trillions of functions they perform in our
bodies, these minerals are the transport system for vitamins
and amino acids, so without them and without minerals in
balance, these nutrients can’t get into our cells and our
bodies simply won’t function as they should.
See the resource section for my recommendations on
ionic mineral supplements. Sadly, there aren’t very many I
can recommend in good conscience. I’m always looking for
more quality recommendations, so if you know of high
quality ionic seasalt-derived mineral products or 100%
whole food vitamins, please contact me via the website,
www.calciumlie.com.
 The best source of ionic minerals is in unrefined sea salt
and rock salt, if you do not already have a sodium excess on
your hair tissue mineral analysis. Sodium excess in an HTMA
is typically a stress pattern or a false elevation related to
water softeners. This is the case in fewer than 10% of all
tissue mineral analysis results in my experience. Add
harvested pure sea salt liberally to your foods and forget the
myth about salt causing high blood pressure. That’s
nonsense! High blood pressure is caused by excess calcium
and amino acid deficiencies, as we discussed at length in
Chapters 2, 3, and 4.
3. Whole food vitamins
 Almost all of us need supplements because we simply aren’t
getting our full complement of vitamins and minerals from
our food.
Many of us need additional supplements to help correct
imbalances and deficiencies and to treat specific disease
conditions.
Avoid vitamins made from anything but 100% whole foods
that have been vine ripened. All store-bought “vitamins” are
drugs and, unless you have a specific purpose for taking
them in drug form, they will not help you, and they can
potentially harm you. I use them in specific circumstances
to achieve balance according to the HTMA results and
specific recommendations from the Trace Elements lab.
As we have discussed throughout this book, essential whole
food vitamins are the only way to ensure you will get all of
the complex molecular elements of these nutrients. You
need all of the nutrient components together in their whole
food form to get the full benefits. Some vitamins have
dozens, and possibly even hundreds, of specific nutritional
components. We may not even know about some of them
yet, as more and more are being discovered every year. We
do know that many of these elements work synergistically,
meaning that they enhance one another’s effectiveness.
That is the best argument I can think of for 100% whole food
vitamins that contain all the components with which foods
were designed.
We have the same problem recommending whole food
vitamins since there are so few on the market. Check the
resource section of this book and check in frequently on our
website, www.calciumlie.com, since we’ll be adding new
information as I hear about new products that I can
recommend. I currently recommend Innate pure vitamins, as
these are the only ones I can confirm are 100% whole food.
The best natural sources of readily available vitamins
include raw seeds. Raw seeds have all known B complex
vitamins (remember there are more than 50 of them), E
complex, and essential fatty acids. Also eat dried, frozen or
vine-ripened fresh fruit for vitamin Ccomplex in its whole
food form. Almost all store-bought fruits and vegetables are
not vine ripened and, therefore, have little mineral content
and virtually no vitamins. The correct form of supplements
can reap huge benefits.
4. Essential fatty acids
The correct form of essential fat is vital to human health.
Every cell membrane in our body has two layers of fat and
only one layer of protein. When The Fat Lie made us
paranoid that fat would make us fat, we derailed our
nutrition and actually triggered weight gain. The historic
obesity charts released by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention substantiate that the beginning of the low
fat diet craze in the early 1980s corresponds exactly to the
upward trend in obesity in the United States.
Get your essential fats from the best possible sources.
There are two essential fatty acids that we need: Omega-3
in the form of alpha linoleic acid, or ALA, and Omega-6 in
the form of alpha-linolenic acid, or GLA. These two are
considered essential because humans can’t manufacture
them within our bodies.
Eat raw nuts and/or seeds daily. They are excellent
sources of essential fats—the good kind that you need every
day. In 2003, the FDA approved the following health claim
for seven kinds of nuts:
“Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating
1.5 oz per day of most raw nuts as part of a diet low in
saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart
disease.”
However, if those nuts are roasted, they lose almost all
their nutritional value and become toxic. Always opt for raw
nuts (and seeds, for that matter). In any case, limit your
intake to not more than 2 ounces daily. (We know it’s hard to
stop once you start popping those delicious raw cashews or
almonds.) However, if you are above your ideal body
weight, opt for raw seeds only, and skip the nuts.
• Raw pumpkin seeds are particularly good sources of
essential fats as well as zinc, iron, calcium and phosphorus,
with some magnesium and copper. There is a mix of
complex vitamin E and B vitamins, with niacin being the
richest in pumpkin seeds. Sunflower seeds are also very
high in potassium, low in sodium, with healthy levels of zinc,
iron, calcium, copper, manganese and phosphorus. They
also have substantial levels of the essential amino acid
methionine which helps to detoxify the body, activate
enzymes and improve cellular energy production.
• Raw sunflower seeds are rich in B complex vitamins
and one of the few naturally occurring food sources of
vitamin D. Always opt for raw seeds and limit your intake to
1/ cup daily. Those individuals with a high tissue copper
4
level should temporarily avoid these and opt for pumpkin
seeds instead.
• Use cold pressed oils made from nuts and seeds (extra
virgin olive oil and coldpressed sesame oil are particularly
good). Heat processing destroys the delicate structures of
the fat molecules, rendering them virtually void of nutrition.
After heating, the fats become rancid and toxic. We all know
what that would do to our cars; our bodies are the most
important cars we drive. Treat them well. Put the best
possible oils in them. The best oils are expeller pressed.
Avoid “cold processed” oils. This is a marketing gimmick and
deceptive. It means they were cooled somewhere along the
process. Good coldpressed oils will indicate on their
packaging that they have been processed without any heat
or chemicals.
• Get healthy fats from wild fresh caught cold water fatty
fish like salmon, halibut and tuna. Eat them at least once a
week, twice a week is better if you’re sure they come from a
mercury-free source. If you’re not sure, ask. There is no
equal to fresh Alaska wild salmon or halibut. Sushi is truly
the best way to receive these omega-3 fatty acids which
cooking essentially destroys. Raw fish needs to handled
very carefully to avoid bacterial contamination.
5. Eat high quality proteins
The protein we humans get in our diets primarily come
from meats, seafood, eggs, beans, chicken, game meat,
duck and turkey. These protein sources are the source of the
essential amino acids that are the building blocks of every
protein molecule, hormone, neurotransmitter, cell
membrane middle layer and immune molecules and
important to the biologic function of every cell in the human
body.
We must get these amino acids from proteins we eat
every day, since we cannot store them for later use.
A shortfall of just one of the 10 essential amino acids can
result in deterioration of the proteins inside the body. Your
body will actually “rob” amino acids from muscle tissue to
make up for a shortfall.
There are at least 10 essential amino acids that are
necessary for critical bodily functions and at least a dozen
or more additional amino acids that play hugely important
roles in human nutrition and metabolism.
Essential amino acids are phenylalanine, valine, arginine,
threonine, tryptophan, isoleucine, methionine, histidine,
leucine and lysine. The other most important amino acids
are cysteine, glycine, glutamine and tyrosine.
Our primary sources of amino acids are meats, seafood and
eggs, which contain all of the amino acids necessary for our
survival. Eggs, in fact, contain the protein source most
similar to human protein.
Incomplete proteins can be obtained from sprouted grains,
raw nuts and raw seeds. Vegetarians, particularly vegans
who do not eat any animal protein, must pay close attention
to combining protein sources so that the full complement of
amino acids is part of their diet every day. For example, a
homemade raw peanut butter sandwich on a sprouted grain
bread such as Ezekiel bread, black beans and brown rice or
a bean burrito made with a sprouted grain tortilla would
make a complete protein meal with all the essential amino
acids. Unfortunately, vegans commonly suffer from severe
mineral deficiencies and generally lose digestive enzyme
capabilities over time.
Choose your meats, seafood and eggs carefully. When at all
possible, buy organic meats and poultry that have been
produced without antibiotics or added hormones or chose
game meat.
Be careful not to mix fruit and protein in the same meal,
which causes the protein to ferment in the gastrointestinal
tract, releasing alcohol into the blood stream causing yeast
overgrowth in the intestines and, in some cases, in the
blood stream. This is considered a bad food combination.
Fruit should be consumed one half hour before protein or
two hours after eating protein.
Buy wild caught seafood from cold waters where heavy
metal pollution is diminished. Seafood is a good source of
protein and essential fats.
For most of my patients, I recommend avoiding or
minimizing dairy products, since dairy products are high in
calcium, and since most of us have calcium excess, we don’t
need these calcium-rich foods. Also remember, eggs contain
only HDL (the good cholesterol) and no bad (LDL)
cholesterol. This is the third most common nutritional lie. Be
careful to cook your eggs without oil of any kind and you will
get 100% good fat. Our brains are about 70% good
cholesterol. Don’t eat egg substitutes; there is no good
reason for this. It is how you cook your eggs and what you
eat with them that is the problem. For example, it is the
bacon, sausage, cheese, or eggs fried in margarine, olive oil
or butter that gives us the bad LDL fat.
6. Get essential monosaccharides
This is probably a new recommendation for most of you
and it’s a subject of our next book, so bear with us while we
enter some uncharted territory. Every protein molecule in
the human body is dependent on monosaccharides for its
action(s). Monosaccharides, the simplest form of
carbohydrate molecules found in the body, are absorbed
through the intestinal wall and carried in the bloodstream to
tissues where they may be stored or used, in some cases, as
an energy source.
On the biologically active end of every protein molecule
is a complex monosaccharide receptor. These receptors are
quite literally the keys that unlock every biochemical
reaction in the human body, ranging from the formation of
DNA and RNA to blood type, the creation and action of
insulin, the action of all hormones, and every cell membrane
receptor. Without the monosaccharide keys and the
correctly fitting monosaccharide locks, things just don’t
work.
Monosaccharide deficiencies are implicated in nearly all
abnormal autoimmune responses whereby immune
molecules, called immunoglobulins, become abnormal
immunoglobulins. This takes place when there is a
nutritional deficiency of monosaccharides. These immune
molecules literally pile up because they can’t find a receptor
to bind to. Eventually, they become foreign proteins
triggering an autoimmune reaction in the body. This process
then causes the immune system to attack these molecules
and/or normal healthy tissues. Monosaccharide deficiencies
have been shown to be a factor in several autoimmune
diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosis, rheumatoid
arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing
spondylitis, scleroderma and Sjogren’s syndrome.
In one study, patients with autoimmune diseases were
compared to matched controls of patients without the
diseases. Each of the autoimmune diseases studied was
found to have specific deletions and/or substitutions of at
least one specific monosaccharide on a specific
immunoglobulin protein molecule receptor that was exactly
the same in all affected patients, with a huge statistical
significance. The medical profession has largely ignored this
data because it didn’t make sense or lead to a drug therapy.
After all, their way of thinking is if you have one of these
illnesses, you couldn’t have a nutritionallyderived illness, so
you must have a steroid drug deficiency. This is, of course,
completely illogical.
It seems hard to believe that one simple sugar molecule
could make that much difference or create that much havoc
in the human body.
However, the entire difference between blood types A, B, AB
and O is only one simple monosaccharide molecule on the
terminal receptor that specifies your blood type. We have
long ago recognized what happens if you receive a
transfusion of the wrong blood type, especially a second
time. It will potentially kill you. This creates a whole new
perspective about the significance of monosaccharide
deficiency.
These monosaccharide deficiencies are preventable. A
teaspoon of maple syrup every day in your oatmeal or fruit
smoothie is a good way to add monosaccharides.
Between the ages of 20 and 60, our bodies lose 70% of our
receptor protein activity, due to the depletion of the number
of monosaccharide receptors on the ends of each and every
protein molecule in our bodies. This causes our biochemical
reactions to run less efficiently. It is like changing from a
jumbo jet to a two-cycle gas engine. Both engines work, but
one is 70% efficient, the other is around 30% efficient.
Which would you rather have flying your airplane?
When we’re young, we have sufficient enzymes and
cofactors to complete the nearly 16 steps it takes to convert
the more complex sugars into the various other
monosaccharides, such as fucose. As we age, this process
becomes less efficient and is no longer driven to
completion. Healing becomes slower, hormones less
efficient and, in some cases, immune diseases such as
cancer and autoimmune diseases such as lupus and
diabetes, develop because our immune responses and cell
membranes lack the correct receptors.
Monosaccharides are divided into four major types of
sugars: glucose, glucosamine, galactose and galactosamine
and four lesser known sugars: fucose, xylose, acarbose and
manose. For the most part, they do not occur in our diets.
For our purposes in this book, there are very few good
natural food sources of monosaccharides, but you will find
them in some fruits, berries, melon, some root vegetables
like sweet potatoes, parsnips, beets and onions, in honey
and pure maple syrup and other tree sap syrups. I believe
tree sap syrup (pure organic maple syrup) is the best source
for the money.
You don’t need to eat large amounts of these foods to get
the monosaccharides you need. A handful of strawberries,
half a small sweet potato, a fresh onion on your burger or a
teaspoon of maple syrup in your morning oatmeal should do
the job quite nicely for most people under the age of 40.
It’s also available in a supplement form and, if you’re over
age 40, I think it’s a good idea to include this in your
supplement regimen. If you’re over age 60, or if you have
any type of autoimmune disease, you need to add
monosaccharides.
A multilevel company, Manatech, also markets
monosaccharides in a powder form called Ambrotose. I
believe that their product is overpriced and they have been
guilty of falsely advertising their content of
monosaccharides, however, they do have a good source of
at least 6 essential monosaccharides. Another company,
Improve U.S.A., Inc., marketing pure stabilized aloe
veraderived product, may be a good alternative. See our
resource section and visit our website, www.calciumlie.com
for updates and further information.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
We’ll be the first to admit, the cost of supplements and
better quality foods can be pricey. You know your budget,
but please do think of this program as an investment in a
longer, healthier life. Prioritize your budget with this in
mind.
With some employers, you can set up a medical savings
account that will allow you to pay for supplements in pre-tax
dollars. That’ll save you anywhere from 15% to 35% right off
the top, depending on your tax bracket. You can also pay for
your HTMA and consultation with your doctor from these
funds without having to hassle with your insurance
company.
Some insurance companies will pay for these tests and
almost all of them will pay for a nutritional consultation. It’s
certainly worth filing a claim. In my experience, no other
test has the potential to change your health more
significantly.
When it comes to supplements, don’t waste your money
on so-called “supplements” that are actually drugs unless
there is a specific need or indication. There may be times
that those supplements are appropriate in a shortterm
situation, but like any prescription drug, their use should be
as minimal as possible and for the shortest time possible.
Use only whole food products and go for the best. It will pay
off in the long run in terms of your health and your
pocketbook, too. See the Resources section or refer to our
website, www.calciumlie.com, for my recommendations.
Budget and prioritize what you need to make a difference
in your health. I find so many patients are already spending
money on supplements that are not helping, I feel that it is
part of my job as a physician to direct my patients to what is
good, what will make a difference and what works.
Finally, we urge you to do what you can. Start with baby
steps and you’ll soon find yourself walking and finally,
running.
We admit, the HTMA results and nutritional
recommendations that accompany them can be a little
overwhelming. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed, but take
the advice of the old saws: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: One bite at a time. Little changes in food buying
preferences based on HTMA results and thoughtful
supplementation can bring about amazing results.
Take charge of your health and take control of your life. Do
what is important and do it well. You can make a difference
in your health and regain vitality and energy in ways you
never imagined were possible.
One additional note: I find that there is nothing better than
walking 30 minutes a day to decrease stress, improve
circulation and build relationships. This is truly remarkable!
You will become closer to the person you walk with in every
case. Exercise is almost always good, but walking has many
more benefits than almost any other form of physical
activity.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
Little changes based on HTMA results can produce big
results over time. Improving one meal per day is a 33%
improvement, two meals 66% and three meals, 99%
improvement.
Remember the six essentials to good nutrition. If any one
of these is missing from your diet, there will be
consequences, some immediate and some later: pure water,
adequate minerals, essential vitamins in the whole food
form, essential fatty acids, protein or essential amino acids
and essential monosaccharides.
The HTMA from Trace Elements Inc. will have an
incredible impact on your health. No other medical test has
a greater chance to impact your health long term. No other
company has the correct levels and ratios to make this test
absolutely meaningful and reliable. It is never too late to get
started. Go to www.calciumlie.com for more information.
Budget for supplements and take the ones that are the
most important and most likely to have the greatest impact
on your health. They are, unfortunately, necessary today
due to the nutritional deficiencies of our foods.
Walking is great for decreasing stress and building
relationships. CHAPTER 9

Doctor to Doctor: An Impassioned Plea

T
 HROUGHOUT THIS BOOK, WE’VE THROWN OUT some—ahem—
unconventional ideas about health, nutrition and the
underlying causes of the diseases that are quite literally
shortening our lives.
Everything in this book is based on solid, scientific
evidence. There’s nothing airy-fairy or mystical about it.
Most of the premises in this book come from basic
biochemistry, courses every doctor took in pre-med and
medical school.
We’ll be the first to tell you that these concepts are not
well known or commonly accepted. Patients who take them
to their doctors are likely to be summarily dismissed or even
ridiculed. Doctors who espouse these common sense, solid
scientific concepts are likely to be ostracized by their
colleagues. I know. I was a victim of that sort of professional
jealousy and jousting.
 Patients, by all means read this chapter and read it
closely. But we have really written this concluding chapter
as an open letter to all doctors, an impassioned plea for
them to put aside their prejudices and their adherence to
The Calcium Lie, The Vitamin Lie and a dozen other
erroneous belief systems that are not scientifically based.
We urge you, with our blessings, to copy these pages of
this book and give them to your doctor. Make your pleas for
your physician to read these pages as impassioned as is our
advocacy for you.
We know doctors are busy people, so we are making this
chapter short and sweet to economize on valuable time, but
doctors, we urge you to buy a copy of this book and read it
in its entirety. We think it will change your life, your practice
and be of great service to your patients. Who knows? Maybe
it’ll even help you improve your health and heal yourself.
The basic truths in this book are irrefutable.
123
 A LETTER TO ALL DOCTORS
The majority of physicians practicing today are there
because they made a choice to help people. I felt the same
way. I was a bright-eyed, naïve, idealistic youngster who, at
age 19 felt a special calling to the practice of medicine.
Almost all of us had those altruistic motives when we
entered medical school, but the way medicine is practiced
today, those altruistic motives have been largely beaten out
of us.
I know, I’ve been there. It’s a lot like being a hamster on
a wheel. You have to keep turning that wheel to stay ahead.
Despite what most laypeople believe, a license to practice
medicine is not a license to print money. In fact, there is
absolutely no security in practicing medicine. It is basically a
service occupation with high overhead and high risk of legal
liability and very little security. Maybe I should call this The
Big Bucks Doctor Lie.
 Sure, some doctors are earning beaucoup bucks, but the
average doctor is confronted with huge debts, big overheard
expenses, enormous insurance premiums, no paid time off
to rest, vacation and recuperate and no retirement benefits.
And we are expected to be knowledgeable about
everything medical, make snap decisions when we are
exhausted and always be right. Yes, you can make a
comfortable living, but you have to work hard for it and
make sacrifices that most people would never consider.
If you’re on that hamster wheel and feeling
overwhelmed, go back to those days when you were a
bright-eyed med student. It was your choice to become a
physician. In my 31 years of practice, I’ve discovered
something that borders on the mystical: Enough money
keeps on coming as long as I work hard and make the right
choices, even in the hard times, and yes, I have had them
too. As long as I keep my sights on my mission to help my
patients feel better and get better, all is well.
I have been the victim of professional jealousy, anti-
competitive behavior, vicious gossip and professional
attacks by colleagues who felt threatened by my success.
The behavior I have witnessed and experienced firsthand is
despicable, to say the least.
In 1996, I was ready to throw in the towel, stop
competing with my colleagues, give up on the insurance
companies and quit medicine for good. I had no idea what I
would do, but I was just sick of the way many in my chosen
profession cannibalize each other over money, with totally
uncompassionate and anti-competitive behavior, in the
name of good medicine. Sometimes, unfortunately, a
physician or group of politically entrenched physicians
protect and cover up substandard practice behaviors
arbitrarily and capriciously, in the name of peer review and
and financial gain.
It was on one of my lowest days as a physician that a
phone call came informing me that I had been chosen one
of the “Best Doctors in America”. What an honor! My spirits
soared in a conflict of irony and my thoughts of leaving the
profession were diminished. Maybe I could make a
difference. Maybe I could take whatever criticism and heat
my colleagues could dish out as long as someone
recognized that I was actually doing what was right, what I
had originally set out to do. I was helping my patients get
better and it was being recognized nationally. Amazing.
At about the same time, I realized that I had been
developing an increased awareness and intellectual
accountability for my pregnant patients who would come in
and ask me about the nutritional supplements they were
taking. They wanted to use various herbs and supplements,
as well as prenatal “vitamins” and they wanted my
recommendations about the best ones to take and how
much was safe.
These are the same questions we face as physicians
every day concerning drugs. I realized that I needed to
practice the same due diligence by educating myself about
nutritional concepts and supplements that weren’t even in
the books when I was in med school or, at least, not in the
ones we studied. I also needed to go back to my roots in
basic science and biochemistry and apply what I did know to
human nutrition and separate fact from fiction.
I’m pretty sure your experience in med school was
similar to mine: We got four hours or less of instruction on
human nutrition out of thousands of class hours. Doctors are
not “supposed” to have to know this stuff. Yet this
information is quite literally at the heart of how we treat our
patients, no matter what our specialties. Virtually every
disease process of the human body has a connection to
nutritional imbalances, toxicities, shortfalls and deficiencies.
Yet we spend so little time learning about nutrition that we
have to re-educate ourselves.
I was not only re-energized in my practice of medicine, I
felt compelled to research other fields of medicine and
nutritional products so I could provide my patients with the
best possible care and guide them in what was safe, what
works, what doesn’t and what not to take. I started to learn
more about herbs, supplements and other alternative
therapies, including homeopathy. Before you pooh-pooh
homeopathy, think about it. The use of homeopathy or
microscopic doses of various toxins or non-toxic substances
to trigger an immune or physiological response works
because these remedies are water soluble and can be
carried into the cells easily. Think about your basic
biochemistry and homeopathy will make sense to you. More
importantly, it has been used for over two hundred years,
has a scientific basis and, when used properly, it does no
harm. If it works, great, use it. If it doesn’t work some of the
time, try something else. There is ample evidence-based
medicine that it works. In my experience, homeopathic
remedies work about 80% of the time to treat symptoms.
Remember, drugs don’t always work either.
I discovered that there was an amazing amount of
medical knowledge regarding the use of herbs in medicine
which are often the basis for our drugs. They have various
effects, good and bad, some even stimulate immune
responses, but like homeopathy and drugs, herbs largely
treat symptoms but with less toxicity.
That was when I discovered The Calcium Lie and its links
to mineral deficiencies and excesses. In a nutshell, The
Calcium Lie says that bones are not made of calcium, but of
at least 12 minerals, including calcium. Expecting to keep
bones strong by giving someone calcium supplements is like
expecting that you can make a loaf of bread from yeast
alone. It simply won’t work and, in the case of calcium
supplements, it can do great harm as crystallized excess
calcium concretions make their way into arteries and joints
and force the adrenals to compensate for calcium excess to
their own detriment.
 We’re not going to re-hash this entire book here, but
we’re going to repeat The Calcium Cascade from chapter 2
here, since you may have received these copied pages from
a patient (with our blessings) and you may not yet have
access to the entire book. The chart may help trigger some
recollections for you of how the biochemical process we
describe in this book is perfectly logical, based on the
biochemistry classes you took in medical school.
It leads to a simple conclusion: Almost everyone needs
trace minerals, not just calcium, because we simply cannot
get all nutrients we need through food grown in minerally
depleted soils, picked before ripeness, especially in view of
our society’s propensity for nutritionally void foods. And
most importantly: calcium hardens concrete, not bones.
Excess calcium can do severe damage to the human
organism.
When I resurrected my old biochemistry textbooks, I
discovered The Calcium Cascade. It triggered insatiable
curiosity in me. I began to quickly build my knowledge
about nutritional supplements, something I am somewhat
ashamed to confess I had pooh-poohed to my patients
before then. I discovered what worked and what didn’t. I
had to struggle to overcome the brainwashing I had
received on The Calcium Lie. I dug deeper and I found out
about hair tissue mineral analysis, how reliable testing
methods could provide me with a wealth of information
about a patient’s medical conditions and how to address
them nutritionally.
I began to look at the cost effectiveness of the
treatments. If one treatment wasn’t working, I searched for
alternatives and networked with other like-minded
professionals to find out if they had any answers. I continue
to do so.
I also became acutely aware that I was being forced to
label patients with their afflictions. Someone with diabetes
became a diabetic and was labeled accordingly. That’s how
we are trained. But as I began to change my way of
thinking, I realized that there are no diseases we are
“supposed” to have and that almost all of these labels are
related to nutritional deficiencies and imbalances which,
when corrected, cause the illnesses to remit. It opened a
whole new way of thinking for me, a whole new approach to
my patients, and helped them immeasurably. That’s so
much more like what I’d originally set out to do.
As a little aside, I’ll tell you that as soon as I began to
change my way of thinking about diabetes and started
treating the nutritional and mineral deficiencies and
imbalances in patients with Type 2 diabetes and insulin
resistance, I began to achieve phenomenal success.
Over the past 12 years, my treatment plan has kept blood
sugars normal in more than 80 patients with diagnosed Type
2 diabetes over long periods of
 The Calcium Cascade
Excess calcium in the human body begins a cascade of
negative effects that have enormous adverse consequences
to our health. This process cannot be diagnosed with
standard blood tests. It requires a reliable, competent lab to
conduct a tissue mineral analysis on a correctly collected
hair sample you provide. I recommend Trace Elements Inc.,
the only lab with the correct ratios and databases. You can
find information about them in the resources section and
through my website, www.calciumlie.com.
You have excess calcium in your body
THAT LEADS TO
Calcium seeking more magnesium to try to keep your body
in balance THAT LEADS TO
A relative magnesium deficiency in proportion to calcium
that leads to increased muscle tension, and nerve endings
firing erratically and other “electrical” functions of the body
malfunctioning; AND
In its need for more magnesium, your body has to suppress
adrenal function in order to retain more magnesium to
compensate for the high calcium, causing a loss of sodium
and potassium in your urine;
THAT LEADS TO
A continual depletion of the sodium and potassium that are
stored inside the trillions of cells in your body;
THAT LEADS TO
A loss of the sodium and chloride you need to produce the
stomach acid you need to digest protein; AND
This increases the incidences of heartburn and other
digestive disorders, and the use of prescription drugs that
have further destructive effects and impede digestion; AND
Your body gradually loses its ability to digest protein and
absorb the essential amino acids that are the building
blocks of protein.
ALSO
the sodium depletion leads to failure of the sodium pump,
the mechanism by which our bodies get essential amino
acids and glucose into our cells, not including fat cells;
FURTHERMORE,
Potassium levels decline dramatically—this leads to thyroid
hormone resistance and slowed metabolism; SO
All cells (except fat cells) become starved for glucose
RESULTING IN
increased cravings for glucose and for minerals leading to
more cravings AND
deficiencies of sodium, potassium, and essential amino
acids, and more cravings.
THE END RESULT IS:
Multiple metabolic malfunctions, including, obesity, heart
disease, Type 2 hypothyroidism, Type 2 diabetes, anxiety,
migraines, depression, hypertension,
and the list goes on and on!
time. It is effective for virtually everyone with insulin
resistance if caught and treated early on in the course of the
disease. Based on my experience, if the diagnosis has taken
place in the past two years, Type 2 diabetes is always
reversible. If the diagnosis is five years old or less, Type 2
diabetes is still sometimes reversible. If the diagnosis has
been made more than five years in the past, my treatment
plan may not be able to reverse the disease, but it can
result in improved blood sugar control.
Joe R was one of these patients with recent onset Type 2
diabetes. His fasting blood sugars were from 150 to 250 and
post prandial sugars from 250 to 350. With immediate and
correct supplementation, within two weeks, all his blood
sugars were normal and have remained so for more than 12
years.
For Joe and these other patients, the key was correct
supplementation with the appropriate supplements to
reduce insulin resistance, not just sensitizing the body to the
overproduction of insulin, which increases fat cell glucose
absorption. That means treating and reversing the
underlying problem with the correct supplements, not drugs.
Chromium picolinate doesn’t work (see Chapter 5), but
chromium polynicotinate (ChromeMate™) does.
I don’t expect the dairy and pharmaceutical industries
and the supplement companies will like this book much,
since it is challenging you to think and move away from the
erroneous belief systems they have so carefully nurtured.
No doubt, I will be attacked for my unconventional ideas. It’s
OK. I have pretty broad shoulders and thick skin.
We have struggled in the writing of this book to put these
concepts into simple terms that the average reader can
comprehend. If we have oversimplified, we will take
responsibility for that. Of course, biochemistry is very
complex. There is no doubt that physicians are among the
most intelligent people in the world, and we know you can
take these simplified concepts and apply what you learned
in medical school to acknowledge their truth.
I take intellectual honesty with great seriousness. I
cannot have a knee jerk reaction to a patient’s question
about a supplement, medication, surgery or any type of
treatment. That knee jerk reaction would be based on what I
think I know and not necessarily on science. I continually
take myself back to my roots in med school biochemistry
and ferret out the answers based on science, not advertising
or drug rep dinners or just “knowing” something.
Before this goes too far, I want to say I don’t consider
supplements to be a panacea. In fact, many supplements
are actually drugs, and as such can be harmful. This is the
subject of Chapter 7 of this book, The Vitamin Lie. The
Vitamin Lie says that we’ve been duped into believing that a
single component of an extraordinarily complex molecule
that comprises a vitamin is the vitamin itself. Case in point:
Vitamin C is not ascorbic acid, although most vitamin C
supplements sold on the market today are just that. Unless
someone takes in the whole vitamin C molecule made from
100% whole foods, vine ripened and grown in minerally rich
soils, your patients won’t be getting the benefits of this
remarkable vitamin.
This is my plea to you: Remember your roots. Remember
who you are and how you were trained. Remember your
early education, especially your biochemistry, however
painful this may be.
Put aside belief systems about medicine and open your
mind to what some may think are “new” ways of thinking,
but which are actually just basic, solid science.
I remember a fairly pompous med school professor who
told us that only 20% of everything that we were going to
be taught was true. The only problem was that he didn’t
know which 20% was true—and neither did we. Maybe that
one caveat contained more wisdom than I realized at the
time.
Erase The Calcium Lie from your mind. You know that
bones are not made of calcium and osteoporosis is the loss
of minerals from the bones, not just the loss of calcium.
Then treat your patients accordingly. See that they get a
complete complement of trace minerals based on basic
scientific evidence, and based further on hair tissue mineral
analysis from a reputable laboratory. After all, isn’t bone
mineral density just another way of measuring tissue
mineral levels, in this case, in bone? Think about it.
The only lab I trust completely to accurately measure
whole body tissue mineral levels is Trace Elements, Inc.
(www.traceelements.com or by phone at 800-824-2314 or
through my web site at www.calciumlie.com).
Dr. David Watts, founder of Trace Elements, Inc., has
developed a database of more than 800,000 hair tissue
samples from which he has extrapolated highly accurate
predictions of disease risk based upon the basic science of
relationships of mineral deficiencies, excesses, imbalances
and toxic ratios to known clinical disease and medical
science. Find out your patients’ mineral deficiencies and
imbalances and you’ll be able to begin treating them
nutritionally with reliable, reproducible and gratifying
success.
When you re-arrange your thinking process, you can
treat your patients as you did when you were a bright-eyed
med student. Begin to question what you think you know.
You can re-energize your practice of medicine, care a
little more about your patients and actually help them get
better, rather than just treating their symptoms as the
pharmaceutical industry would encourage you to do.
Not everything that comes from the drug companies is
good—nor is it all bad. We need to educate ourselves to
discern what is good and what is not. No one else will do it
honestly and it is our sworn responsibility as physicians.
We as physicians have great power to help or to hurt. It is
our choice how we will treat our patients and how we will,
ultimately, make a difference in their lives, our lives and the
world. If you use this information with honesty, honor and
integrity, you’ll attract more patients than you can imagine.
My ob-gyn practice has morphed into a practice that is
about 50% nutritionally based, with many men and children
joining my women patients.
This book is a gift to you. Take and use this information with
our blessings for you and your patients.

Resources
Since we’re forging new territory here, the resources we
can offer are not as complete as we would like them to be.
We hope that in the coming months and years, we’ll be able
to flesh out this list and offer you more resources for
everything you need to combat The Calcium Lie and find
your way back to health.
The best way for you to keep up with the latest
information is to visit www.calciumlie.com often and
subscribe to our newsletter at www.calcium
lie.com/newsletter.
I know there are many other good products on the
market. I have included in this list the products that I know
and trust through my years of clinical practice.
Websites: www.calciumlie.com
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
Phone toll free (877) 260-3675
www.drt-obgyn.com
 WHERE TO FIND A GOOD DOCTOR
 • First, check our website, www.calciumlie.com. We hope to
post an evergrowing list of physicians who are equipped to
help you.
 • The American College for Advancement in Medicine, an
association of integrative health practitioners:
www.acam.org, phone: 949-309-3520.
• The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M),
which has doctors worldwide who are dedicated to
preventive health: www.worldhealth. net, phone: (773) 528-
1000.
133
 • Insulin Potention Therapy webstie: While this website is
dedicated to a specific form of alternative cncer treatment,
the medical docto5rs who administer this treatment are
open-minded and likely to bwe able to help you to rebalance
your minerals: www.iptforcancer.com
HAIR TISSUE MINERAL ANALYSIS (HTMA) TESTS
This test is the starting point of your journey back to
health. It helps you determine your exact mineral status.
While there are other labs that provide this test, Trace
Elements Inc. is reliable, trustworthy and accurate. I use no
other lab for this test. You can order the test through my
website and get a consultation to help you understand the
results and apply the recommendations that accompany
your test results.
Learn more at: www.calciumlie.com
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
 NATURAL SEA SALT
These are the best brands of natural and unrefined sea
salt:
Celtic sea salt: www.celticseasalt.com
Redmond sea salt: www.realsalt.com (available in
supermarkets and health
food stores and through www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com)
 VITAMIX
A VitaMix machine is much more than a blender. It can
process fruits, vegetables, even grains so that you can
easily assimilate the maximum nutrients available in your
food: www.vitamix.com
SUPPLEMENTS
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com • Toll Free 1-877-[TO
COME] www.calciumlie.com
www.drt-obgyn.com
The following list offers other companies and products I
recommend. For specific information regarding their use in
my practice, please refer to
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com.
 Pro-Thera
Alpha Lipoic Acid: 100 mg tabs Chromate 200 mcg tabs: 100 and 500
bottles
DHEA: 25 mg and 50 mg caps
Eciosamax ultrapure omega 3 gel caps Glucosamine: 750 mg capsules
5-HTTP: 50 mg caps
Indole Forte: 400 mg caps
MSM: 750 mg caps
Taurine: 500 mg
Thera PMS
Manatech (control #456515 to order) Ambrotose Powder (plain)
Emprisone Cream
Innate
B-complex (100% whole food)
Ccomplex (100% whole food)
E-complex (100% whole food)
Pre/Post Natals (100% whole food)
Life Extensions
Cognitex
Research Nutritionals
CoQ10
NT Factor Energy
Transfer Factor Multi Immune
Sanesco
Contegra
Lentra
Prolent
Somni TR
Corvalen
D-Ribose
Natural Partners
7 keto-DHEA: 25 mg and 50 mg Eurocel
Germanium
Rhyzinate
Vitex
Wayne Garland
Diabetic Glucose Control Formula Imperial Chi
Ocean Gold (shark liver oil)
Tolerance
Topical Shark Liver Oil
Klearsen Corporation
Eczema Relief Cream
Matol (control#21564298)
Fibersonic
Isogenix
Thorne Research
L-Tyrosine
Perfusia (sustained release L-arginine) SF 722
SF 734
Body Health
Metal Free
Chi Enterprises
Myomin
N-HRT
Prostate Chi
Nurti Rice
Rice Bran
The Grain Society
Celtic Sea Salt
Probiotic
Thera Biotic Lactobacillus
Trace Mineral Research
Trace Minerals (blue-standard formula) Electrolyte formula (red-extra
potassium in standard formula)
TRACE MINERALS IONIC SEA SALT DERIVED MINERALS:
I like the ionic minerals produced by a company called
Trace Minerals Research because I know they are safe,
absorbable and effective. I admit they are a bit difficult to
find, so I am offering them through my website. There are a
couple of other products that are of good quality, so I’m
including them here. You can also get them through my
website.
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
www.mineralresourcesint.com
www.traceminerals.com
www.originalquinton.com
WHOLE FOOD VITAMIN C Innate Vitamin C (100% Whole
Food Vitamin C). This product is sold through doctors’
offices. You can get it at my website.
 www.aurorahealthand nutrition.com
 WHOLE FOOD VITAMINS
I’m still searching for a 100% whole food vitamin that
does not contain minerals. The Innate company is supposed
to be developing one according to my specifications. Check
my website and I’ll post a specific product as soon as this
one is available or I find another acceptable product.
www.aurorahealth andnutrition.com
 MONOSACCHARIDES
Ambrotose—Manantech
Control number: #456515
www.aloewholesale.com (Improve U.S.A., Inc.)
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
This is the only monosaccharide product I have been able to
find. If anyone knows of
other products, please let us know through our website,
www.calciumlie.com.
MAPLE SYRUP (FOOD SOURCE OF MONOSACCHARIDES)
Look for products that are 100% pure maple syrup,
including: www.dennisfarmsmaple.com
www.maplesource.com
TO TREAT SPECIFIC CONDITIONS
 REFLUX AND GERD Rhyzonate:
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
 HYPERTENSION Profusia (sustained release L-arginine)
Ocean Gold (shark liver oil)
 www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com
 TYPE 2 DIABETES: CHROMEMATE™, DIABETIC GLUCOSE
CONTROL FORMULA www.aurorahealthndnutrition.com
 ESSENTIAL FATTY ACID DEFICIENCIES Eciosamax (ultrapure
omega 3) (www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com) Ocean Gold
(shark liver oil) (www.aurorahealthandnutrition)
 OTHER PRODUCTS
 WATER FILTERS
Aquasana: www.aquasana.com
Jonathan Beauty Water Filtration:
www.jonathanproduct.com/home.html
www.aurorahealthandnutrition.com

References
NOTE TO READERS
 While there is good scientific research to back the
theories presented in this book, all of the principles of The
Calcium Lie, the effects of mineral deficiencies,
insufficiencies and excesses are found in basic biochemistry.
Any college biochemistry textbook will confirm every word
in this book, extrapolated logically. This is why I am so
dismayed that physicians who have studied these basic
scientific truths in depths choose to “forget” what they
learned in medical school and buy into these medical myths.
BOOKS
Anderson, F. Nature’s Answer—Replenish The Earth, (Replenishing Press, Bear
River, Utah, 84301, 2001).
DeCava, M. L. (1997). The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants
(Brentwood Acadmeic Press, 1996).
Lee, John, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause (Warner Books
1996).
Russell, M. R. What the Bible Says About Healthy Living. (Regal Books, 2001).
Starr, M. M., Hypothyroidism, Type 2, The Epidemic. (New Voice Publication,
2005).
Wallach, Joel and Lan, Ma, Rare Earths, Forbidden Cures (Wellness Publications,
1994).
Watts, David L. , Trace Elements and Other Essential Nutrients. (Writer’s B-L-OC-
K, 2006).
138 Wright, Jonathan and Lenard, Lane, Why Stomach Acid is Good for You
(M. Evans and Co., 2001).
Wright, Johnathan V. and Morgenthaler, John, Natural Hormone Replacement
(Smart Publications, 1997).
(Dr. Wright has written several excellent books on natural healing.)
ARTICLES
 CHAPTER 2
 Statins
McLean, DS, Ravid, S. et al. Effect of statin dose on incidence of atrial
fibrillation: data form the Pravastatin or Atorvastatin Evaluation and Infection
Therapy-Thrombolysis in Miycardial Infarction 22 (PROVE IT-TIMI 22) and
Aggrastat to Zocor (A to Z) trials. American Heart Journal 2008 Feb;155(2): 298–
302.
Aspartame
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/weight_gain_myth.htm
1. According to an article in Technology Review, “aspartame
may actually stimulate appetite and bring on a craving for
carbohydrates” (Farber 52).
 2. An article in Utne Reader claims, “researchers believe
that any kind of sweet taste signals body cells to store
carbohydrates and fats, which in turn causes the body to
crave more food” (Lamb 16).
3. From the San Francisco Chronicle, Jean Weininger
states that “studies have shown that people who use
artificial sweeteners don’t necessarily reduce their
consumption of sugar—or their total calorie intake. . . .
Having a diet soda makes it okay to eat a double
cheeseburger and a chocolate mousse pie” (1/ZZ1).
4. “The American Cancer Society (1986) documented the
fact that persons using artificial sweeteners gain more
weight than those who avoid them” (Roberts 150).
The major selling point of aspartame is as a diet aid, and
it has been demonstrated that the use of this product
actually causes people to consume more food. Normally,
when a significant quantity of carbohydrates are consumed,
serotonin levels rise in the brain. This is manifested as a
relaxed feeling after a meal. When aspartame is ingested
with carbohydrates, such as having a sandwich with a diet
drink, aspartame causes the brain to cease production of
serotonin, meaning that the feeling of having had enough
never materializes. You then eat more foods, many
containing aspartame, and the cycle continues. Monsanto’s
profit from its NutraSweet Division was $993 million in 1990.
Diet soft drinks, Type 2 diabetes
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/3/675?
maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hi
ts=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=hu&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sor
tspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
Aspartame insulin release
Liang Y, Maier V et al. The effect of artificial sweetener on insulin secretion. II.
Stimulation of insulin release from isolated rat islets by Acesulfame K (in vitro
experiments). Hormones and Metabolic Resistance 1987 Jul;19(7):285–9.
http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/aug2007/08102007soda.htm
Are you a middle-aged adult? Do you drink more than
one soft-drink per day? It doesn’t matter if it’s diet or
regular. According to a study by the National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, you
may have a more than 40 percent greater rate of either
having or developing metabolic syndrome-that’s a cluster of
conditions that increase the risk for heart disease
Stellman SD and Garfinkel L. Patterns of artificial sweetener use and weight
change in an American Cancer Society Prospective study. Appetite 1988;11
Suppl 1:85–91. (This is the seminal study in this field)
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20050613/drink-more-diet-soda-gain-
moreweight
This scientific data was presented to the American
Diabetes Association in 2005 by researchers from the
University of Texas—lead researcher Sharon Fowler—but no
paper has ever been published.
Fowler’s team looked at seven to eight years of data on
1,550 MexicanAmerican and non-Hispanic white Americans
ages 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of
normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third
became overweight or obese.
For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming
overweight or obese was:
• 26% for up to 1/2 can each day
• 30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
• 32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming
overweight or obese was:
• 36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
• 37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
• 54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
• 57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a
person’s risk of obesity went up 41%.
 CHAPTER 3
Bolland MJ, Barber PA et al. Vascular events in healthy older women receiving
calcium supplementation: randomized controlled trial. British Medical Journal
2008 Feb. 2;336(7638):262-6.
Seely S. Is calcium excess in western diet a major cause of arterial disease?
International Journal of Cardiology (1992 May;35(2):281-3.
Seely S. Possible connection between milk and coronary heart disease” the
calcium hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses 2000 May;54(5):701-3.
Seely S. The connection between lactose and coronary artery disease.
International Journal of Cardiology 1994 Oct;48(2):199-207.
Seely EW, Graves SW. Calcium homoestasis in normotensive and hypertensive
pregnancy. Comprehensive Therapy 1993;19(3):124-8.
Seely S. Is calcium excess in western diet a major cause of arterial disease?
International Journal of Cardiology 1991 Nov;33(2): 191-8.
Seely S. On arterial calcification. International Journal of Cardiology 1997 Sep
19; 61(2):105-8.
 
CHAPTER 4
Grinwald
  P. Sodium pump failure in hypoxia and reoxygenation. Journal of
Molecular and Cellular Cardiology 1992 Dec;24(12):1393-8.
Seely S. The Connection between milk and mortality from coronary heart
disease. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2002 DFec;56(12);958.
 CHAPTER 5
Dolidze NM, Kezeli DDF et al. Changes in intra-and extracellular Ca2+
concentration and prostaglandin E2 synthesis in osteoblasts of the femoral bone
in experimental hyper-and hypothyroidism. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and
Medicine 2007 Jul;144(1):17-20.
Grinwald P. Sodium pump failure in hypoxia and reoxygenation. Journal of
Molecular and Cellular Cardiology 1992 Dec;24(12):1393-8.
Seely S. The Connection between milk and mortality from coronary heart
disease. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2002 DFec;56(12);958.
 
CHAPTER 6
Dolidze NM, Kezeli DDF et al. Changes in intra-and extracellular Ca2+
concentration and prostaglandin E2 synthesis in osteoblasts of the femoral bone
in experimental hyper-and hypothyroidism. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and
Medicine 2007 Jul;144(1):17-20.
CHAPTER 8
Bond A, Alavi A et al. The relationship between exposed galactose and N-
acetylglucosamine residues on IgG in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), juvenile chronic
arthritis (JCA) and Sjögren’s syndrome (SS). Clinical and Experimental
Immunology 1996 Jul;105(1):99-103.
Panzironi C, Silvestroni N et al. An increase in the carbohydrate moiety of
alpha 2-macroglobulin is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International 1997 Dec;43(6):1305-22.
Bond A, Alavi A et al. A detailed lectin analysis of IgG glycosylation,
demonstrating disease specific changes in terminal galactose and N-
acetylglucosamine. Journal of Autoimmunology 1997 Feb;10(1);77-85.
Index
Acid indigestion. See Heartburn. Adrenal glands, 10, 26, 29, 35, 43, 49,
68–69
Adrenal insufficiency/suppression,
68–71, 72
Advertising, 9, 17–18
Alpha linoleic acids, 104, 114
Alpha tocopherols, 100, 101
Ambrotose, 119
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), 28
American College for Advancement in Medicine, 28
American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), 32
American Endocrinological
Association, 63
Amino acids, 10, 26, 36–37, 43,
44–46, 48–50, 52, 54, 116
Antioxidants, 100, 101
Arginine, 46, 48, 52–53
Arteries, 19, 20, 37
Ascorbic acid, 88, 95, 96, 130
Atherosclerosis, 37
Atrial fibrillation, 35
Autoimmune diseases, 118
Babies. See Infants. Basal body temperature, 63, 64, 71, 72 Beri-beri, 94–95
Beta carotene, 89, 92
Beta-carotenoids, 92
Biochemistry, 126, 127, 129
Biosphosphonates, 34–35
Birth defects, 76, 77, 82–84, 86, 92 Blood clotting, 103
Blood pressure, high. See
Hypertension.
Blood types, 118
Body composition, 4, 11, 112
Bones, 3, 7, 15, 17, 18, 29, 34–39,
126
density, 32–33, 38–39, 130
fractures, 18, 34
necrosis, 34
Bottles, plastic, 112
Breast arterial calcification, 37
Calcium, 3, 7–9, 17, 20, 24–25, 76,
126
cascade, 25–26, 29, 35–36, 43, 51,
57, 61, 68, 81, 84, 126, 127–128 deposits, 36, 37
excess, 8, 10, 15, 19, 20, 21, 24,
25–26, 27, 33, 35, 39, 49, 54, 71,
126
143 supplements, 14, 29, 75, 84, 126 Calcium channel blockers, 20–21, 50
Calcium/magnesium ratio, 99 Calcium/potassium ratio, 64, 71, 72 California Milk
Producers Advisory
Board, 17
Cardiovascular disease, 19–20, 37 Carnitine, 48
Cavities, 75
Cells, 46
Chewing, 110
Children, 81
Chloride, 26, 42
Cholesterol, 20, 45, 117
Chromium, 23, 68
ChromeMate, 23, 68, 78, 129 Coenzyme Q10, 46
Collagen, 36, 48, 96
Copper, 37, 95, 115
COX-2 inhibitors, 24
Creatine, 4848
Crestor, 20
Dairy industry, 9, 17–18
Dairy products, 8, 9, 17, 39, 65, 99,
117
Dams, 5
Depression, 45–46, 51
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), 103 Diabetes
gestational, 76–77, 78
Type 2, 22, 23, 48, 56, 60, 67–68,
72, 76, 81–82, 127, 129
Diet, 9, 21, 22, 38–39, 67, 71, 81,
102, 107–120, 125, 130, 131 See also Food.
Diet food industry, 21–22
Digestion, 26, 36, 41–49, 54, 81, 110 Dopamine, 46
Drugs, 87, 105, 120
prescription, 19–21, 24
Eggs, 116, 117
Eicosamax, 53
EPA (eicosapentanoic acid), 103 Essential fatty acids, 102–104, 114–115
Omega-3, 103, 114
Omega-6, 114
Estrogen, 84, 85
Exercise, 120.121
weight-bearing, 35, 39
FANS, 85
Fat, 102, 114
Fat cells, 60
Fiber, 110
Fish, 99, 100, 103, 104, 115–116,
117
See also Oils, fish.
5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), 45–46, 52
Floodwaters, 5
Fluids, 110
Folic acid, 76, 83
Food, 6, 8, 37, 56–58, 89, 90, 108–110, 120, 126, 130, 131 calcium-enriched, 18
canned, 109
cravings for, 56–57, 68
frozen, 109
organic and/or vipen-ripened, 6, 15, 88,, 91, 97, 108, 109, 117 pasteurized, 109
preservation of, 3, 4
raw, 94, 96, 103, 109, 110 whole, 92–93, 94, 105
Freedom of Access to Natural Solutions (FANS). See FANS.
Fruits, 6, 110, 114, 117
Gall stones, 24 Gardens, 110
GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux
disease). See Heartburn. Glitazones, 22
Glucose, 10, 26, 49, 60, 67, 77 Glucose/insulin (G/I) ratio, 67, 76,
77, 78
Glutathione, 48
Gluten, 53
Glycerine, 48
Goiters, 6
mortality, 83, 86
Innate (company), 114
Insulin, 60, 67
Insulin receptors, 46, 51, 68
Insulin resistance, 51, 56, 60, 66–68,
71, 76, 77, 129
Insurance, medical, 120
Iodine, 6
Iron, 57, 76
Jenny Craig, 22
Hair tissue mineral analysis
(HTMA), 24, 25, 27–28, 29, 38, 39, 52, 64, 65, 71, 76, 80, 90, 111, 113, 120, 127
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, 66
Heart attacks, 14, 20, 22
Heart disease. See Cardiovascular
disease.
Heartburn, 41, 42, 44
Hemoglobin, 48
Herbs, 126
Homeopathy, 126
Hormones, 80, 81
bioindentical, 81, 86
HTMA. See Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA).
Hypertension, 20–21, 50, 52, 80, 113
Hypoglycemia, 60, 66–67
Hypothyroidism, 22, 24, 26, 36, 57, 61–66, 71, 72, 84
Type 1, 61, 64
Type 2, 61, 64, 65–66
Imigran, 24
Imitrex, 24
Immune system, 118 Immunoglobulins, 118 Improve U.S.A., Inc., 119 Infants,
32, 75, 81, 86 Kidney stones, 24
Longevity, 12–14 Lysine, 48
Magnesium, 10, 26, 29, 35, 43, 69 Manatech, 119 Maple sugar, 118, 119 Medical
savings accounts, 120 Medicine, mainstream, 66, 77 See also Physicians.
Melatonin, 45 Menopause, 32, 84–86 Metabolic syndrome, 56, 66 Metabolism,
58, 60, 71–72 Metals, heavy, 104, 117 Methionine, 46 Methylation, 48
Microwaves, 109 Migraines, 24–25 Milk. See Dairy products. Minerals, 3–7, 17,
29, 31–34, 39, 74, 75, 87, 98, 126, 130 chelated, 12 colloidal, 11–12, 74
deficiency, 31–32, 33–34, 35, 39, 54, 56, 71, 77, 79, 86 ionic, 10–11, 15, 25, 38,
65, 68, 80, 112–113
supplementation, 28–29, 34, 57,
68, 80, 82, 112–113
Miscarriages, 77, 86
Monosaccharide receptors, 117, 118 Monosaccharides, 117–119
Prempro, 85
Progesterone, 84, 85
Proteins, 26, 43, 44, 48, 50, 54,
116–117
Proton pump inhibitors, 42, 52, 53
National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), 33
Niacin, 45
Nitric oxide, 46
Norephinephrine, 46
Northern, Charles, 5
Nurses Health Study, 18, 31
Nutritional Disease cascade, 57–58
Nuts, 103, 114–115
Recommended daily allowances (RDAs), 90
Recommended daily intakes (RDIs), 90
Refrigerators, 3
Research Minerals, Inc., 28
Retinoids, 92
Rhyzonate, 52
Obesity. See Weight.
Oils
cod liver, 99
cold pressed, 103, 115
fish, 53, 103–104
shark liver, 53–54, 80, 104
Okinawa, 13–14
Okinawa Centenarian Study, 13
Oranges, 97, 108
Osteoarthritis, 24, 35–39
Osteopenia, 33
Osteoporosis, 7, 31, 33–35, 99, 130
Pauling, Linus, 5–6, 96
Perfusia, 53
Pharmaceutical industry, 19, 20, 21,
22, 85–86
Phenylalanine, 45
Physicians, plea to, 123–131
Pica, 57
Placenta, 80
Potassium, 10, 26, 29, 35, 43, 49, 51,
65
Pregnancy, 57, 73, 74–84, 86, 103 Premarin, 85
Sun Aqua Systems, 112 Sunlight, 98, 99
Supplements, 129–130
Salmon, wild Alaska, 104, 116 Salt, 4, 11, 13
iodized, 6
rock and sea, 4, 6, 11, 14, 15, 38, 42, 52, 68, 74, 109, 112–113 table, 6, 15, 109
See also Sodium.
Scurvy, 96–97
Seeds, 103, 109, 114
pumpkin, 109
sunflower, 109
Serine, 48
Serotonin, 45–46, 47, 52
Silver, 12
Sleep, 45
Sodium, 10, 26, 29, 35, 42, 43, 49, 51, 69
deficiency, 42–43, 49, 50–51, 52, 70, 81
Sodium/magnesium ratio, 71
Sodium pump, 10, 26, 36, 49–51, 52, 54, 60, 68, 71, 81
Soft drinks, diet, 21, 23
Soil, 5, 15, 91, 126
Statins, 19–20
Stomach acid, 42–44, 52, 54
cost of, 119–120, 121 industry, 88, 89
Teeth, 33, 75
TEI. See Trace Elements Inc.
Threonine, 48
Thyroid hormone resistance. See
Hypothyroidism.
Thyroid, 24, 36, 61, 71, 84
Thyroid stimulating hormone
(TSH), 63–64, 66, 72
Tissue mineral analysis. See Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA).
Trace Elements Inc., 25, 27, 38, 111, 120, 130
Trace Mineral Research, 28
Triglycerides, 103
Tryptophan, 45, 47
Tums, 43–44, 53
Tyrosinase, 37, 95
Tyrosine, 46
U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 17 Unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs),
102–104
Vegetables, 6, 65, 109
Vitamin A, 88–89, 91–93
Vitamin B-complex, 93–95, 115 Vitamin B12, 94
Vitamin C, 36, 87–88, 95–98, 130 Vitamin D, 35, 98–100, 115 Vitamin E, 100–
101
Vitamins, 5, 37, 75–76, 87–105,
129–130
multi with minerals, 90
whole food, 88, 89, 113–114
Walking, 120, 121
Wallach, Joel, 73–74
Water, 111–112
bottled, 112
chlorinated, 112
distilled, 112
filters, 112
Water solubility, 4, 11–12, 15
Watts, David, 27, 111, 130
Weight, 21–22, 55, 57, 71, 76, 77, 81,
102, 114
Willett, Walter, 18
Women, 73–86
Wright, Jonathan, 42
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, 85–86
Vegans, 116 Zinc, 36
Zinc/copper imbalance, 84

About the Authors

Dr. Robert Thompson is a board-certified obstetrician
and gynecologist who practices in Soldotna and Anchorage,
Alaska. While he is technically a “women’s doctor,” his work
to expose The Calcium Lie has brought him many patients
who fall outside his specialty. In fact, now more than half of
his patients come to him for nutrition counseling and many
of them have found long-term relief from chronic disease,
including obesity, diabetes, hypothyroidism and adrenal
fatigue. He happily counts among his patients many men
and children as well as women who seek out his assistance
as a gynecologist as well as a nutrition specialist.
He received his medical training at the University of
Kentucky and has practiced in California, Pennsylvania, and
Hawaii as well as in Alaska.
Dr. Thompson and his wife, Karen, and their son, Kaden, live
in Soldotna, Alaska, where he takes great delight in fly
fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing and skiing, playing concert
violin and attending his sons’ hockey games.
Kathleen Barnes is a widely traveled journalist with
more than 35 years of experience in publishing, print and
broadcast media. In recent years she has specialized in
medical, health and sustainable living for national
magazines and newspapers and as author, co-author and
editor of 13 books.
She has lived in Europe, Asia and Africa and brings a
broad international perspective to her writing.
Kathleen lives in the mountains of western North Carolina
with her husband, Joe, and two dogs, two cats and two
horses.
148