Although not widely appreciated, excess intracellular calcium is the primary culprit in all diseases at the cellular level. Increased oxidative stress, with increased numbers of oxidized (nonfunctioning) biomolecules, is always the result of increased calcium accumulation inside the cells impacted by a disease. This increased intracellular oxidative stress (IOS) inside those cells will never be alleviated until those intracellular calcium levels are sufficiently lowered.
The cell becomes physiologically normal when only the very minimal IOS, resulting from normal cellular metabolism, remains. Milder chronic diseases have lesser degrees of increased IOS in the affected cells than in more advanced diseases. The cells involved in rapidly spreading metastatic cancers have the highest levels of IOS. Regular calcium supplementation, including excessive dietary calcium intake, reliably increases all-cause mortality (the chances of death from anything) since such measures work to promote elevated intracellular calcium levels.
This is NOT to say that calcium is not important to health. However, calcium rapidly goes from beneficial to toxic as a certain minimal level of intake is surpassed. Calcium, along with iron and copper, can be considered the three “toxic nutrients.”
While low intakes are vital to good health, higher sustained intakes will rapidly cause disease and even death in the cells that accumulate the most of them, eventually resulting in premature mortality. Calcium and copper should never be supplemented, and iron should only be taken to correct an anemia secondary to a laboratory-documented deficiency of iron. And once the anemia is corrected, iron supplementation should be discontinued.
Enough magnesium intake can eventually lower cellular calcium levels sufficiently to bring IOS levels back to normal. There is a powerful inverse relationship between magnesium and calcium. As one goes up inside the cell, the other goes down. The calcium levels will rapidly rise again as magnesium intakes decline, however. Good magnesium supplementation must be a lifelong habit to keep calcium levels sufficiently suppressed in order to optimize health. Except under very rare circumstances, the oral administration of magnesium will never produce toxic levels of magnesium in the body.
Many studies have clearly demonstrated the wide-ranging benefits of lessening or normalizing magnesium deficiencies in the body. While it is not the only physiological function of magnesium, it is very clear that lessening intracellular levels of calcium is the primary way in which it mitigates all disease processes.
It is now well-established that magnesium supplementation decreases all-cause mortality. And even though there are many other important nutrients and supplements that one can take, it must be emphasized that magnesium supplementation alone will result in a longer life and should never be excluded from a supplementation regimen.
Not surprisingly, a nutrient mineral that can decrease all-cause mortality must logically also have a powerful impact on heart disease, which ultimately figures in about 50% of deaths around the world. Many studies have demonstrated how important magnesium is for good heart health. New onset arrhythmias, or heart rhythm disturbances, are often precipitated by low magnesium levels.
Prescription medicines for these conditions should never be started until a concerted effort is made to increase magnesium levels in the body.