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| Calcium, Magnesium, and Estrogen |  |
| Before You Begin Information presented here is for general educational purposes only. Each one of us is biochemically and metabolically different. If you have a specific health concern and wish my personalized nutritional recommendation, write to me by clicking here. |
Here
is a good clinical case to illustrate the interrelationship between these
three important factors for healthy aging:
Background : A 65 year old patient in good
health with family history of hypertension. She has had a complete hysterectomy
6 years ago and is on hormone replacement of synthetic estrogen (Premarin)
0.625 mg once a day.
The patient wishes to take calcium and Magnesium but is not sure how much.
Here are my thoughts:
1. She should not be on unopposed estrogen,
especially Premarin (synthetic estrogen). That is a sure prescription
for worsening hormonal imbalance (estrogen dominance). Though this is not
your main question, you need to be careful. Consider progesterone (natural)
cream to counter the effect and taper of estrogen.
2. Too high a calcium level leads to increased
coagulation and increased risk of vascular accident. Too
low a magnesium (and 80% of modern day diet is low in magnesium) will
raise the ca/mg ratio, causing similar problem as too much calcium.
3. Most adults are walking around with estrogen dominance due to our diet
and exposure to environmental estrogen. Excessive estrogen
reduces circulating Magnesium, leading to a relative excess of calcium.
So any excessive calcium will only increase even more
the already high ca/mg ratio in the presence of high estrogen.
The lesions of arteries and heart caused by experimental Mg deficiency have
been well documented and may contribute to human cardiovascular disease.
Estrogen's enhancement of Mg utilization and uptake by soft tissues and
bone may explain resistance of young women to heart disease and osteoporosis,
as well as increased prevalence of these diseases when estrogen secretion
ceases.
4. In summary:
a. Most of us are in an estrogen dominant
environment, resulting in lowered Magnesium.
b. Most of us can easily get into a calcium dominant environment. Reason:
Too little magnesium.
c. Most of us are in a magnesium deficient state.
As a result, we all end up with too much calcium.
What do you do? Simply reduce calcium intake and increase Magnesium.
The ideal ratio is Ca/Mg ratio of 1 to 2 for
adults. The same rule does not apply to growing children, and
does not apply to those who are on whole food.
a. Obtain intracellular calcium and magnesium blood level if you want
to be scientific about it.
b. Reduce calcium to 300-500 mg a day.
c. Increase magnesium to 500-1000 a day, or as tolerated (excessive amount
can cause diarrhea).
| Message from Dr. Lam I hope you have enjoyed reading this article. If you have areas you don’t understand, comments (good or bad), or if you have a specific health concern, feel free to write to me by clicking here. |
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