Of all the numerous investigations made by Dr. Price, the one which produced the most confusion and required the most research time was his investigation into the role of calcium. He stated that every cell of the body is dependent on the presence of ionic calcium. It is used in teeth and bones, in the movement of muscles, in the rhythmic action of the heart and intestines, and is indispensable for the coagulation of blood at the time of cuts, injuries, surgeries, etc.



And that is only part of the story. In addition to these important functions, Dr. Price found calcium to have a remarkable role to play when infections are present,in metabolism, during pregnancy, in the maintenance of the acid-alkaline balance of the body,in the presence or absense of tooth decay,pyorrhea and other degenerative diseases,and that it should be given more consideration in studies of immunity and susceptibility.

It was a great disappointment to Dr. Price that medical literature contained so little information about these critical problems, and it was partially due to this deficiency that Dr. Price embarked on his own many pursuits of the subject. To make matters worse,dental pathology in literature was filled with paradoxes, many directly or indirectly related to calcium in both negative and positive ways.

A couple of puzzling key situations were

(1) the wasting away of bone surrounding teeth in cases of pyorrhea and

(2) the large areas of bone eaten away at the root ends of infected teeth. Individuals having these conditions were found to have high amounts of ionic calcium. In such instances, one is more apt to expect the calcium level to be low rather than high.

A similar situation existed in rheumatoid arthritis cases that were marked by loss of bone in the finger joints and other skeletal areas, and conversely with the building up of bone which occurs in osteoarthristis cases. Where bone is lost, one would expect low ionic calcium to be the case, but,instead, these patients proved to have high anounts of ionic calcium. Conversely, one would expect thick bony areas and the building of bone in osteoarthristcs to be high in ionic calcium, but these patients were found to have low amounts of ionic calcium in the blood.

Whenever your physician or dentist has a blood panel test run, two of the items determined are the amount of calcium and the amount of phosphorus in your blood. Most medical laboratories state the normal value of calcium to be 8.5 to 10.5 mg/dl and the phosphorus 2.5 to 4.5 mg/dl.

Many laboratories now also list the amount of ionic calcium; that is, the amount of calcium carrying an electric charge. While many doctors roughly estimate ionic calcium to be about half of the total amount of calcium shown in the blood test, this can be quite inaccurate.

Of that normal 10 to 10.7 mg of calcium, approximately four milligrams is actrually a part of the protein enzyme, thrombin,which plays an active role in the clotting of blood. Less than a milligram of the normal 10 mg/dl is contained in our various blood cells. The remaining five milligrams of the total is ionic calcium.

The calcium in thrombin is relatively constant in order to assure the clotting of blood,and must be present to prevent our bleeding to death. If your blood panel amount of calcium turns out to be low, say 7.5 mg/dl, when you subtract the 4 mg of calcium present in the thrombin and the 1 mg contained in blood cells,the amount remaining as ionized calcium would be only 2.5 mg. It is by understanding this body mechanism and function that you will appreciate what Dr. Price is referring to when he mentions low or high levels of ionic calcium.

Incidentally, physicians don't see the significance of these changes unless the calcium gets above 11 or 12 mg/dl, or lower than 8.5 when calcium is that high, they look for hyperparathroidism, bony metastasis, too much vitamin D, cancer, long-term diuretic use, acidosis, or deydration. When calcium is very low, doctors are concerned about hypoparathyroidism, malabsorption, pancreatitis, kidney failure, osteomalacia, rickets, and alkalosis.

Copyright (c) 2007 Sung Lee, and George Meinig D.D.S