Are you drinking 1-2 quarts of milk per day?
If not, then you might want to keep reading.
Most are not getting the calcium they need from their diet, and it’s negatively affecting your thyroid health, your weight, your bones, and your risk of deadly disease – a lot more than you might think.
In fact, calcium deficiency is a major problem in today’s society.
Have you seen these bone loss statistics?
- 80% of women and 50% of men experience significant bone loss due to osteoporosis or osteopenia.
- 1 out of every 2 women age 50 or older will break a bone because of this.
Yet, if the evidence is so clear, why don’t more people do anything to fix it?
When it comes to calcium, there are so many misconceptions, and so much confusion, that it can be difficult to make sense of it all.
For example…
Why is calcium deficiency so commonly misdiagnosed?
Where should you be getting your calcium?
How much calcium do you actually need?
The good news is that we’ll cover all of this and show you how to avoid so many of these common calcium issues (and manage your weight much more easily)…
…with our 3 Simple Steps to Overcoming Calcium Deficiency below.
But first, let’s talk about how failing to get the calcium you need is hurting your thyroid health, leading to excess weight gain, and setting you up for numerous diseases.
How Calcium Deficiency is Suppressing Your Thyroid
There are two primary ways that calcium deficiency suppresses your thyroid.
The first is through the overproduction of the thyroid-suppressive hormone call parathyroid hormone (PTH.)
You see, parathyroid hormone is produced by your parathyroid glands to help regulate the calcium levels in your blood.
If you’re not getting the calcium you need from your diet, then parathyroid hormone increases to pull calcium from your bones in order maintain adequate levels of calcium in your blood.
(Are you starting to see why bone loss is such a common problem?)
What most don’t realize is just how thyroid-suppressive parathyroid hormone really is.
For example, excess parathyroid hormone has been shown to…
- Cyclically promote the overproduction of other thyroid-suppressive hormones, trapping you in a hypothyroid state.
- Increase the production of inflammatory chemicals in the body.
- Inhibit healthy oxidative metabolism and healthy cell function.
- Promote a chronic state of hypothyroid metabolism.
- Reduce energy production.
Yet, that’s not the only way that calcium deficiency suppresses your thyroid.
Calcium deficiency has also been shown to increase estrogen, which is another very common thyroid-suppressive hormone.
For example, take a look at this study showing that a calcium deficient diet not only caused significant bone loss, but it also caused estrogen levels to be more than 4x higher.
A calcium-deficient diet caused decreased bone mineral density and secondary elevation of estrogen in aged male rats-effect of menatetrenone and elcatonin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12370839/
“The Ca-deficient diet reduced bone mineral density (BMD) by approximately 12%. The mean estradiol level in sera of rats fed the Ca-deficient diet was significantly increased to 4.3 times that in the regular diet group.”
(Note: Want to learn why estrogen dominance is so dangerous to your thyroid health and how to fix it? See this article: “3-Step Plan Can Lower Hidden Hashimoto’s Hormone by More than 55% In 10 Weeks“.)
Unfortunately, it gets worse from there.
How Calcium Deficiency Is Literally Making You Fat
You might not know this, but a calcium deficient diet also leads to an increased production of fat tissue.
That’s right…
A lack of calcium promotes the process called lipogenesis (increased fat deposits) while also inhibiting the process of lipolysis (breakdown of fat tissue.)
Regulation of adiposity and obesity risk by dietary calcium: mechanisms and implications
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11999543/
“In support of this concept, transgenic mice expressing the agouti gene specifically in adipocytes (a human-like pattern) respond to low calcium diets with accelerated weight gain and fat accretion, while high calcium diets markedly inhibit lipogenesis, accelerate lipolysis, increase thermogenesis and suppress fat accretion and weight gain in animals maintained at identical caloric intakes. Further, low calcium diets impede body fat loss, while high calcium diets markedly accelerate fat loss…”
Yet, what you might be interested in learning is this…
In the same manner as a low-calcium diet promotes increased fat tissue, a high-calcium diet does just the opposite, promoting fat loss.
The same study above also noted that you can not only stop this process of fat accumulation, but also reverse it by simply increasing your calcium intake.
We’ll show you how to do that in just a few minutes.
But unfortunately, it gets worse still.
How Calcium Deficiency Can Lead to An Early Death
As we all know, bone density loss and osteoporosis are caused by calcium being pulled from your bones.
Yet, what most don’t know is what happens with all that calcium when it does.
That’s where the real danger lies.
And it has everything to do with a phenomenon called the “Calcium Paradox.”
This is one you’ll want to remember, because it’s hardly recognized by traditional medicine, yet it’s being implicated in many of today’s most common and deadly diseases.
Simply put, in calcium deficiency, the excess calcium being pulled from your bones ends up being deposited within the soft tissues of your body, including your organs.
As the study below details, this can lead to a number of deadly diseases including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, arthritis, and more.
Calcium paradox: consequences of calcium deficiency manifested by a wide variety of diseases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10874605
“Calcium deficiency is readily connected with osteoporosis, which is a decrease of bone calcium content. Less well known is the calcium outflow from bone that occurs to prevent decrease of blood calcium in calcium deficiency caused by the parathyroid hormone, with consequent calcium overflow into soft tissues and the intracellular compartment. Such intracellular paradoxical Ca overload as a consequence of nutritional calcium deficiency may give rise to a number of diseases common in old age: hypertension, arteriosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative diseases, malignancy, and degenerative joint disease.”
Hopefully this gets the point across.
Calcium deficiency is a real concern that most doctors are not aware of or trained to properly assess.
In fact, there are times when doctors recommend less calcium, which can make matters worse.
Why You Often Need MORE Calcium When Your Doctors Says You Need Less
Assessing calcium deficiency can certainly be very tricky for a couple of reasons.
- It doesn’t generally show up on lab tests.
- When it does show up on lab tests it often looks like a calcium excess (more on this in a second.)
You see, your body has plenty of calcium stored in your bones.
When you become calcium deficient, your body simply pulls it from your bones.
You might think that’s perfectly fine, until your bone density decreases and you develop osteoporosis.
But, the important thing to understand is that your routine blood-work won’t generally show a calcium deficiency because your body is going to steal it from your bones if you don’t get enough from your diet.
To make matters worse, when calcium deficiency does show up in your labs, it often shows as an excess of calcium.
This is due to what we call the Hypothyroidism – Estrogen – Prolactin Cycle.
In hypothyroidism, we generally see increased estrogen and serotonin levels, which in turn stimulate parathyroid hormone and prolactin production.
In this cycle, the overproduction of parathyroid hormone (and prolactin) can result in excess calcium being pulled from the bones, resulting in elevated blood calcium levels.
Oftentimes, doctors see this and tell you to avoid calcium, which only compounds the problem and makes it worse.
3 Simple Steps to Overcoming Calcium Deficiency
Now that you know the truth about calcium deficiency, let’s talk about what you can do about it.
It’s important to know that getting adequate calcium (from the right sources) is only half the battle.
You still have to make sure you can absorb that calcium and get it to the right places in your body, while avoiding the wrong places.
So, here are three simple tips to help you do just that.
1. Get 1,500 to 2,000 mg of Calcium Daily (from the right sources)
Remember the introductory question… “Are you drinking 1-2 quarts of milk per day?”
The good news is that a quart of milk contains a little over 1,000 mg of calcium, which happens to be a great way to help get your calcium needs.
Not only is dairy rich in calcium, it’s also rich in other thyroid-supportive nutrients (i.e. calcium!) and extremely low in thyroid-suppressive ones (i.e. i.e. PUFAs, iron, harmful fibers, etc.)
Yet, we also understand that many struggle with dairy due to their thyroid condition.
(Note: Want to learn how we help our clients overcome dairy intolerance? See this article: “How to Overcome Dairy Intolerance Once and For All“.)
In these cases, or in cases where getting all of our calcium needs from dairy is not possible, we do recommend a calcium supplement (more on this in a second.)
But, you have to be careful with calcium supplements because many of the most common ones can have harmful or unwanted effects.
One of the most common is calcium citrate (we don’t recommend) as it can interfere with ceruloplasmin production, which helps protect your body from the harmful effects of iron.
While we do recommend calcium carbonate, you have to be careful of the source since most (i.e. refined or from oysters) are higher in heavy metals.
That’s why we recommend pure Eggshell Calcium, which solves the common problems associated with other calcium supplements.
2. Take Your Calcium With Food and Vitamin D3
Ideally, you should take your calcium with food for best absorption.
But, you also need adequate Vitamin D3 to be able to absorb calcium in your digestive tract.
If you haven’t tested your Vitamin D lately, it might be a good time.
Otherwise, taking an appropriate Vitamin D3 supplement can be warranted.
(Note: Want to learn how Vitamin D can help with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis? See this article: “How Hashimoto’s Patients Lowered TPO Antibodies by 46.7% with Vitamin D and Calcium“.)
3. Take Your Calcium With Vitamin K2 (MK4)
Once you’re getting adequate calcium and ensuring that you’re able to absorb it, there’s still one more step.
That step is to make sure the calcium goes to where it belongs inside your body.
This is where Vitamin K2 comes into play.
Like Vitamin D3, it also helps to improve the absorption of calcium; but more importantly, it helps to keep parathyroid hormone low, to keep calcium in your bones, and your thyroid healthy.
This is also why we recommend the use of our Thyroid-Boosting Vitamin ADK Thyroid Formula together with eggshell calcium as they work synergistically to provide the best results.
So, there you have it.
Are you getting the daily calcium you need to support your thyroid?
If not, please consider the harmful effects that calcium deficiency may be having on you, your thyroid, and your overall health and wellbeing.
Detecting a calcium deficiency can be difficult.
Remember, 50% of men and 80% of women don’t discover this until it’s too late and their bone density has already significantly declined.
Yet, it’s something that can be easily addressed in the 3 Simple Steps to Overcoming Calcium Deficiency that we shared with you today.
Using a healthy combination of Eggshell Calcium, Vitamin D3, and Vitamin K2 (like we use in our Vitamin ADK Thyroid Formula) can make all the difference and help ensure that you remain young, active, and in the 20% category of good bone health instead of becoming yet another bone loss statistic.
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