Adapted from THE CALCIUM BOMB: The Nanobacteria Link to Heart Disease and Cancer, by Douglas Mulhall & Katja Hansen (The Writers’ Collective) www.calcify.com What medical condition affects more of us than heart disease, arthritis, or cancer, and why is it suddenly such a compelling issue?
According to thousands of medical journal articles, Calcification — also known as calcium deposits, hardening of
arteries, cysts, stones, and hard plaque — happens in all those illnesses and more.
And it just struck home for millions.
Throngs of baby boomers are rushing to get checked for calcification since rock icon David Bowie and former President Clinton had emergency operations for it. David Letterman, Larry King, CBS’s René Syler, actress Koo Stark, and many pro athletes have it too.
Calcification is hardening of our body tissue by calcium salts. These salts contain other minerals, such as phosphorus, and are often harmful. They are dangerous because they provoke chronic and painful swelling, gumming up arteries and organs, with crippling or fatal results.
Calcification can sometimes be a disease on its own, but is more frequently found in other illnesses. Calcium deposits are in breast and ovarian cancer. Breast implant patients occasionally require surgery to remove calcium deposits that develop around implant. The deposits show up as spots on mammograms and can be mistaken for cancer.
Calcification is often in arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes. Many arthritis sufferers who have calcium deposits go on to develop heart disease, but until recently link has never been understood. Nor has one between osteoporosis—loss of bone calcium—and seemingly contrary growth of calcium deposits elsewhere as illness progresses.
Although calcification occurs more frequently as we age, being young is no defense: it is often in sport injuries, and sidelines many athletes. Bursitis and tendonitis can contain calcium deposits. Kidney stones are usually calcified at center.
More than half a trillion dollars are spent annually to treat calcification-related diseases. So why haven’t more stories explained it until now? Because until now, no one knew where it came from or how to get rid of it.
For example, look for term “calcification” at National Library of Medicine’s PubMed website and you’ll find about 23,000 articles about condition, but few if any claim positive scientific evidence of a cause.
