Fitness

No person aware of the rewards of adequate calcium would allow himself to be even slightly deficient in this nutrient. Calcium can be as soothing as a mother, as relaxing as a sedative, and as life saving as an oxygen tent.

Although 99 per cent of the calcium in the body is in the bones and teeth, symptoms resulting from an undersupply to the nerves and soft tissues can make life quite unbearable. For example, calcium aids in the transportation of nerve impulses. When this mineral is undersupplied, nerves become tense, and you become grouchy. The calcium-dencient person wastes energy, and his nervous tension and inability to relax induce fatigue out of all proportion to the work he actually does. He is usually so restless that it is tiring to be around him. His irritability and quick temper add nothing to his popularity. A mother whose seventeen-year-old son had an overdose of these symptoms, relieved by adequate calcium, said to me not long ago, “Thank you for making Johnny into a human being again.” If the blood calcium becomes unusually high, as it does when toxic doses of vitamin D are given experimentally, relaxation reaches the point of lethargy or sometimes coma; even the excitability of nerves and muscles to electrical stimulus is greatly reduced.

Often the person undersupplied with calcium becomes an air swallower. Since such a person usually talks rapidly, the air may be forced from the throat into the stomach during conversation, a trick nervous women are particularly good at. Either sex may unconsciously form the habit of vigorously swallowing saliva and air simultaneously. Frequently a man gulps his food and, like a ravenous baby, swallows air as he eats; since no one burps him, he often suffers from «indigestion.” The volatile oils from such foods as onions, green peppers, and garlic already in his stomach pass into the air bubbles, are tasted whenever he belches, and are blamed for the “indigestion.” In time his can’t-eat list usually becomes impressive. Often he is an enthusiastic user of soda or alkalinizing preparations. Besides forming enough carbon dioxide to force open the upper valve of the stomach and thus allowing gas and air alike to escape, these substances neutralize the valuable hydrochloric acid in his stomach; any calcium his food may have contained is made insoluble and cannot be absorbed into the blood. The swallowed air sometimes passes into the intestines, expands as it heats to body temperature, and may cause considerable distention and even pain. He becomes, in short, his own worst enemy. His symptoms, however, are quickly relieved provided adequate calcium reaches the nerves.

A calcium deficiency often shows itself by insomnia, another form of an inability to relax. The harm done by sleeping tablets, to say nothing of the thousands of dollars spent annually on them, could largely be avoided if the calcium intake were adequate. Since milk is our richest source of calcium, warm milk drinks taken before retiring have long been advertised for relief of insomnia; heat quickens digestion, calcium soothes the nerves, and restful sleep may follow. Such advertising has the blessing of both the American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration. For the person whose tissues are starved for calcium, however, the amount in a milk drink is a mere drop in a bucket. I usually tell persons whose insomnia is severe to take temporarily two or three calcium tablets with a milk drink before retiring and to keep both milk and the tablets on a bedside table and take more every hour if wakefulness persists. Twenty years ago I discussed this subject with a physician who himself suffered from insomnia; he still calls calcium tablets “lullaby pills” and tells me he continues to recommend them for patients annoyed by wakefulness.

An undersupply of calcium also causes irritability of the muscles which may take the form of cramps or spasms. If the blood calcium drops extremely low, convulsions known as tetany can occur; fortunately the usual muscle symptoms are less severe. Leg or foot cramps are the most common, although either cramps or spasms may occur in almost any muscle. For example, spasms in the intestine, spoken of as spastic colitis or spastic constipation, are usually relieved by adequate calcium. The amount of calcium in a woman’s blood parallels the activity of the ovaries; the blood calcium falls to such an extent during the week prior to menstruation that nervous tension, irritability, and perhaps mental depression result. At the onset of menstruation, the blood calcium takes a further drop, often resulting in cramps of the muscular walls of the uterus. This condition is especially severe during adolescence, when the demands of growth exaggerate the need for calcium. Menstrual cramps usually disappear within % hour after calcium is taken. During the year before menstruation begins (ref. 2, P: 152) and again during the menopause, the lack of ovarian hormones causes severe calcium-deficiency symptoms to occur; at these times unusually large amounts of calcium should be obtained, and every step be taken to insure its absorption into the blood and to prevent its loss from the kidneys. When these steps are taken, the girl at puberty often becomes more pleasant and manageable, and the woman at menopause usually loses her irritability, hot flashes, night sweats, leg cramps, and mental depression. Even after the cessation of menstruation, a pseudo-menstrual cycle can usually be observed, and calcium-deflciency symptoms can be particularly noticed during one week of each month. The calcium intake should be increased at such times.