|
Coral Calcium
Practicing Medicine Without a License
There have been individuals posing as "health investigators" (whatever that means?) and other proponents and promoters of coral calcium products that have been "riding that horse" hard and fast. Their intent and purpose is to make all the dollars they can from it until their steed dies of exhaustion or gets shot out from under them.
Huge amounts of money have been spent on advertising coral calcium, and it has swept the country. It's available from approximately 86,000 web sites and in most health food and drug stores.
The hucksters have claimed that coral calcium is beneficial for everything - weight loss, cancer, joint pain, heart disease, high cholesterol, muscle cramps, kidney stones, indigestion, allergies, headaches and much more. How did they forget to mention that it could also increase the gas mileage in your car?
The story started ten or twelve years ago. It was based on the population of Okinawa, Japan, having an unusually long life span (one guy supposedly lived to 137) and being free of disease. This was attributed to their drinking water having the mysterious ability to keep the body pH (potential Hydrogen - acid/alkaline balance) in the right alkaline range. That was said to prevent disease, which is always the result of too much acidity.
There's the first big clue of a hoax in the making. Some organs and systems of the body are designed to be mildly to strongly acidic while others are more neutral to alkaline.
The distributors of coral calcium furnished a pH test strip to check urine (or saliva). If the results show acidic (and they all do), the individual (victim) is persuaded they are at risk for a number of dread diseases. The solution: Start taking coral calcium.
What could smack more of diagnosing and treating disease - practicing medicine without a license?
And just how did someone "conveniently" conclude that the drinking water in Okinawa came from the Sango coral reefs around the island, which accounted for it's benefits. The waters around Okinawa are heavily polluted, and the native population doesn't drink it.
Coral calcium is simply fossilized crustaceous (shell fish) material. It's calcium carbonate (chalk fractions) - the cheapest most difficult to absorb alkaline calcium there is. It's also the main ingredient in most anti-acids.
Two percent of the body weight is calcium. Its importance should not be overlooked, but even the best forms are not easily absorbed. The long-standing scientifically proven facts demonstrate that it takes a fair amount of Hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach to absorb calcium and minerals. How could something that diminishes or removes normal acid in the stomach (calcium carbonate) be even remotely helpful?
If there are any benefits to the consumption of coral calcium products it would be due to the trace minerals it naturally contains. Those elements can be obtained, however, from other superior sources.
It is wrong to misrepresent an inferior dietary supplement as a therapeutic agent or medicine for the treatment of disease or symptoms of disease; and there is no way to justify claims that coral calcium is 100% absorbable or "bioavailable".
It can only be hoped that's the end to this story (fable).
Copyright © 2004-2009 Truth4Health.com. All rights reserved.
|
