The ABC Homeopathy Forum
Attention TimCarm
On Coenzyme Q10 is QGel better as it is claimed to be better absorbed by the body? and if so how much QGel is equivalent to 60 mg of regular Coenzyme Q10.What is wrong with calcium? My doctor advised me to take 1,800 mg of calcium to prevent osteoporosis. Thank you.
cks689 on 2007-04-07
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
To cks689,
I have not used Q-Gel, so am unable to comment on its efficacy.
Look here to see the ingredients:-
http://www.consumerlab.com/results/CoQ10_ing.asp
The manufacturer claims 'Lower dosages of Q-Gel; required for desired plasma levels', this is fine but still take 100mg 3 times
A day. In cancer studies the dose has been put at 400mg per day, with no side effects.
Now for the reason of why NOT to supplement calcium.
A supplement is any preparation designed to help the body reach its optimal state of nutrition. It supplies 'minerals', 'vitamins', and other elements essential to optimal bodily and immune function. Literally speaking, a supplement is simply supposed to furnish what is lacking.
'Minerals', the focus of many supplements, are nonorganic substances that usually come from the earth's crust. Minerals contain many elements essential for cellular function, such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium.
'Vitamins', also emphasized in many supplements, are largely unrelated organic substances that the body requires in tiny amounts to maintain normal metabolic functioning.
Finally there is a huge variety of other supplements that are unrelated chemically, and are touted to have different effect on the body, based on either scientific evidence or empirical observations. Coenzyme Q10 is one of these.
Now remembering that minerals are nonorganic substances, containing the elements essential for survival in nonorganic forms not generally appropriate for direct human ingestion. With a few notable exceptions, nonorganic substances are designed primarily for the support of plant life, while organic substances are designed primarily for the support of animal and human life. Simply put, an example of a nonorganic substance would be a rock, and an example of an organic substance would be a apple. However, plants can take rock based minerals an process them into an organic form that will nourish the body. So although we cannot (shouldn't) eat rock directly, we can eat the plant that was partially nourished by the rock based minerals.
The difference between inorganic and organic forms of essential elements is addressed by the concept of 'bioavailabilaty'. Bioavailabilaty is NOT the same thing as 'absorbability'. Many inorganic forms of ionic elements (for example, the calcium in calcium carbonate) are easily absorbed from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. However, absorption from the digestive tract does not assure delivery to the proper target sites in the proper target tissues. Nor does it assure that delivery will not be made to the wrong tissues. Many ionic element forms must be delivered to the body in organic, foodlike forms to assure delivery to the proper tissues.
Although it is not a mineral, vitamin D provides a good example of this delivery concept. When sunlight forms active vitamin D (cholecalciferol) in the skin, a specific blood protein attaches to the vitamin and carries it to target tissues. When the tissue receptor sites are physically near, the blood protein will release its attachment to the nutrient and allow its efficient binding to the receptor sites. This mechanism not only allows a very efficient delivery of a nutrient to the precise location where it is needed, but also minimizes the need to 'overdose' the body with that nutrient to assure that it gets where it needs to go. This naturally efficient form of nutrient delivery also makes it much less likely that a nutrient will over accumulate in the wrong place.
While all vitamins and minerals have not had specific blood transport proteins identified for them, variations in how different foods are digested also help to determine how a nutrient is released into the blood to find its target tissues. Many digestive processes deliver vitamin and mineral nutrients into the blood very slowly and in association with other food molecules absorbed at the same time. Never be fooled into thinking that any supplement that is easily absorbed is also a supplement that must be bioavailable as well. Rather remember that 'mother nature' never intended for you to eat a rock, wether it is packaged as an easily swallowable pill or not. As we shall see later, such a supplement is actually toxic, further separating you from the good health that you (or a loved one) are trying to attain. You would hope that taking any commercially produced supplement would do at least some good for you, but this is not necessarily the case.
Another reason why the concept of bioavailability is different from the concept of absorbability has to do with the rates of dissociation and reassociation seen with different mineral preparations. Anything that can be dissolved also has a tendency to precipitate and drop back out of solution into its predissolved, solid form. (especially without attached enzymes, but that is a subject for another monologue)
Just because something can ionize and go into solution doesn't mean it will stay in solution. Any dissolved substance can reassociate or recomplex together, and drop back out of solution. Highly dissolvable substances have weak ionic charges holding the substance together, tending to let them stay dissolved. However, other substances have strong ionic charges that can readily result in a recomplexing that will cause the dissolved substance to again drop out of solution. If a dissolved rock that was absorbed into the bloodstream later reassociates and deposits inside your tissues, it's easy to understand why your health might be severely compromised by the chronic ingestion of a substance.
Calcium carbonate is the mineral form of calcium that is the predominant form in dolomite, (a rock) a very common and cheap source of calcium used in many supplement preparations today. One of the primary characteristics of calcium carbonate in nature is its tendency to precipitate out of solution back into its hard, rocklike form. Stalactites and stalagmites, the spears of rock hanging from the ceilings and on the ground in caves, are dramatic examples of this precipitation. In nature this precipitation occurs when the water content of the dissolved calcium carbonate begins to evaporate, concentrating the mineral and making it easier for it to drop out of solution.
In the body, similar factors can promote the undesirable precipitation of poorly dissociated mineral forms out of the blood, including the very same calcium carbonate just mentioned. Dehydration, weather caused by failure to drink enough water or by taking medications such as diuretics, can promote this precipitation. The concentrations and numbers of other solutes, or dissolved substances, in the blood can also affect this tendency to precipitate. The blood does not have an unlimited capacity to absorb new solutes. When too much of a new substance is absorbed, something else has to precipitate out. One's general health status also affects precipitation. When the acid-base balance of the blood gets out of whack, precipitation may increase. Also, after the precipitation process has already started in the tissues, just as with calcium deposits seen in the atherosclerotic hardening of the arteries, it is easier for new precipitation to 'attach' to the old sites of precipitation and to drop out of solution. Just like the stalactites and stalagmites, once the process has been initiated, it takes much less precipitation 'pressure' to continue the process. Many processes in chemistry and biology are much easier to continue than to initiate. Precipitation can also occur when you take large doses of supplementation. Even a highly dissolvable form of calcium with weak ionic attractions when dissolved, such as calcium chloride or calcium citrate, will eventually saturate the blood and drop out of solution in combination with a variety of other negatively charged dissolved particles, or anions. So even if your calcium (or other mineral element) doesn't come from a rock, it can still eventually deposit abnormally in your tissues if you take too much.
There is a lot of calcium in most diets, and even a relatively small amount of calcium supplementation taken on a regular basis can result in undesirable, rocklike, nonbiologic deposits of calcium in the tissues. (arteries, kidneys, etc..) These calcium deposits will promote and accelerate almost all of the many different degenerative diseases seen with increasing age. SHORT TERM calcium supplementation to support bone healing and healing in general is about the only reasonable way to supplement this mineral element. Toxicity and poor nutrition are the PRIMARY causes of osteoporosis, and these factors must first be addressed if osteoporosis is to be controlled. Causing other diseases with indiscriminate calcium supplementation is not the answer to trying to protect yourself from osteoporosis.
The dairy industry and the osteoporosis 'experts' have convinced the public that massively supplemented calcium is essential to good health and strong bones. In fact, calcium is available in a wide variety of foods, (as explained in the post to M.Shivanandam, three examples)
Although you can still become depleted of calcium in your bones with all the calcium available in foods, the REAL reason for calcium depletion have more to do with TOXINS and CALCIUM-MOBILIZING foods than with the actual lack of calcium in the diet.
Toxins, especially those of the dental origin, disrupt the calcium phosphorus balance, causing a continual mobilization of calcium out of the bones and into the urine. Also, sugar, caffeine, and soft drinks, three of the most commonly eaten substances, all directly promote this increased urinary excretion of calcium mobilized from the bones. In most people, calcium present in the diet cannot keep pace with this ongoing mobilization, and osteoporosis of some degree is inevitable if you get old enough.
Hopefully this rather lengthy passage has answered your question on calcium supplementation, and opened the door to other questions, such as toxins and nutrition.
If you wish to follow up on toxins, (dental) look at the web link below.
http://www.hugginsappliedhealing.com
If you wish to follow up on nutrition, look at the web links below.
http://www.westonaprice.org/
http://www.price-pottenger.org
God Bless,
Tim
I have not used Q-Gel, so am unable to comment on its efficacy.
Look here to see the ingredients:-
http://www.consumerlab.com/results/CoQ10_ing.asp
The manufacturer claims 'Lower dosages of Q-Gel; required for desired plasma levels', this is fine but still take 100mg 3 times
A day. In cancer studies the dose has been put at 400mg per day, with no side effects.
Now for the reason of why NOT to supplement calcium.
A supplement is any preparation designed to help the body reach its optimal state of nutrition. It supplies 'minerals', 'vitamins', and other elements essential to optimal bodily and immune function. Literally speaking, a supplement is simply supposed to furnish what is lacking.
'Minerals', the focus of many supplements, are nonorganic substances that usually come from the earth's crust. Minerals contain many elements essential for cellular function, such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium.
'Vitamins', also emphasized in many supplements, are largely unrelated organic substances that the body requires in tiny amounts to maintain normal metabolic functioning.
Finally there is a huge variety of other supplements that are unrelated chemically, and are touted to have different effect on the body, based on either scientific evidence or empirical observations. Coenzyme Q10 is one of these.
Now remembering that minerals are nonorganic substances, containing the elements essential for survival in nonorganic forms not generally appropriate for direct human ingestion. With a few notable exceptions, nonorganic substances are designed primarily for the support of plant life, while organic substances are designed primarily for the support of animal and human life. Simply put, an example of a nonorganic substance would be a rock, and an example of an organic substance would be a apple. However, plants can take rock based minerals an process them into an organic form that will nourish the body. So although we cannot (shouldn't) eat rock directly, we can eat the plant that was partially nourished by the rock based minerals.
The difference between inorganic and organic forms of essential elements is addressed by the concept of 'bioavailabilaty'. Bioavailabilaty is NOT the same thing as 'absorbability'. Many inorganic forms of ionic elements (for example, the calcium in calcium carbonate) are easily absorbed from the digestive tract into the bloodstream. However, absorption from the digestive tract does not assure delivery to the proper target sites in the proper target tissues. Nor does it assure that delivery will not be made to the wrong tissues. Many ionic element forms must be delivered to the body in organic, foodlike forms to assure delivery to the proper tissues.
Although it is not a mineral, vitamin D provides a good example of this delivery concept. When sunlight forms active vitamin D (cholecalciferol) in the skin, a specific blood protein attaches to the vitamin and carries it to target tissues. When the tissue receptor sites are physically near, the blood protein will release its attachment to the nutrient and allow its efficient binding to the receptor sites. This mechanism not only allows a very efficient delivery of a nutrient to the precise location where it is needed, but also minimizes the need to 'overdose' the body with that nutrient to assure that it gets where it needs to go. This naturally efficient form of nutrient delivery also makes it much less likely that a nutrient will over accumulate in the wrong place.
While all vitamins and minerals have not had specific blood transport proteins identified for them, variations in how different foods are digested also help to determine how a nutrient is released into the blood to find its target tissues. Many digestive processes deliver vitamin and mineral nutrients into the blood very slowly and in association with other food molecules absorbed at the same time. Never be fooled into thinking that any supplement that is easily absorbed is also a supplement that must be bioavailable as well. Rather remember that 'mother nature' never intended for you to eat a rock, wether it is packaged as an easily swallowable pill or not. As we shall see later, such a supplement is actually toxic, further separating you from the good health that you (or a loved one) are trying to attain. You would hope that taking any commercially produced supplement would do at least some good for you, but this is not necessarily the case.
Another reason why the concept of bioavailability is different from the concept of absorbability has to do with the rates of dissociation and reassociation seen with different mineral preparations. Anything that can be dissolved also has a tendency to precipitate and drop back out of solution into its predissolved, solid form. (especially without attached enzymes, but that is a subject for another monologue)
Just because something can ionize and go into solution doesn't mean it will stay in solution. Any dissolved substance can reassociate or recomplex together, and drop back out of solution. Highly dissolvable substances have weak ionic charges holding the substance together, tending to let them stay dissolved. However, other substances have strong ionic charges that can readily result in a recomplexing that will cause the dissolved substance to again drop out of solution. If a dissolved rock that was absorbed into the bloodstream later reassociates and deposits inside your tissues, it's easy to understand why your health might be severely compromised by the chronic ingestion of a substance.
Calcium carbonate is the mineral form of calcium that is the predominant form in dolomite, (a rock) a very common and cheap source of calcium used in many supplement preparations today. One of the primary characteristics of calcium carbonate in nature is its tendency to precipitate out of solution back into its hard, rocklike form. Stalactites and stalagmites, the spears of rock hanging from the ceilings and on the ground in caves, are dramatic examples of this precipitation. In nature this precipitation occurs when the water content of the dissolved calcium carbonate begins to evaporate, concentrating the mineral and making it easier for it to drop out of solution.
In the body, similar factors can promote the undesirable precipitation of poorly dissociated mineral forms out of the blood, including the very same calcium carbonate just mentioned. Dehydration, weather caused by failure to drink enough water or by taking medications such as diuretics, can promote this precipitation. The concentrations and numbers of other solutes, or dissolved substances, in the blood can also affect this tendency to precipitate. The blood does not have an unlimited capacity to absorb new solutes. When too much of a new substance is absorbed, something else has to precipitate out. One's general health status also affects precipitation. When the acid-base balance of the blood gets out of whack, precipitation may increase. Also, after the precipitation process has already started in the tissues, just as with calcium deposits seen in the atherosclerotic hardening of the arteries, it is easier for new precipitation to 'attach' to the old sites of precipitation and to drop out of solution. Just like the stalactites and stalagmites, once the process has been initiated, it takes much less precipitation 'pressure' to continue the process. Many processes in chemistry and biology are much easier to continue than to initiate. Precipitation can also occur when you take large doses of supplementation. Even a highly dissolvable form of calcium with weak ionic attractions when dissolved, such as calcium chloride or calcium citrate, will eventually saturate the blood and drop out of solution in combination with a variety of other negatively charged dissolved particles, or anions. So even if your calcium (or other mineral element) doesn't come from a rock, it can still eventually deposit abnormally in your tissues if you take too much.
There is a lot of calcium in most diets, and even a relatively small amount of calcium supplementation taken on a regular basis can result in undesirable, rocklike, nonbiologic deposits of calcium in the tissues. (arteries, kidneys, etc..) These calcium deposits will promote and accelerate almost all of the many different degenerative diseases seen with increasing age. SHORT TERM calcium supplementation to support bone healing and healing in general is about the only reasonable way to supplement this mineral element. Toxicity and poor nutrition are the PRIMARY causes of osteoporosis, and these factors must first be addressed if osteoporosis is to be controlled. Causing other diseases with indiscriminate calcium supplementation is not the answer to trying to protect yourself from osteoporosis.
The dairy industry and the osteoporosis 'experts' have convinced the public that massively supplemented calcium is essential to good health and strong bones. In fact, calcium is available in a wide variety of foods, (as explained in the post to M.Shivanandam, three examples)
Although you can still become depleted of calcium in your bones with all the calcium available in foods, the REAL reason for calcium depletion have more to do with TOXINS and CALCIUM-MOBILIZING foods than with the actual lack of calcium in the diet.
Toxins, especially those of the dental origin, disrupt the calcium phosphorus balance, causing a continual mobilization of calcium out of the bones and into the urine. Also, sugar, caffeine, and soft drinks, three of the most commonly eaten substances, all directly promote this increased urinary excretion of calcium mobilized from the bones. In most people, calcium present in the diet cannot keep pace with this ongoing mobilization, and osteoporosis of some degree is inevitable if you get old enough.
Hopefully this rather lengthy passage has answered your question on calcium supplementation, and opened the door to other questions, such as toxins and nutrition.
If you wish to follow up on toxins, (dental) look at the web link below.
http://www.hugginsappliedhealing.com
If you wish to follow up on nutrition, look at the web links below.
http://www.westonaprice.org/
http://www.price-pottenger.org
God Bless,
Tim
TimCam last decade
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