Calcium and Maintaining Balance
Most people know that calcium is needed for healthy, strong bones, but many don’t realize its important role in homeostasis of the blood. Homeostasis is simply a state of internal balance within your body’s systems. Calcium is an alkaline mineral, the most abundant and most important in your body. In order to do its job and keep the pH balance of blood somewhere between 7.35 and 7.45, it must strike a balance with other key factors. One of those factors is the acidic mineral phosphorous, which in addition to calcium, is a key ingredient in your bones.
Bones are a major buffer of calcium and calcium, a major buffer of blood. Why is this important? Well, buffers are essential solutions that contain substances needed to maintain proper function of your body’s cellular systems and resist any rapid changes in pH levels. This makes calcium super important to the health of your blood. If the pH level in blood decreases and becomes too acidic, your parathyroid gland releases parathyroid hormone sending a signal to stimulate osteoclasts- bone destroying cells. This process releases calcium from the tissue into the blood to rebalance the pH. If there isn’t a sufficient amount of vitamin D in your body this conversion may not be able to happen.
The opposite happens when pH rises and becomes too alkaline. Too much calcium sends excess calcium from the blood into other cells throughout your body. Usually it gets excreted in your urine, but if left untreated for a long time there could be accumulation that causes calcification and a myriad of problems in various parts of the body. Excess calcium has been shown to increase the risk of kidney and cardiovascular disease, as well as prostrate cancer. Most individuals get enough calcium in their diet, yet problems usually arise because the necessary factors that go into absorbing and utilizing that calcium are not present or being used effectively.
