Question: Recently, I read about the dangers of calcium deposits in areas of the heart and chest. How critical is this condition, and is there a way to treat such deposits by natural means?
Dr. Hibberd's Answer:
Calcium deposition seems to occur as a result of long-term deposits in the inside of our blood vessels, usually in areas of "plaque." This plaque usually consists of a lipid core (consisting of fat, cholesterol, and cellular material) that is found to calcify over time. This calcification is recognized on CAT scan imaging of coronary vessels, and the scan is used to generate a risk score for underlying coronary artery disease.
The only natural means to reduce calcifications are to avoid oversupplementation with calcium, and correction of conditions that enhance calcium deposition in our blood vessels. Chelation therapy is not the solution for this condition.
Current evidence shows that most heart attack victims suffer from an "unstable" plaque that pulls away from the inside of the vessel wall, causing bleeding. The clot itself that blocks blood flow (and produces the loss of blood flow reflected in the heart attack) is actually from this bleeding process.
We also know that plaque of any size may be "vulnerable" to this process, whether it is small or large. So, does calcification simply reflect an underlying process, and could it be that this calification may stabilize a previosly unstable plaque?
The best solution to this dilemma is to minimize the plaque present that will then not be present later to be reflected as a calcified plaque. This is precisely why we now advocate lowering your risks for accumulation of plaque inside our blood vessels by various means such as lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, aggressive control of diabetes, as well as weight management, hypertension control, and smoking cessation.
Calcium deposition in our blood vessels seems to accelerate as we age. Generally in medicine, once we understand the reasons and correct the underlying conditions, this process reveals yet more we need to understand.
The aging process and the blood vessel system and its process of maintenance, evolution, and aging is a hot topic for research in medicine at present and its solution could generate a Nobel Prize in medicine.
© 2010 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
