One of the things I dread the most as a heart surgeon is… calcium. Yes, severely calcified valves and arteries are probably my worst nightmare. To remove the calcium, we have to use surgical instruments such as the “bone eater” – and even with that you struggle a lot! Eventually the instruments end up losing their sharp cutting edge. It is like cutting a rock, I kid you not. Tissues that should be smooth and silky are calcified and have the consistency of a rock or a bone. It has gotten worse over the years and there could be other factors involved as well, but magnesium is one of those things that is absolutely essential -and usually it shines by its absence in most therapies!
Magnesium helps to dissolve calcium; it becomes more water soluble. So with foods artificially enriched with calcium, and the boom of calcium supplementation, there is never enough magnesium. Already in 1936 in the US Senate, there were discussions about dangerous diet deficiencies due to mineral depleted soils. Foods raised on millions of acres of land no longer contain enough of certain minerals, no matter how much of them you eat (and this was in the 1930′s!). So usually there is always a constant deficiency in magnesium in most populations.
If you don’t have enough magnesium to help keep calcium dissolved, you end up with calcium-excess spasms, calcification of arteries, calcium deposits, kidney stones, spasms of your blood vessels (which can lead to heart attacks and angina), migraine headaches, broncospasm (asthma), arrhythmias, etc. Magnesium deficiencies are also seen in depression and anxieties!