What's Up With Coral Calcium? Bill Bailey, Ph.D., MH, ND, CNHP, CTN (Dr. Bailey can be reached at Traditional Naturopath)

Coral Calcium has been discussed throughout the natural health community of late, and is quite controversial in many "corners."  I thought an article on it's history and benefits would be in order to clarify some of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) surrounding this supplement!  Coral calcium is a natural compound that contains a form of the mineral, calcium.  However, it also has many special trace minerals, and other substances, that together, lend themselves to general health maintenance.  This makes it an important supplement for human consumption.  As a dietary supplement, it provides all the natural trace nutrients found in the human skeleton and the bodily fluids essential to life, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, selenium and zinc!

A History of Coral Calcium

The population of Okinawa and the southern coral islands of Japan have an average life expectancy of 105 years.  This is statistical fact.  Many things can be said that contribute to this statistic, of course!  Heredity, diet, etc. all are very important factors in the resident's long lives.  However, it is also a fact that the islands of Okinawa are surrounded by coral reefs that are composed of natural calcium and trace minerals.  Over time, the farmers of Okinawa discovered that feeding this coral calcium "sand" produced from the weathering reefs to their chickens and cows resulted in twice as many eggs and twice as much milk production as before!  Known as the "milk of the coral reefs," coral calcium "sand" has been supplying the population in this region with extraordinary nutritional benefits!  Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that using this supplement has benefited the residents and may contribute to their statistically significant longevity.

No other mineral is capable of performing as many essential biological functions as is calcium.  Calcium provides the electrical energy for the heart to beat and for all human muscle movement.  It also helps provide for immune system health and is essential for nourishing the bones and teeth.  The calcium ion is responsible for "feeding" every cell in the human body.  Additionally, calcium is involved in the body's DNA replication, which is crucial for maintaining one's overall health and youthful fitness and is also the basis for the body's cellular repair.  "Calcium provides energy and participates in the protein structuring of RNA and DNA."¹

Why are Minerals Important?

Minerals are the basic foundation "building blocks" for health.  From our bones, to the many enzymatic activities within and without our cells, proper mineral levels contribute greatly to optimum health and even weight control.  Coral Calcium supplementation supplies the body with missing minerals that have a crucial role to play in your health.  Most American's diets are deficient in these minerals.  By bringing the overall mineral levels up, and raising the pH of bodily fluids and tissues back to their natural healthy levels, the body reaches "homeostasis" and can better "fight off," or resist exposure to disease and germs.  In other words, a high pH (alkaline state) is important because most disease thrives in a low pH (acidic state) in the body.  In fact, degenerative disease has difficulty ever getting started in an alkaline environment.  Guyton's Medical Physiology (7th edition) states: "The term homeostasis is used by physiologists to mean maintenance of static or constant conditions in the internal environment."  Mineral balance is critical in the body, in fact, Dr. Abram Hopper states, "In fact, if anyone has a shortage of just one mineral, he can expect that his system will begin to weaken and lose its efficiency, with disease eventually setting in."²

Coral Calcium Meets a Critical Need for the American Diet

Most people in our modern, American society are quite mineral deficient.  This is because the soils in which we grow our food, and on which our cattle and other feed animals graze, have become depleted through unsustainable farming practices and the overuse of harsh chemical fertilizers and "crop conditioners."  When minerals are supplied in a natural, organic absorbable form, overall health of the body can be improved.  However, "... because more and more artificial fertilizers are being used to grow our plant life, the result is unhealthy plants, lacking the proper chemical elements.  In this way, it is possible to starve with a full stomach, because foods are being grown from depleted soils."³  Coral calcium contains every mineral needed by the body in the correct proportions for the human body.  And, coral calcium has been shown to have a "synergistic relationship" with the human body.  For instance, did you know that orthopedic surgeons actually use pieces of coral for bone grafts?⁴  This is because the bone and tendons readily accept the natural coral... limiting rejection issues.

What Do I Mean by "Synergy?"

Every mineral needs other minerals to support their action in the body.  Also, each supporting mineral needs additional minerals to support their action.  This can be described as a "synergistic" effect.  Hence, minerals work best in a "complex," such as coral, where every mineral is present in a natural balance, and is available from natural, organic sources.  It is very difficult for the human body to readily digest inorganic minerals.  Imagine trying to digest rocks!  However, the minerals in coral have already been digested by the action of the coral polyp.  Therefore, coral minerals are much more easily absorbed by the human body.  In fact, "over-the-counter" calcium supplements are absorbed at a shocking 2% - 3% rate!  Therefore, nearly 98% of what you buy in the supplement goes to waste, as it is not absorbed by the body!  High quality coral calcium, being much more bio-available, is absorbed in the 80 to 90% range!  This is a better "bargain" even at a higher initial cost... because you actually DO get a benefit from the supplement!

Coral minerals go "ionic" upon contact with moisture.  That is, when coral powder is placed in water, over half of the minerals resident in the compound go into the "ionic" state.  "Ionic" is a term that means the smallest atomic size.  Obviously, this state is better absorbed by the body.  You may have heard of a "colloidal" state for minerals... ionic is much smaller (and therefore more readily absorbed) than "colloidal" minerals!

What About Coral Calcium Harvesting Issues?

It is important to correctly harvest coral calcium in order to be both environmentally friendly to the living coral reefs, and to achieve optimum benefit from coral supplementation.  Why?  Let me explain.  Unfortunately, some "coral calcium" suppliers take dead coral fossil rubble from the ocean floor and package it as "coral calcium." Dredging the ocean floor for these coral fossils destroys the ocean ecology and is also quite detrimental to the living reef structure.  It has been documented that the coral larvae propagate in the dead coral debris.  Therefore, any disturbance of this habitat directly affects the life of the living coral reef.  It is therefore important to be responsible in how the coral material is gathered.  Also, while harvesting "live" coral is environmentally unfriendly, it is possible to harvest fresh coral that is naturally broken off the reefs by ocean action.  This coral is collected and then processed for the best, most biologically beneficial coral calcium.  Natural, non-fossilized coral calcium is the kind that contains the correct balance of trace elements, in the correct proportions to achieve maximum benefit to the body.  In short, we absolutely must have this kind of coral calcium to achieve the benefits we have been discussing.  Of course, doing this correctly, and in an environmentally friendly way can be time consuming and expensive, but it is also worth it to protect the reef structure, and harvest the best, most potent coral for human supplementation.

What Has Coral Calcium to Do With the Low Carb Lifestyle?

I believe that folks that are doing a low carb diet, and have accepted a low carb lifestyle, do so for reasons of improving  their overall health!  They want to lose weight in order to be healthy.  They also are eating more protein (especially meats) because they are diminishing their intake of carbohydrates.  (There are, after all, only so many food groups!)  Eating more meat can lead to an increasingly acid condition in the body... which, as we have seen previously in this article, is not a beneficial state!  I, personally, take CORALadvantage Coral Calcium supplements to lower my overall pH to lower levels.  My research has indicated that a high protein lifestyle lends itself to a possible acid condition, therefore coral calcium supplementation, which can quickly lower the body's pH, can help bring that all important "homeostasis" back to the body... benefiting our overall health!

This is why we at the Low Carb Nexus® have chosen to carry CORALadvantage Brand Coral Calcium.  We have found that it has the greatest benefit, is of the highest quality, and we highly recommend it for those wanting to improve their overall health by maximizing their body's own natural immune system!  Click HERE for more details!

1. Dr. James F. Balch, MD, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Third edition.  Page  26, Avery Publishing, 2000

2. Abram A. Hoffer, Smart Nutrients, Avery Publishing, 1994

3. Bernard Jensen, Ph.D., The Chemistry of Man.  Page 9. Published by Bernard Jensen 1983

4. Robert R. Barefoot, Barefoot on Coral Calcium: An Elixir of Life?  Health Secrets of Coral of Okinawa. Page 48.  Wellness Publishing 2001

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