Calcium in the Human Body

"The skeleton of a young adult male contains about 1.2 kg of calcium"

Source: http://www.vegsoc.org/info/calcium.html

(Or if you trust Wikipedia : The average adult body contains in total approximately 1 kg)

Idle curiosity or are you planning to harvest?

I remember how stunned I was when I learned how high a percentage of the human body is made from calcium or depends on calcium for it's function. Even the brain, I recall, needs it.

I don't recall the exact figure. Still, I'm pleased at the prospect of the healthy (sic!) dialogue that is likely to occur regarding this subject.

I am confident it will benefit many.

L.J.

My copy of "The Handy Science Answer Book" compiled by the Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh published in 1994 states on page 267 that calcium constiutes 1.5 % of the human body...Oxygen interestingly enough makes up 65% while hydrogen makes up 18.5%,Nitrogen 3.3 %,carbon 18.5%, and phosphorous 1.0% for a total of 99.8%...Other elements make up the remaining 2%..So we rock.....:):):).Marty Wolf

deserving of a great answer vote.

my imprssion from herbal medicine is that as we age, calcium goes down, bone denisity goes down, porosity goes up, brittleness goes up. this occurs because the blood supply has first call on minerals, the skeleton gives it up, we do a poor job of replacing it. several reasons for this. the biggest is the myth that taking calciuim supplements will restore calcium to your skeleton. yes it can, if it is supplied correctly. it almost never is. very few people understand that for your body to uptake the calcium and deposit in your bones that it needs to have the right proportions of calcium, phosphorous and vitamine D. and that they more your intake varies from those ideal proportions, the less good it does you. when you go to any suppllement supply place and look at the labels, significant amounts of phosphorus are never there. when you ask why, no one has an answer. you ask the suppliers of the products, they don't reply because they don't have an answer that will satisfy you. there was one good supplement on the market that supplied everything you needed to build bone. it was a schiff product called bone all. it was ground, powdered bone in tablet form. the average person needed 6 of these one gram tablets per day. it was exactly right. the proportions were exactly right. so, of course schiff took it off of the market. most of the calcium supplements today are calcium carbonate, which is totaly useless as a dietary aid to building bone (the storehouse of your body). after much investigation and many conversations only one solution presented itself as viable. take bone and grind it to a powder yourself. it is a shame that the only way to get this is as a home made remedy. it is also not very practical for most people. i have not yet investigated the possibility of finding and buying this type of product from overseas. sorry my message is not cheerful. don't shoot the messenger. has anyone else figured out a way out of this hole?

googling revealed the same thing i found last time i did this. ground bone is only available in pet food. bone meal is not meant for, or fit for human consumption. the mad cow scare has moved everyone out of the market. the only people pursueing it are at home people grinding chicken bones to build there calcium intake. i actually once had an oriental pharmacist tell me the same thing. people in the know, agree with me about the problem, and acknowlidge that there is nothing over the counter to remedy it. sure makes it hard to be healthy.

According to this website:-

http://www.ion.ac.uk/healthnotes.php?org=ion&ContentID=3726009#Supp-Sources

"Phosphorus deficiency is uncommon, because dietary intake is usually adequate."

"Phosphorus is highest in protein-rich foods and cereal grains."

"older people who supplement with large amounts of calcium may be at risk of developing phosphorus deficiency. For this reason, the authors of this study recommend that, for elderly people, at least some of the supplemental calcium be taken in the form of tricalcium phosphate or some other phosphorus-containing preparation."

Of course they're no more likely to be right than anyone else. Do you have reason to think they're wrong?

hello randall,

first of all, i am not a doctor, or a nutrionist or qualified by anything except aquired knowledge.

no, not wrong, it just depends what is stated between the lines. here is what i mean.

"Phosphorus deficiency is uncommon, because dietary intake is usually adequate."

at first blush, this statement seems to say, oh everything is ok. i was talking about the proper ratio of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D when you are trying to assimilate calcium. bone can not be built with that portion of that ratio that is not in balance. in other words, if you add a large amount of calcium and vitamine D, but depend just upon the phosphorus in your diet, then 99% of the calcium and vitamine D that you just ate will pass right thru and come out in your urine. no bone will have been built. when talking about building bone, it does not really happen on the outside as in thinking that bones get bigger. it happens on the inside. within the bones there are porosities. these are made by molecules that work their way thru the bone, disolving the bone as they go, with the dissolved minerals being used primarily by the blood, which shares it with the everything in the body that needs calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D. then when the molecule reaches near the surface of the bone, nature has your body convert the molecule into its other form which builds bone. then the molecule travels back thru the tunnel, filling it with bone. until it reaches the far side, where it again changes back to a bone disolving molecule. this goes on thruout your lifetime. building and tearing down, at least 5 or 6 times during a lifetime. but when the proper proportions of minerals are not there along with vitamine D and you piss out what the body would rather assimilate, the tunnels are filled very slowly. this results in loss of bone density. bones become brittle and break easily. nutrionist learn this, but the makers of supplements don't seem to have learned this. this is the biggest reason that old people break their hips when they fall down. it is not usually the big bone of the socket that breaks or cracks, it is the narrow portion that leads to the ball. that is the weak point.

so, if bone density is acknowledged as being a major problem with old people, ergo, they are not getting enough calcium, phosphous and vitamine D in their diet. all the while, they are not phosphous deficient. your body will not pull phosphorous from the blood to build bone. this is because the blood has first call. it is only phosphorous that is above the needs of the body that can be deposited as bone. the skeleton is the storehouse of the body. the storehouse can get mighty empty and still "look like bone", but have high porosity and low density. one cause of this is also a diet that causes the body to be too acidic as opposed to neutral in ph. this is very common in people who do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. also, the difference between organic and regular commercial grown using inorganic fertilizers is amazing. the organic has usually 3 times the mineral content of the commercial food. so, most people are mineral deficient. this is determined easiestly by a ph test. you test both urine and then saliva. done several times a day for two days, then averaging the numbers. most people are on the acidic side of what it should be. it is possible to actually test the ph of blood, but can only be done in a lab. anyone can do the regular ph test at home for less than $10.

i did not invent this information. it is readily available in some books. i also paraphrazed this information from memory. so it is possible that i have not gotten it exactly right in all respects. it is also possible that my memory has failed completly and i have it wrong. but at least here you have been exposed to the information and can continue to investigate and determine for yourself what is really happening within your body, and what to do to change things.

bottom line: eating things that are advertised as being high in calcium does not necessarily mean your body is assimilating that calcium. eating calcium supplements does not necessarily mean that your body is assimilating that calcium.

"The human body is 2 percent calcium. The major source of calcium in the human diet is milk and milk products."

from:-

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/88956/calcium

See also:-

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/7641/Why-Calcium-in-the-human-body

Both from putting "calcium in the human body" in the search box in google (1,000,000 plus hits):-

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=calcium+in+the+human+body&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Randall, that seems very low. Perhaps my memory is slipping.

Perhaps calcium is the highest percentage? The dominant chemistry?

L.J.

About the same as most other sources: 2% is 1 Kg for a 50 Kg person.

We don't know. None of us has ever designed a human body. Try a heath forum. Now, if you want to know about robots .....

Guest:

I don't know what your need for this information is, but it may be of interest to you that there's a second structural element in the skeleton. It is chemically similar to calcium and, within the body, it travels to bone and forms a matrix with calcium. Strontium is not widely used or discussed in this country but, for anyone concerned with osteoporosis or bone metastasis in cancer, it can be vitally important.

I'd be glad to provide further information if it could be of assistance.

Best regards.

DickL

My wife (who is in the medical racket) tells me that calcium carbonate (which I believe is nothing but chalk) is worthless. She takes Calcium Citrate which does you some good. She also takes phosphorus in some form or another. I am not sure if she does anything about vitamin D or not.

Bill