"OmManiPadmeOmelet" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "Dee Randall" > wrote:
>
>> At my doctor's last visit, regarding two different tests in the same
>> day -
>> he had his nurse call me and tell me to take calcium (Dexascan -
>> osteopenia)
>> and on the other test results, he had her call me and tell me to stop
>> calcium altogether. When I questioned this with some other nurse who
>> called
>> to see what the trouble was with my thinking, I never got a return call
>> when
>> she said she would look into it. There have been other things along
>> these
>> lines, too. Time to look for ANOTHER doctor.
>> I say, Bullshit, too.
>> Dee Dee
>>
>>
>
> <lol> Sounds like someone too busy to correlate results...
>
> Why did they want you to stop taking Calcium?
>
> And for the record, Calcium by itself is not really utilized properly
> anyway.
>
> Short story he
>
> When I first started weight lifting and eating a high protein diet
> wayyyyy back when when I was about 30, I started developing leg cramps.
>
> Not just ANY leg cramps, but Quadricep cramping that would wake me up at
> 2 am and have me nearly passing out with the pain. :-( I have a very
> high pain tolerance but this was about a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10!
>
> Turns out that eating more protein tends to cause the kidneys to dump
> more calcium, so you need a higher supplementation rate. One good reason
> to eat yogurt and cottage cheese. <G>
>
> Anyhoo, I tried 4 different types of calcium supplements over time with
> varying results, but none of them were adequate for stopping those early
> morning episodes of sheer hell. :-(
>
> I spoke with one of or ER docs about it, (one that I knew had a side
> practice of "complementary medicine" where he used nutritional and
> herbal therapies in combination with standard medical practices).
>
> He told me that the problem was that I was taking CALCIUM, by itself!!!
> He said that calcium works together in balance with Magnesium and
> Phosphorous to keep blood levels stable.
>

Thanks for the information. Yes, I know about the balance. DH gets legs
cramps awful and he pops about 5 sublingual magnesium pills under his tongue
when this happens (he does take calcium & phosphorous supplements.)

I am not a big believer in calcium supplements. I do believe in eating
cheese and yogurt and not necessarily milk. I've read the stastics on the
Bantu who do not drink milk and don't get osteoporosis. When I stopped
supplementing and stopped drinking milk, but eating cheese, I acutally
gained 6% bone. (I do take a regimen of vitamins, but basically they are at
the rates that are mostly recommended and I don't overdo any of them.)

However, my blood test results have always showed a couple of .points (as
in .3) points over the calcium level of around 10. I've been told that it is
nothing to worry about this smaller .point number above normal; and I've
also been told that the reason for a higher level of calcium in the blood
backs up the fact that you are leaching calcium from the bone and it is
showing up in the blood.

The doctor said to take more calcium because I was still a little under the
numbers on the Dexascan and still considered having osteopenia. That was
the first call. Then the second call he related to the 'blood test' being a
few .points over and he said to not take calcium. I had discussed the above
average calcium level previously and he said there was nothing to worry
about. Now all of a sudden he tells me to stop taking calcium. It was the
nurse who relayed this information to me, but his notes on the report
confirm that these were his recommendations in both instances.

A day before the above relaying of information, the nurse wrote me a note
and said that my spine showed better improvement and my hips less; when
actually any person could read the chart and see that it was actually the
opposite. She said she got this information from the doctor's words.

This is not a matter of great importance in the great scheme of things, but
if and when something greater does happen I don't want anything to do with
these rattled people. There have been a few things that I consider more
crucial to my health that has happened. This has just been the straw that
broke the camel's back.
Thanks for listening.
Dee Dee