Heart Disease Fibromyalgia High Cholesterol Danger? Toxic Metals Free Radicals -- Primer IV Chelation Therapy Wrong Diet Causes Diabetes	Vibrant Life Home Web Family Of Three Oral Chelation Formulas The Wednesday Letter The Hubbard Human Detoxification Program Hopeless Diseases -- Invented to Sell Drugs Wrong Relationship Cause of Disease Brain Chemical Imbalance Dr. Garry F. Gordon	Ultimate Resource On Chelation Therapy Home Page Shopping Cart	Separate Search Page or search below
Prevent Cancer	Oral Chelation Therapy Other	Karl Loren's Policy On Psychiatric Drugs Destruction Of American Education	Write To Karl Loren	Table Of Contents

The Role Of Calcium In The Blood -- And The Calcium Pump

Top of Page

Source:  Karl Loren Brief

I am presenting here the concept of a "pump" inside the cells of the arteries -- a "pump" which works to eject calcium from inside the cell? That is a well accepted scientific concept.  I have long claimed that heart disease is caused in great part by free radicals doing damage to individual cells inside the arteries -- here is one of the places such damage takes place -- the "calcium pump" inside cells in the arteries -- particularly the cells within the middle layer of the artery -- the muscle layer of the artery.  When that free radical bombardment is stopped, the damage can be reversed.

The amount of calcium in the blood stream is a critical factor in controlling the beat of the heart.  If there is too much or too little calcium in the blood stream, the heart can simply stop beating.  It is actually the balance between calcium and magnesium that controls the beat of the heart.

Calcium is what controls the CONTRACTION of the heart as it is pumping blood through the body.

Magnesium is what controls the relaxing of the heart, when no blood is being pumped out.

The regular rhythm of the heart beat depends on these two minerals being in proper balance and supply.

If either one or the other starts to increase in quantity, the body has some very well understood mechanisms to bring the balance back to normal.

This is why the taking of a large amount of calcium (as a supplement) does NOT upset the heart beat -- the large, and sudden increase of calcium (or magnesium) flood through the blood stream -- bringing the potential for a sudden imbalance and the cessation of the heart beating!  This is serious stuff!

Fortunately, the body handles these matters so well that there hardly any danger from this source.

This page covers the above concepts plus the method by which the body handles the mechanics of increasing or decreasing the amount of calcium, or magnesium, in the blood stream.  The terms are highly technical; however, the above is simple to understand and anyone with an interest in the details can read on through this page.

Return To Top Of Page

---

Calcium & Magnesium

The key to understanding the effects of calcium and magnesium on the heart is this: Calcium is needed for muscles to contract and magnesium is needed for muscles to relax. The heart muscles are like all muscles. Calcium causes heart contraction; magnesium causes heart relaxation.  (source)

---

The Role Of Calcium And The Heart Beat

Here is another of many studies that mentions the calcium balance and heart beat:

It has been known for 15 years that failing hearts do not handle calcium properly. The contraction of heart muscle cells – like all muscle cells – is controlled by cycling levels of calcium, which is stored in a cellular structure called the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). In response to the electrical impulses that control heartbeat, calcium is released from the SR into the main body of the cell (the cytosol), stimulating the cell to contract.

[Karl Note:  It is interesting to realize that it is not just the "heart" that contracts and relaxes, but it is the individual cells within the heart muscle which contract and expand.  (Click for more.) So, it is calcium which ENTERS "the main body of the cell (the cytosol), stimulating the cell to contract."]

After contraction, calcium moves back from the cytosol into the SR via a molecular calcium pump, the SERCA2a protein. In heart failure, the return of calcium into the SR is diminished. With this disruption to the normal cycling of calcium, the muscle cells cannot respond appropriately to the heartbeat impulses. They contract weakly, and the heart’s pumping activity decreases. Previous research linked these abnormalities to decreased function of the SERCA2a calcium pump, but it was unclear whether protein levels actually were reduced in failing hearts. Animal studies also had shown that increasing production of SERCA2a improved heart function, both in individual cells and in living animals. But it was not yet clear that gene transfer techniques also would work in human heart cells.   (Source)

Return To Top Of Page

 

---

Dr. Cranton & The Calcium Pump

Free radicals also cause tissue calcification by damaging the integrity of cell membranes, causing leaks in cell walls, and by damaging enzymatic cell-wall transport pumps. If the calcium pump is weakened, or if cell wall integrity is damaged, the calcium pump becomes unable to remove calcium as it leaks in. Intracellular calcium accumulates, causing malfunction and eventually cell death. X-rays of older people commonly show dense calcium deposits in soft tissues that do not normally have that bony appearance. A similar weakening of the sodium pump in cell walls allows an increase of intracellular sodium, leading to swelling of the cell, edema, and eventual cell lysis. (source)

 

---

Cytosol

Cell Membrane: Every cell is enclosed in a membrane. The membrane is a double layer of lipids (lipid bilayer) but is made quite complex by the presence of numerous proteins that are important to cell activity. These proteins include receptors, pores, and enzymes. The membrane is responsible for the controlled entry and exit of ions like sodium (Na) potassium (K), calcium (Ca++). See the description of ion channels.

 Cytosol: The cytosol (cytoplasm) is the "soup" within which all the other cell organelles reside and where most of the cellular metabolism occurs. Though mostly water, the cytosol is full of proteins that control cell metabolism including signal transduction pathways, glycolysis, intracellular receptors, and transcription factors.  (source) 

---

The Beat of a Single Cell

We may not immediately think of our heart as a collection of individual cells. But it is the complex interaction of numerous cell types that give the heart its ability to pump blood. Some cells form heart connective tissue, other cells grow into heart valves. And muscle cells give the heart its ability to beat and pump blood throughout the body.

You can dissolve an embryonic heart into its individual cell types with trypsin, an enzyme that destroys the protein glue between the cells. Plate these cells in a dish and you will see some cells - called myocytes - that beat independently. The cells shown here are from the chick embryo. (source)

---

Sarcoplasmic Reticulum

When pondering what makes the human heart tick, the words “phospholamban” and “sarcoplasmic reticulum” are unlikely to spring to mind. Yet phospholamban, a protein that regulates calcium levels in the heart, and the sarcoplasmic reticulum, a membrane sac that stores and releases calcium in muscle cells, each play an integral role in regulating heart muscle contraction. A better understanding of their functions could lead to improved strategies for treating and preventing heart disease and possibly muscle disorders.  (source)

Return To Top Of Page

---

Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Image

Source

Return To Top Of Page

---

Calcium Channel Blockers

Once the calcium pump is damaged, as for instance by free radicals, doctors often try to remedy the problem by prescribing a class of drugs called "calcium channel blockers."  These are dangerous in themselves, and of course are very late on the chain of causation.  It would be far better to remove the toxic metals that CAUSE the free radicals which damage the calcium pump.

As one example, calcium channel blockers are widely used for angina, arrhythmia, and hypertension. But the initial damage to the calcium pump has multiple dietary and lifestyle causes, like pesticides and other xenobiotic exposures, transfatty acids, and nutritional deficiencies. Studies confirm that mere poisoning of the calcium channel with calcium channel blockers leads to an accelerated rate of cancers and other diseases, as it should, for to ignore repairing the cell membrane allows other membrane functions to deteriorate as well.  (source)

---

Damage To The Calcium Pump Can Be Reversed

4.  
   1.  
      1.  

         1. Without ATP, cell membrane Na/K Atpase pumps, calcium pump, and Na/Ca antiport fail

            1. Accumulation of Na and calcium inside the cell

            2. Influx of water (hydropic swelling)

            3. It is reversible if the stress is removed

            4. If oxygen is not restored, irreversible stage can cause cell damage leading to death

            5. Cells are bathed in an interstitial fluid rich in calcium ions. Cell membrane becomes damaged. Calcium accumulates in the mitochondria and compromise ATP production and lead to cellular digestion---irreversible cell death

         2.  

            Source

---

Return To Top Of Page

---

I promise to answer your message -- click here to send me a personal message Dear Karl,

---

SUBSCRIBE:  The Wednesday Letter is a free electronic monthly newsletter written and published by Karl Loren.  You can view more than 50 back issues of this publication by clicking here.  The Wednesday Letter subscription list is maintained on a secure server, no name is ever given or sold to anyone, and it is never used except for this Newsletter.  It is automatically published on the Tuesday night just before the first Wednesday of every month.  You can subscribe to this free monthly electronic letter by entering your eMail address and name below.  You will then automatically receive a request for confirmation, sent to whatever address you have entered.  If you do NOT receive this confirmation request, then you will not be subscribed.  There may have been an error with your address and you should resubmit.  The letter is never sent twice to the same address -- so you do not have to worry about a duplicate subscription.  When you receive this confirmation request you must reply to it, or your subscription will not become active.  No one can subscribe your name, and address, without you being notified, and if you get an unwanted notice of subscription you only need to DO NOTHING and the subscription will NOT be active.

REMOVAL:  You can remove yourself from the subscription list in several different ways.  Click here to read about this entire newsletter system.  Every edition of The Wednesday Letter is delivered to your address with YOUR name and address in view on the letter, with a link that allows you to remove THAT name from the subscription list.  If you try to send this removal message from an address different from the one you used to send in your original confirmation, then you will get a warning notice first, sent to the subscription address, asking you to confirm that you want to be removed from the list -- by replying to THAT request for confirmation, you will then be automatically removed.  Thus, no one else can unsubscribe you, from some other computer, without your knowledge.  But, if you send in the unsubscribe notice from the same machine used to receive the Letter, then the removal from the subscription list is automatic.

Personal Message:  When you send a personal message to Karl Loren, you will receive a personal reply as per his instructions.  Karl pledges that every personal message will get a personal answer. When you provide your mail address, we will send you free information including our free catalog and a cassette tape lecture by Karl Loren about heart disease, no charge, by mail, even if outside the US.  You can select particular information you would like to receive, along with the free cassette tape and catalog.

You can reach Vibrant Life in many ways, including by mail to Vibrant Life, 2808 N. Naomi St., Burbank, CA 91504.  Within the US and Canada, use the toll free number:  (800) 523-4521, the local number:  (818) 558-1799, the FAX:  (818) 558-7299, eMail to kimberly@oralchelation.com or any one of the hundreds of message forms throughout the 50 web sites.  Vibrant Life normally ships the same day we get an order.  There are message forms on each of the 100,000+ pages on this and other sites where you can communicate with Vibrant Life.  Check out our companion site, at:  http://www.oralchelation.net where Karl's 2000 page book is published.  Karl Loren is the author and webmaster for this BOOK, as well as for another web site about ORAL CHELATION.  His personal philosophical articles are at PHILOSOPHY. 

Copyright © May 20, 2008 6:24 AM by Karl Loren on behalf of Vibrant Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Permission is granted for non-commercial downloading, copying, distribution or redistribution on two conditions:  One, that some form of copyright notice is included in every copy distributed or copied, showing the copyright belonging to Vibrant Life, Burbank, CA, at www.oralchelation.com . The second condition is that the material is not to be used for any purpose contrary to the purposes and objectives of this site.  This permission does not extend to materials on this site which are copyrighted by others.

---