Coral Calcium: Fact and Fiction

October 25, 2004

JoAnn Guest

Oct 25, 2004 11:46 PDT

Coral Calcium: Fact and Fiction

We receive many questions on our radio show, The Willner Window, and

from customers coming into the store, about Coral Calcium.

We usually caution that there is no reason to consider Coral Calcium

anything other than another inorganic (carbonate) calcium

supplement.

" Do you carry Coral Calcium? " the customer asks. " Yes we do, " I

answer. " Where is it? " asks the customer. " Right over here, " I

answer. And that may be the end of it.

If, on the other hand, the customer asks for an opinon, or asks

questions about the product, we feel obligated to provide factual,

truthful information. That, after all, is what separates Willner

Chemists from many other stores. So, when appropriate, we point out

that Coral Calcium may not be all that the infomercials and

advertising claim it is.

Some customers don't want to hear the truth. They prefer to believe

the fantasy.

Perhaps that is human nature.

When I tried to pin down representatives from the nutritional

supplement industry, they essentially side-stepped the issue. (see

the previous

Health Note article, the transcript from our Anniversary Broadcast).

The fact that this is a creative, innovative industry is no excuse,

in my opinion.

Neither is the statement; " Perhaps in five years proof will

emerge that Coral Calcium is the most bioavailable form there is.

Perhaps not. We don't know for sure. "

So I found it interesting to read what Dr. Michael Murray had

written about Coral Calcium, on his web site.

The following is an article by Dr. Michael Murray. The article

appears on Doctor Murray's web site,

http: //www.doctormurray.com/Articles.htm

Michael T. Murray, N.D. is widely regarded as one of the world's

leading authorities on natural medicine. He is a graduate, faculty

member, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Bastyr University in

Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Murray is the co-author of A Textbook of Natural Medicine, the

definitive textbook on naturopathic medicine for physicians, as well

as the consumer version - Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine.

He has also written over 20 other books including How to Prevent and

Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine; The Pill Book Guide to Natural

Medicine; Dr. Murray's Total Body Tune-Up; 5-HTP: The Natural Way to

Overcome Depression, Obesity, and Insomnia;

The Healing Power of Herbs;

and the Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements. Doctor Murray has

also initiated an email newsletter that is available at no charge.

Coral Calcium – The answer to how do you spell HYPE?

Introduction

As one of the leading proponents of natural products, I am a firm

believer in the value of proper nutritional supplementation. Over

the years, however, I have been angered by the shameless marketing

of bogus products with unsubstantiated, absolutely ridiculous

claims.

The latest in this growing list of shame is " coral calcium. " Since I

am fielding an ever growing number of questions about this product,

I have decided to finally address it formally.

Be patient, read the whole article and you will hopefully see that

while it is true that calcium is an essential mineral, coral calcium

is not quality calcium supplement.

What is coral?

Coral is composed of tiny, fragile living organisms called coral

polyps.

The coral polyps take calcium carbonate or limestone from the sea

and build protective structures around themselves. As coral polyps

die, new generations of coral polyps then grow on top of the coral

and coral reefs are formed.

While coral reefs cover less than 1% of the planet's surface, they

are homes to over 25% of all marine life (over 4,000 different

species of

fish, 700 species of coral, and thousands of other plants and

animals).

Since coral reefs are among the world's most fragile and endangered

ecosystems, strict laws are enforced to preserve them.

What is coral calcium?

Since it is severely illegal to mine " live " coral reefs, coral

calcium has to come from a different source.

So what is the source?

Marketers tell us that it is either taken from old seabeds buried in

the so-called " pristine " desert; or mined from " fossilized coral

sands that accumulated on the sea floor; " or harvested from " only

coral that washes up on the shore. "

Sounds good, right? The bottom line, however, is that it doesn't

make much difference.

What is the hype?

What the marketers of coral calcium do is exploit and exaggerate the

known importance and function of calcium and then try to tie those

benefits and more to their product. Here is just a brief list of the

diseases 'claimed' to be miraculously cured by coral calcium:

•Cancer

•Diabetes

•Arthritis

•Heart Disease

•Osteoporosis

•Eczema

•Alzheimer's Disease

•Fibromyalgia

•High Cholesterol

•Muscle Cramps

•Kidney Stones

•Gallstones

•Gout

•Indigestion

•Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

•Lupus

•Hiatal Hernia

•Hypertension

•Headaches and many, many more.

Wow!! Wouldn't it be fantastic if it were true that coral calcium

could cure all of these diseases? While it is true that in most of

these diseases you can find a small, indirect association between

calcium and the disease, the marketers take it way over the top.

Is coral calcium a superior form of calcium?

Sorry, it is not.

The calcium content of coral calcium ranges from 24% to 38% and is

composed primarily of calcium carbonate.

The marketers often call it " aragonite " or " calcite " to confuse and

mislead the masses into thinking it is something different than the

chief ingredient of Tums.

Marketers use the " coral story " to hype their product, but just like

mined land sources of calcium (e.g., limestone and dolomite),

the bottom line here is that the calcium is bound in the form of an

inorganic salt.

There are considerable dangers of using these mined sources of

calcium,

whether it comes above sea level or below, or whether the source is

fossilized coral, limestone, or dolomite.

What is the danger? For millions of years, volcanoes have been

spewing their molten lava and ash full of poisonous heavy metals

like lead, mercury, cadmium and iridium.

Although I have not seen a detailed analysis of heavy metals for a

coral calcium product,

even the marketers acknowledge the high content of aluminum by

stating that their product contains montmorillonite.

Some will tell us that montmorillonite is a natural clay that comes

from volcanic ash. Others will come clean and recognize it

as " colloidal aluminum silicate " .

I should point out that there has been one study comparing the

absorption of coral calcium to calcium carbonate.

However, this study is fraught with methodological errors and used

urinary calcium measurements instead of more accurate measurements

of calcium absorption –

after all it is not how much calcium that you excrete that is

important, it is how much you *absorb* and retain.

No conclusions can be made from this study as it looks like it was

constructed simply to promote coral calcium instead of answering

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