The Risk/Benefit Yardsticks Were Just Moved Off the Field: How Technological Convergence Renders Current Risk Assessment Models Obsolete, and What to Do About It
Douglas Mulhall
page 5 of 7 Calcification Everyone has seen the headline stories about inflammation in heart disease and inflammation being associated with all kinds of things. Newsweek recently Second, we asked – which factor is associated with precancerous conditions and basic organ dysfunction? The answer to that is rapid cell division. The third question we asked was what is the common denominator to aging; and what does everybody have by the age of 70, almost without exception? The answer to these three questions is calcification. Most people have a vague idea about calcification, but they do not understand the extraordinary depth and breadth of its influence. By the age of 70, almost everyone has calcification within their arteries, organs, skin, or elsewhere in their body. The reason calcification is so important is that it has long been thought to be a result of disease, a response to disease, or part of the body's healing process. Yet there are questions concerning that. First, despite all of our scanning, we have never been able to spot where calcification begins in vivo, within the capillaries in the body. Suddenly, it shows up when a disease is well developed thus we conclude that it must be a response to the disease. The last three years of research have shown quite clearly that this is not the case, but that basic calcium phosphate crystals actually cause acute inflammation and an acute immune response by the human body. Recently, a paper was published in the journal, Circulation Research, by a leading group of researchers in London with proof that calcium phosphate crystals cause inflammation in heart disease[1]. This confirmed the findings that have been revealed for years now in arthritis and other illnesses where doctors have long known that calcification generates this kind of inflammation. That is important because inflammation is associated with so many illnesses. Scientists have recently discovered that heart patients have had heart attacks after their dentists have performed a root canal. Dental pulp stones are comprised of calcium phosphate crystals, which are released into the bloodstream by drilling where they may then provoke heart problems in patients who already have heart disease. Calcification is found in many illnesses, from cataracts to diabetes, gall stones, kidney stones, liver cysts, parathyroid disease, prostatitis, sclerodermas, stroke, tendonitis, and so on. Calcification provokes acute inflammation and stimulates rapid cell division. It is also one of the only visible markers of both breast cancer and heart disease. Breast cancer if often detected through a biopsy of calcium deposits in the breast as basic calcium phosphate crystals are not only endotoxic, but promote rapid cell division. Footnote
Where do we focus these efforts? In order to answer this question, we asked three questions. First, what condition occurs in most of the diseases on the “leading cause of death” list? The answer to that is inflammation.
published a series of articles about 21st Century Health, in which there was a big section about inflammation being associated with just about everything: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and so on.
Young athletes often contract Pitcher's Elbow, which also contains calcium phosphate crystals. Bursitis, tendonitis, and arthritic conditions all involve calcification.
1. Proinflammatory Activation of Macrophages by Basic Calcium Phosphate Crystals via Protein Kinase C and MAP Kinase Pathways, A Vicious Cycle of Inflammation and Arterial Calcification? Circulation Research. 2005;96:1248 (back to top)