Calcium shift: An interesting hypothesis.

More serendipity! Billy the k left a comment that piqued my curiosity.

From http://www.health-heart.org/acceuil.htm The atheroma 'junk' in the media is cholesterol + calcium in older people.

From Aging and calcium as an environmental factor. (emphasis mine)
"The consequences of calcium deficiency might thus include not only osteoporosis, but also arteriosclerosis and hypertension due to the increase of calcium in the vascular wall, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and senile dementia due to calcium deposition in the central nervous system, and a decrease in cellular function, because of blunting of the difference in extracellular-intracellular calcium, leading to diabetes mellitus, immune deficiency and others.

I highlighted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in red, as many Facebook friends have been having buckets of water & ice cubes tipped over themselves to raise money for research into this horrible & ultimately fatal condition.

So, what prevents & reverses migration of calcium from hard tissues to soft tissues?
Clue: It carboxylates osteocalcin in bone matrix Gla proteins. Yes, it's Vitamin K2.

See also Calcium, parathyroids and aging. N.B. 50iu/kg bodyweight/day of Vitamin D3 significantly lowers parathyroid hormone.

\ curves and U curves: Vitamins D3 and K2 again.

Here are some curves relating to Vitamin D. Ref: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23601272

Hazard Ratios (HRs) vs serum Vitamin D level

The solid lines are the 95% confidence intervals (CI) & mean for all-cause mortality. 95% CI's are the values within which 95% of the subjects tested fall. 2.5% fall below the lower CI and 2.5% fall above the upper CI. The dashed lines are the 95% CIs & mean for coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality. Most of the curves follow a \ curve, indicating that more Vitamin D is better, up to 66ng/mL (150nmol/L, the level that I'm at). The interesting curve is the upper dashed line, which follows a U curve.

The U curve indicates that a Vitamin D level of greater than 30ng/mL (75nmol/L) increases the Hazard Ratio (HR) for CHD in the top 2.5% of subjects only, relative to 30ng/mL, even though the mean HRs for CHD & all-cause mortality (the more important parameter) are decreasing, up to 66ng/mL. What's occurring?

See Vitamin K. The increase in HR for CHD mortality above 30ng/mL in the top 2.5% of subjects only is almost certainly due to calcification within artery walls, due to under-carboxylation of osteocalcin in bone Matrix Gla Proteins, caused by insufficient Vitamin K2 rather than excessive Vitamin D. This is why I supplement with Vitamin K2. See also Vitamin D toxicity redefined: vitamin K and the molecular mechanism.