Dr Abraham's not alone. Alan R. Gaby, MD, author of Preventing and Reversing Osteoporosis, recommends his patients take 600-1,200 mg of calcium with 250-600 mg of magnesium. He uses the higher amount of calcium only when he finds evidence of a calcium deficiency. Like other savvy doctors, Dr. Gaby takes into account the minerals we get from a healthy diet. Many foods, like green vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds are high in both calcium and magnesium. Include them in your diet daily for younger, healthier bones.

In 1997, a study on bone density and nutrition was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researcher Susan A. New and her colleagues found magnesium intake to be low in the diets and supplements of many postmenopausal women. She also found that those women with spongy, rather than strong, bones who had osteoporosis were low in magnesium.

Bottom line: If you’re taking the wrong balance of calcium and magnesium, you may be creating a vicious cycle. High calcium intake blocks magnesium absorption. Magnesium is needed to carry calcium into your bones. Too much calcium can cause bones to be more fragile, while high magnesium creates stronger bones. Consider taking 500 mg each of calcium and magnesium. Then gradually increase your magnesium (up to a total of 1,000 mg/day) until you have comfortably loose stools.

Calcium, magnesium, and your heart
A healthy heart is a supple muscle with unclogged arteries that allows good blood flow and has a regular heartbeat. Calcium causes all muscles —— including the heart —— to contract, while magnesium helps them relax. The correct mineral balance is particularly important in healthy heart function. You want your heart muscle to both contract and relax. Too many contractions can result in irregular heartbeats, cause a stroke, or heart attack. In fact, increasing magnesium often eliminates or reduces arrhythmias.

Magnesium helps blood pressure become and stay regulated, reduces the formation of plaque in arteries, and reduces spasms. Thomas Steinmetz is a nutritionist and researcher with a German organic minerals company. He looked at the cause of death from sudden heart attacks in the U.S. between 1940 and 1994. What he found was startling: A magnesium deficiency was the cause of death in eight million people! This was totally preventable with proper supplementation and diet.

If you are taking procardia, cardizem, or another calcium channel blocker to help keep calcium from building up in your arteries and getting into your heart, causing a spasm, or heart attack, I want you to know that magnesium does the exact same thing! In addition, magnesium prevents excessive amounts of calcium from damaging heart cells. It also dilates your arteries, allowing better blood flow.

I'm not suggesting that you stop taking calcium channel blocker medications, but you may want to discuss increasing your magnesium intake in your diet and supplements with your physician. Eventually, with enough magnesium, the two of you may decide that pharmaceuticals are not necessary. Always check with your doctor before making any changes in your medications.

To prevent clogged arteries, look to calcium and magnesium. When calcium can't get into your bones or other tissues because there isn’t enough magnesium to help move it there, it can collect in your arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis. If it causes a blockage, you may have a heart attack – increasingly common in postmenopausal women. If it narrows enough to allow small pieces of plaque to get caught, then dilates so the plaque can be released, you could have a stroke. Low magnesium has been seen in people with irregular or rapid heartbeat, mitral valve prolapse, congestive heart failure, and high blood pressure.