Calcium is the only mineral to have its own regulating gland, the parathyroid glands (they are the glands near the thyroid but have nothing to do with the thyroid)! The reason they are called the parathyroid glands is because of their location close to the thyroid. (Para means alongside, near or beside.) Calcium’s main functions are:

1. To provide electrical energy for your nervous system. The way it does this is to provide the means for electrical impulses to travel along your nerves. Calcium is what your nervous system uses to conduct "electricity", which is why the most common deficiency symptoms are nervous system ones such as depression, weakness, tiredness – like a power failure.

2. To provide the electrical energy needed by your muscles, which really just brings us back to the nervous system as it controls the nerves that conduct the electricity into your muscles. In order for them to function correctly, they need to contract and relax.

Pretty much like a heartbeat. Your heart is just a big ole muscle. It contracts and relaxes as it fills or empties with blood. Calcium is what makes it contract to pump blood through your body. That’s why deficiencies in calcium can cause heart and other muscular problems.

They cannot contract without adequate calcium. Symptoms can include weakness, muscle cramps or spasms, PMS symptoms, tension etc.

3. To provide strength for your skeletal system. Most people know that calcium is necessary to build strong bones and teeth. However, your bones actually serve as a storage depot, much like in the bank where you keep your reserves. When you have sufficient calcium, your body can draw on these reserves when needed. Any time your body needs calcium your parathyroid glands make a withdrawal to compensate for shortages or deposit excesses back into the vault. Pretty neat, huh?

It is not only for the prevention of osteoporosis or kidney stones but is vital for life and the prevention of tension, anxiety or stress and many other functions.

Calcium, the most abundant mineral in your body, is required for:

• muscle contraction,

• blood vessel expansion and contraction,

• secretion of hormones and enzymes, and

• transmitting impulses throughout your nervous system.

Your body strives to maintain constant concentrations of calcium in blood, muscle, and intercellular fluids.

It also happens to be the most powerful painkiller there is - far superior to even morphine!

Some Calcium Deficiency Symptoms – also called hypocalcemia (hypo=low + calcemia=calcium) include:

• numbness and tingling in the fingers,

• depression

• stress

• insomnia

• restless leg syndrome

• tension

• hyperactivity

• inability to "switch off"

• muscle cramps

• convulsions

• lethargy

• poor appetite

• abnormal heart rhythms