Mineral balancing or optimization is a foundational approach to healing that uses a deliberate blend of minerals, vitamins, movement, lifestyle, and stress reduction, to stabilize, and optimize, our mineral levels and their ratios with each other. We developed the Max Vitality Protocol (MVP) to teach you how to do exactly that! Since our minerals are so intimately related to all of our biological functions, including our energy body, when we do this effectively, we will not only enhance our physical health but also the health of our mind, emotions, and spirit. Today we are going to break down the basics of mineral balancing so we can start harmonizing the holistic system right away.
When discussing mineral optimizing, there is one principle to remember, YOUR BODY WILL ATTEMPT TO BALANCE ITSELF AT ALL COSTS, as homeostasis is its preferred state. This is not to be startling, once we recognize what the body's goals are, we can consciously assist our body's ability to achieve homeostasis.
When teaching mineral balancing, one of my favorite places to begin is with magnesium (Mg) and how it relates to other key minerals, especially its mirror mineral, calcium (Ca). Harmony and balance between all of our macro-minerals and trace-minerals are key to achieving long-lasting, holistic health.
Calcium is one of the main mineral components of the skeletal system and has important functions related to contracting muscles, secreting hormones, and conducting nerves. These are all essential but one of calcium's most important functions is acting as the main antagonist of magnesium. This means Mg and Ca have a push-pull relationship, constantly aiming to balance each other out.
You can think of Magnesium as the mineral of relaxation and Calcium as the mineral of cement! For all of my more visual people, when you flex a muscle, calcium is primarily used to tighten the muscle, and magnesium is utilized to relax the muscle. As a result of this constant countering, their ratio is extremely important in order to avoid the severe calcification, stress, and disease that results from their common imbalance.
It is essential to understand that our ancestors had a ratio of 2 to 1 magnesium to calcium. My research shows that between 2:1 and 1:1 Mg to Ca is the optimal ratio if we want our mind, body, and spirit to function at their best. Unfortunately, with calcium fortification becoming a huge marketing fad, everything from our orange juice to our kale, milk, and water is fortified with absurd amounts of excess calcium. Recent studies have concluded that, nowadays, nearly all westerners fall anywhere between a 7 to 1 or commonly, even a 15 to 1 calcium to magnesium ratio. Yes, you read that correctly, calcium to magnesium, not the other way around.
It is not that calcium is the bad guy. It is healthy to have some amount of calcium naturally floating around in the serum of the blood. Calcium becomes an issue when the sensitive Mg to Ca ratio is thrown out of balance due to magnesium deficiency, calcium overload, and stress. When your body senses low magnesium status, your body will make it its mission to drop its calcium levels until Ca is in a more harmonious ratio with Mg. As a result, your body begins precipitating and dumping calcium into the tissues, arteries, joints, teeth, and organs, until these two minerals balance out.
These deposits of bone-like calcium quickly begin to become a serious issue, running rampant, calcifying, or leaving bone-like deposits in the inner workings of the body, creating a laundry list of issues longer than most would imagine.
Where does magnesium come in? For a quick visual, imagine for a moment that you take a small piece of calcium and put it in a glass of water, and proceed to shake it around. As you stir the calcium around in the water (imagine a small piece of bone), it quickly becomes clear that the calcium is not going to dissolve. That is until I empty a capsule of magnesium into the glass with the calcium and then stir it around. What we see relatively quickly is that the magnesium helps dissolve the excess calcium. Magnesium rapidly dissolves and metabolizes excess calcium that gets dumped into the tissues and arteries, which is crucial if we are looking to mitigate the thousands of diseases caused by calcification.
You may hear people talking about how drinking fluoride-filled tap water “calcifies your pineal gland”. The truth of this statement is that the toxic chemicals like chlorine and fluoride present in tap water are an immense stressor to the body and tremendously deplete our magnesium levels, therefore facilitating the excess calcium to run rampant - causing calcification and disease! On top of this, when fluoride and magnesium bind, a compound of magnesium fluoride called sellaite is created. Sellaite has a pesky ability to be able to replace the magnesium found in bone and cartilage, overall making bones more prone to fracturing and exasperating internal calcification of your pineal gland. Unfortunately, a calcified pineal gland should be the least of your worries, as this calcification isn't limited to a small almond-sized gland in your brain, it is systemic, meaning all over! Below, are two photos of a calcified pineal gland taken post-biopsy.
Current health propaganda advises taking half as much magnesium as calcium, but I would never recommend this. Research shows that we get far more than enough calcium through our diets and as a result, most people do not need to supplement with calcium. In fact, if many people did, it would be doing far more harm than good!
Over calcification, or calcium precipitation in the arteries, joints, etc. as a result of a magnesium deficiency, has now been linked to the root cause of thousands of diseases ranging from the ailments outlined above to anxiety, stress, eczema, asthma, many forms of arthritis, Alzheimer's, Tourette's, heart palpitations, and much more! There is a long list of diseases scientifically proven to be directly linked to magnesium deficiency.
This calcium and magnesium balancing act is just the beginning of it all. Your body also wants to balance sodium and potassium, zinc and copper, and dozens of other minerals, vitamins, and hormone combinations.
According to one of the world's top mineral doctors, Dr. Carolyn Dean, we now know for certain that magnesium is actually the key to the body's proper utilization of calcium as well as vitamin D.
Your body wants to balance calcium, which requires magnesium, which requires sodium, which requires potassium, which requires,... you get the idea!
A magnesium deficiency will result in severe mineral imbalances and ultimately disease, and once you develop an eye for its symptoms, you see it everywhere.
The takeaway is to be mindful of how much calcium and magnesium we are taking in. Knowing that nearly everyone in the western world has at least a 7 to 1 calcium-to magnesium-ratio, a good general start is to cut back on our calcium intake and start hitting magnesium from all angles.
The most rapid and effective way to skyrocket our magnesium levels in the body is by implementing transdermal forms. One of my favorite ways to start balancing these two minerals is by taking foot soaks in Vitality Salts. Foot soaks are great because the bottoms of your feet have the largest pores in the entire body, while at the same time having the nerve endings to every major organ in the body. That is why they are a centerpiece of the entire Chinese medical system.
I also enjoy rubbing magnesium alcohol made from our Vitality Salts on my forehead and scalp because the top of our head is the most absorbable skin on the entire body and a great way for magnesium to work its way in (especially since magnesium gets best absorbed through the hair follicles of the skin). Learn how to make magnesium alcohol in our blog here!
I hope you enjoyed this intro to mineral optimizing and if any questions come up definitely let me know below!
THE MAIN TAKEAWAY IS:
Cut back on your calcium and triple down on your magnesium to begin balancing your minerals with the help of the MVP and achieve optimal health!
Much love and gratitude,
Max Casa
President and Founder of Max Vitality