The late Melvin Page, D.D.S. of St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, was a great follower of Price's work in reference to focal infections caused by infection of teeth,tonsils, and tonsil tags, and also to Price's investigations into calcium. Dr. Page added much to Dr. Price's studies with his own blood studies, and research on the calcium/phosphorus balance and its relationship to virtually all disease conditions.

He showed that in order for us to utilize 10 mg of calcium, there has to be 4 mg of phosphorus present in the blood. Any amount less or more than 4 mg would contribute to body degeneration. This doesn't mean that calcium has to be exactly 10 mg and phosphorus 4; what is essential is that calcium be 2.5 times that of phosphorus.

In thousands and thousands of tests, Page found the diets of most Americans cause them to have significant imbalances between calcium and phosphorus. The key dietary factors that put these two important elements out of balance are sugar,caffeine products,refined grains, and soft drinks.

For example,one teaspoonful of sugar or a cup of coffee causes the calcium in the body to go up and the phosphorus to go down. If you use sugar every day and a test is run of your blood,it will show that the amount of calcium will be elevated,perhaps to 10.8,and the phosphorus will have become lowered to a possible 3.4 mg. Now multiply the phosphorus you have by 2.5 and you will see that the amount of calcium which can actually be utilized is 8.5. But your blood test indicates that you have 10.8 mg of calcium present. By substracting the 8.5 you can utilize from the 10.8 you have (10.8 - 8.5 =2.30),you are left with 2.30 mg. That means there is 2.30 mg of calcium floating around in your bloodstream that your body cannot put into use. Such calcium traveling in your blood that can't be utilized actually becomes toxic to body tissues.

At this point,the questions you should be mulling over are: (1)Where does extra calcium come from? and (2) What can this extra calcium do to one's body? Nature provided you with a huge storage warehouse for just such emergencies: you skeleton. That extra calcium is pulled from your bones.

Keep in mind, calcium which can't be used because of insufficient phosphorus acts as a foreign toxic substance which can end up being deposited in body tissues. Such free calcium becomes a pathologic substance. For example, it can become deposits that show up in arthritic joints,or stones in the kidneys or gall bladder,the calcium in the elbow or shoulder when bursitis and tendonitis are present, the cataract in the eye, and it becomes the main constituent that builds up in arteries. You are never told,but the build-up in arteries in atherosclerosis is composed of 95 percent calcium and only 0.5 percent cholesterol.

With soft drinks, the opposite chemistry takes place inasmuch as these drinks are primarily composed of phospheric acid plus some sweeteners and chemicals. The figures after drinking a soft drink look like this: calcium,instead of 10, goes down to 9.6, and phosphorus rises to 4.9. Multiply the amount of phosphorus 4.9 x 2.5 =12.25 mg. This is the amount of calcium the phosphorus needs to keep it in balance. But you only have 9.60 mg of calcium, so that means you have 2.65 mg of free phosphorus floating around in your blood looking for calcium.

It finds the calcium ready and waiting,available in your bones. Now if that happens only once in awhile,there will be no problem as our bones are sufficiently dense and numerous enough to support occasional deficits of this kind. However, if these imbalances happen day after day, it can be a prime factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis,rickets,osteoporosis, and osteomalacia.

Dr. Melvin Page found that whenever he was able to get patients to achieve a calcium level two and one-half times that of their phosphosus,degenerative diseases disappeared. He authored three books, but the data mentioned was best covered in his popular best seller, Young Minds With Old Bodies.