What type of cal/mag supplement are you taking?

I was inspired by you to do the vinegar test on my NSP Calcium-Magnesium supplement and here is the result after about 30 minutes (actually I used red wine vinegar because it's all I had):

Calcium-Magnesium Dissolving in Red Wine Vinegar


I then put one of my NSP Calcium-Magnesium caps in water and here's what it looked like after about 15 minutes:

Calcium-Magnesium Dissolving in Water


Now, I put 1/3 of a capsule of NSP's PDA Digestive Supplement
which is essentialy Hydrochloric and pepsin used to aid in digestion. I did this to mimick (as well as I can at 3:17am) the conditions on the stomach. Here's the result after about 20 minutes:

Calcium-Magnesium Dissolving in Water with Hydrochloric Acid

I found it very interesting that the tablet dissolved better in water than in vinegar. I'm not sure what the implications are but it might be worth noting that the tablet in the vinegar was completely dissolved after about 75 minutes.




Here is the potassium supplement I use occasionally if I feel I need it:

NSP Combination Potassium




I side with Huggins on this one. I did DMPS but would not do it again. It was very harsh and my business partner got very sick with a 104 fever on the third DMPS session. It was a little scary. Huggins says it's dangerous because of the danger of mercury redistribution.


Here is some additional information I posted to another thread that may be helpful...


"It is interesting to note that some physicians are beginning to recognize that vitamins and minerals are a necessary adjunct to building bone. What they do not recognize is that it is important to use the full spectrum of minerals when trying to build bone. Calcium alone is not sufficient. If one takes calcium long term without balancing it with magnesium, serious imbalance between the minerals will occur. The same can be said of taking magnesium without calcium. A frequent side effect of this imbalance will be muscle cramps, especially during the menstrual cycle. Other minerals such as zinc, manganese, silicon, and boron are also helpful for building bone and usually available in a good bone building supplement formula."

Annals of Internal Medicine June 1, 1999 volume 130


"...studies have shown that calcium supplementation alone over extended periods has resulted in decreased calcium retention, or has had only minor beneficial effects. The causes of osteoporosis are numerous. Many nutritional factors can contribute to the osteoporotic process other than calcium deficiency. Calcium supplementation has even been shown to contribute osteoporosis when other minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, and copper are deficient. As an example, magnesium is deposited on the surface of the bone, and if a person?s magnesium status is marginal, then calcium supplementation can further contribute to a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency will produce cortical thinning of the bone with resulting fragility. When the neuro-endocrine factors are included, there are over 30 mechanism can be involved in contributing to osteoporosis. This may explain why the etiology of osteoporosis is controversial."

(1) Harrison M, Fraser R, Mullan B: Calcium Metabolism in Osteoporosis: Acute and Long Term Responses to Increased Calcium Intake. Lacncet ii, 1961.

(2) Schwartz E, Panariello A, Saeli J: Radioactive Calcium Kinetics During High Calcium Intake in Osteoporosis. J. Clin. Invest. 44, 1965.

(3) Watts DL: The Nutritional Relationships of Calcium. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 5:2, 1990.

(4) Wynchank S, Saltman PD: Trace Elements and Osteoporosis. S Afr Med J 87:4, 1997.

(5) South China Morning Post 10/7/99


"Chelating factors in various foods can prevent mercury absorption, including citric acid, tartaric acid, and cysteine, (22), selenium (29), garlic (46), chlorella (also an anti-inflammatory) (101), and cilantro (64). Methyl mercury can bind with L-cysteine and be transported across the blood brain barrier. L-leucine inhibits this transport. A balanced leucine/cysteine ratio is found in Whey Protein (71). Calcium and magnesium are also protective against mercury and methyl mercury toxicity (81)."

(22) Endo T, Nakaya S, Kimura R. "Mechanisms of absorption of inorganic mercury from rat small intestine. IV: Effect of chelating agents and cysteine on absorption of mercuric chloride in situ and in vitro." Pharmacol Toxicol 1991, 68(3): 171-6.

(29) Goyer RA. "Toxic and essential metal interactions." Annu Rev Nutr, 1997, 17: 37-50.

(46) Lee JH, Kang HS, Roh J. "Protective effects of garlic juice against embryotoxicity of methylcercuric chloride administered to pregnant Fischer 344 rats." Yonsei Med J 1999, 4(5): 483-9.

(64) Omura Y, Beckman SL. "Role of mercury (Hg) in resistant infections and effective treatment of Chlamydia trachomatis and Herpes family viral infections (and potential treatment for cancer) by removing localized Hg deposits with Chinese parsley and delivering effective antibiotics using various drug uptake enhancement methods." Acupunct Electrother Res, 1995, 20(3-4): 195-229.

(71) Quig, David. "Cysteine Metabolism and Metal Toxicity." Alternative Medicine Review, 1998; 3(4): 262-270.

(81) Singh CB, Singh SP. "Protective effects of Ca2+, Mg2+, Cu2+, and Ni2+ on mercury and methylmercury toxicity to a cyanobacterium." Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 1992, 23(1): 1-10.

(101) Yasukawa K, Akihisa T, Kanno H, Kaminaga T, Izumida M, Sakoh T, Tamura T, Takido M. "Inhibitory effects of sterols isolated from Chlorella vulgaris on 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced inflammation and tumor promotion in mouse skin." Biol Pharm Bull, 1996, 19(4): 573-6.


NOTE: In the following article, read "Ca2+" as "calcium" and read "Mg2+" as "magnesium".

Protective effects of Ca2+, Mg2+, Cu2+, and Ni2+ on mercury and methylmercury toxicity to a cyanobacterium.

Singh CB, Singh SP.
Algal Research Laboratory, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

"Toxicological investigations of the impact of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) and methylmercury (CH3Hg+) in terms of growth, NH4+ uptake, in vivo glutamine synthetase (transferase) activity, and regulation of toxicity by Ca2+, Mg2+, Cu2+ and Ni2+ in the diazotrophic cyanobacterium Nostoc calcicola Breb. have been completed. Photoautotrophic growth of the cyanobacterium was extremely sensitive to both mercury compounds, CH3Hg+ being 2.5 times more toxic than Hg2+. Although NH4+ uptake was 6 times more sensitive than in vivo GS activity against the two mercurials, both processes had a greater susceptibility toward CH3Hg+. On the basis of Km and Vmax, it is suggested that both mercury species inhibit such metabolic events noncompetitively. Ca2+, Mg2+, Cu2+, and Ni2+ did not change the nature of inhibition and effectively antagonized the Hg2+ and CH3Hg+ toxicities in the sequence Ca2+ greater than Mg2+ much greater than Cu2+ greater than Ni2+."

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1992 Feb;23(1):1-10.

(In other words, both calcium and magnesium ["antagonize"] protect against mercury toxicity)


Following is the data sheet we produce on the NSP Calcium Magnesium we use. It contains the other minerals besides calcium and magnesium mentioned in the articles above. This is one of the things I like about NSP supplements, they have formulas based on real research:

NSP SynerPro Calcium-Magnesium Supplement

Here is the magnesium supplement I use when I feel I need extra magnesium (I keep this in my desk cabinet):

Magnesium Complex