In 2010, a study published in British Medical Journal concluded that women taking calcium supplements significantly increased their risk of heart disease — by as much as 27%.

The authors’ conclusions were picked up by mainstream media and sensational headlines blanketed the airways and print media. The negative headlines made their impact as they fearfully convinced women to stop taking their calcium supplements.

What a mistake.

As a Naturopathic Doctor I have been taught to think about health and healing in a very comprehensive, holistic manner.

The science that drives my thought process is called Vitalism. Vitalism states that our bodies have an inherent self-healing mechanism and are brilliant and built to stay in balance through the harmonious efforts of many interrelated systems that are constantly working on our behalf to take care of us.

As a practitioner of this style of medicine, I am challenged to listen and ask deeper questions when I am involved with a patient who has become entirely out of balance and therefore symptomatic. Symptoms are the body’s way of talking to us, telling us that something needs attention. I have to understand where there might be obstacles to cure, where there might be some excess or deficiencies, and then work with the body to achieve a state of health.