Calcium In Your Arteries Isn’t The Problem — It’s The Proof

Many of my patients have told me about a new scare tactic that is sweeping through cardiology practices across the country. The story is almost always the same...  

A patient goes in feeling fine — until they undergo a routine heart scan and walk out shaken and confused.  

They’ve just been told that the elevated level of calcium in their arteries has put them on the fast track to a heart attack or stroke.  

Then they’re advised that there’s only one solution: They must begin lifelong statin therapy — immediately.  

In some cases, patients are warned that there’s no point in even trying anything else. “It’s genetic,” they’re told. “This just runs in families.”  

And just like that, a prescription is written and you’re instructed to be on these awful, toxic meds for the rest of your life.  

But here’s the thing — you’re being told to take statins because Big Pharma drugs reps have pushed a half-truth that ignores basic physiology and downplays legitimate risks. It also conveniently funnels people toward a highly lucrative drug that does nothing to address the real problem.  

Let me explain...  

Calcium in your arteries is not a disease, or even a diagnosis. It’s a signal — a sign that something has gone wrong upstream.  

Your body doesn’t just randomly dump calcium into artery walls.  

Of course, your body needs calcium. But it belongs in bones and teeth — not in arteries.  

So when blood vessels are injured by  inflammation, oxidative stress, blood sugar  spikes, or toxins, calcium gets recruited as a kind of biological patch.  

Over time, those patches harden. Arteries lose  elasticity and blood flow can become compromised.  

But the process doesn’t start with calcium. Calcium arrives only after the damage has already occurred.  

The problem is, modern medicine has now latched onto calcium scores as a convenient fear trigger — without really explaining what they mean, or more importantly, what they don’t.  

In this Confidential Cures article, you’ll learn the truth about calcium scores and how you can lower them... without exposing yourself to the dangers of statins.  

If your cardiologist tells you that calcification in your arteries is inevitable because of genetics... Beware.  

This claim has just enough truth to sound convincing — but it also has just enough omission to be misleading.  

The truth is that researchers consistently find that the genes associated with cardiovascular disease often tend to act through pathways like inflammation, lipid metabolism, glucose handling, and other metabolic processes.¹  

But genetics do not dictate where calcium ends up in your body.  

Think about it... If arterial calcification were purely genetic, then nutrition wouldn’t matter. Vitamin status wouldn’t matter. Lifestyle wouldn’t matter.  

Yet decades of research show that calcium metabolism is profoundly influenced by diet, micronutrients, and inflammation.²  

In other words, you can control the calcium buildup in your arteries yourself — and it doesn’t matter which genes you inherited from your parents, grandparents, or your Great Uncle Bob.  

That’s an inconvenient truth for a system built around Big Pharma’s drugs-first solutions.  

Like most people in the developed world, the chances are that a doctor has cajoled, persuaded, scared, or even bullied you into taking statins to lower your cholesterol levels.  

I advise my patients to throw their statins in the trash.  

This stance has turned me into an outlaw among conventional doctors, even though multiple studies — including the landmark Framingham Heart Study — have found no link between high cholesterol and raised heart disease risk.³  

But Big Pharma is so desperate to sell more of these drugs, they’re now pushing for children as young as 8-years-old to take them — despite being in perfect health — simply on their basis of family history.⁴  

While statins were never intended as a preventive drug for healthy children — modern guidelines — including clearance from the FDA — have steadily expanded their use to younger and younger patients labeled “high risk.”  

And recently they made the ridiculous claim that statins can also prevent cancer... they can’t.  

The sole anti-cancer benefit that can be said about statins is their mild anti-inflammatory effect.  

But to prescribe these toxic drugs for an anti-inflammatory impact — especially when there are hundreds of safe and natural ways to cool inflammation — is one of the most irresponsible medical decisions I can imagine.  

There is something else statins can’t do...  

They CANNOT remove calcium from artery walls, repair the endothelium, or correct the metabolic dysfunction that causes calcium misplacement in the first place.  

Some studies suggest statins may even increase arterial calcification by converting softer, inflamed plaque into harder, calcified plaque.⁵  

And once you start, you’re told that you’ll be on these drugs for the rest of your life. That’s not preventive medicine. It’s a one-size-fits-all response to a much more nuanced problem.  

Meanwhile, patients are expected to accept a long list of side effects as the price of protection — including muscle pain and weakness, fatigue, cognitive dulling, blood sugar disruption, and a higher risk of developing diabetes.^6,7  

You see, from Big Pharma’s business perspective, as soon as they can get you taking statins — for whatever reason — the larger the lifetime customer value is.  

Instead of obsessing over cholesterol numbers  and calcium scores in isolation, the real questions  your doctor should be asking are far more fundamental...  

Why is calcium going to the wrong places, and how do we redirect it?  

When calcium is guided back into bones and teeth, it doesn’t linger in blood vessels. It leaves them behind. This isn’t alternative thinking or fringe theory — it’s basic human physiology.  

And these questions determine whether calcium strengthens your skeleton or quietly stiffens your arteries.  

You see, your body has evolved precise mechanisms to manage calcium safely, using specific vitamins and minerals as molecular “instructions.”  

When those instructions are followed, calcium reinforces structural strength where it’s needed most. But when they’re ignored, calcium becomes misplaced, and arteries pay the price.  

This is where nutritional medicine — grounded in real biochemistry — has an advantage that drugs simply don’t.  

Let me show you what I mean...  

Instead of prescriptions for toxic meds, I recommend a four-prong protocol to my patients — because it addresses the root cause of arterial  calcification, instead of masking it.  

• Increase Your Vitamin D Levels. This fat-soluble vitamin is one of the core “primal” nutrients that kept our ancestors strong, potent, and disease free.  

Dozens of studies back up vitamin D’s power to help your body absorb calcium from the gut.  

The best source of vitamin D is sunshine. You don’t need more than 20 minutes in the sun to get all your vitamin D for the day. But because we spend most of our time inside — and winter is upon us anyway — you might have to get your vitamin D from elsewhere.  

Some of the best food sources of vitamin D  include salmon, mackerel, tuna fish, sardines,  eggs, grass-fed beef, and cheese.  

I also recommend supplementing with cholecalciferol, also called vitamin D3. This is the same vitamin D your body produces.  

You should aim for 5,000 to 10,000 IUs of vitamin D daily from a mix of sunshine, diet, and supplements.  

Cod liver oil is also a great source of D3. One  teaspoon a day is the equivalent of about eight  capsules. You should avoid the synthetic form of vitamin D2 that’s in most multivitamins. It’s less potent and less absorbable.  

It’s well known to help your body absorb calcium from the gut. But what’s rarely explained is it doesn’t tell calcium where to go. That’s the job of another important nutrient... K2.  

• Combine With Vitamin K2. This powerful vitamin activates proteins — such as matrix Gla protein — that act like traffic controllers for calcium.  

They pull calcium out of artery walls and  prevent it from being deposited there in the first  place, directing it instead into your bones. In one study, researchers found that K2 lowered calcium buildup in the arteries by 52%. And it slashed the risk of death by 26%.⁸  

Japanese researchers have understood this relationship for decades, which is why high-dose vitamin K2 has been used extensively in Japan with impressive results for both bone and cardiovascular health.⁹  

But you need to take them both together. Taking vitamin D without adequate K2 is like increasing traffic without adding road signs. Calcium absorption goes up, but misplacement risk increases as well. 

Goose liver is particularly high in vitamin K2. Three and a half ounces of goose liver will provide 369 mcg of K2. 

Natto, the Japanese dish of fermented whole soybeans, is also rich in K2. There are 200 mcg of K2 in a half ounce of natto. 

Other good sources of K2 include: 

Of course, all of these foods must come from grass-fed animals. 

You see, animals take in vitamin K1 from the grasses they eat. They convert it to vitamin K2 in their gut the same way we do. When you eat meat, fat, organs, and dairy from grass-fed animals you take in their vitamin K2. 

Or you can also take a supplement. But make sure you get the right kind. 

Vitamin K2 comes in several different forms called menaquinones. They’re numbered from four to nine. The higher the number, the more bioavailable and long-lasting the K2. 

Look for vitamin K2 in the form of menaquinone-7. It’s much more bioactive than menaquinone-4. 

You can find K2 at your health food store or online. I recommend up to 90 mcg a day to my patients. And, because it’s fat-soluble, take K2 with a meal to improve absorption.  

• Then, Add Aged Garlic Extract. Garlic is one of the most extensively studied natural compounds for cardiovascular health — but not all garlic supplements are equal.  

I recommend aged garlic extract because its properties have been tested in rigorous, placebo-controlled clinical trials. 

In one study, researchers examined low-attenuation plaque, a particularly dangerous form of arterial plaque that’s a combination of calcium and fat and strongly linked to heart attacks. The results were striking. Participants taking aged garlic extract experienced a 29% reduction in this plaque, while the placebo group saw 57% progression.¹⁰  

That’s not a modest benefit. That’s a reversal.  

Aged garlic extract works by reducing oxidative  stress, calming inflammation within artery walls, improving endothelial function, and inhibiting abnormal calcium deposition — all processes statins largely ignore.  

I recommend taking about 1,200 mg of aged garlic extract every day — one 600 mg capsule in the morning with breakfast and another in the evening with dinner.  

• Finally, Don’t Forget The Magnesium. This often-ignored mineral is essential for keeping calcium soluble and properly distributed in your body. Without enough magnesium, calcium tends to harden in soft tissues — where you don’t want it. 

Low magnesium levels have been strongly associated with arterial stiffness, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and abnormal heart rhythms. Unfortunately, most people are deficient, and many supplements are poorly absorbed.¹¹  

That’s why bioavailability matters.  

Forms such as ionic magnesium, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium malate are far more effective at reaching cells, where they can counterbalance calcium and support vascular health.  

You can get magnesium tablets, soft gel capsules, or a powdered magnesium citrate formula online and in health food stores. I recommend 600 mg per day.  

Always confirm the source and quality of the mineral supplement. And make sure there are no extra fillers. These can cause more harm than  good.  

And take your magnesium supplement with vitamin B6, which increases the amount of magnesium that accumulates in your cells.  

To Your Good Health,

1. Xiao Z, et al. “Bioinformatics-based study on the regulatory network of lipid metabolism-related genes and mechanisms in coronary heart disease.” Hereditas. 2025 Nov 24;162(1):231.  

2. Cui X, et al. “Dietary inflammation and vascular calcification: a comprehensive review of the associations, underlying mechanisms, and prevention strategies.” Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2025;65(27):5302-5323.  

3. Wilson P, et al. “High density lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality: The Framingham Heart Study.” Arteriosclerosis. 1988 Nov-Dec;8(6):737-41.  

4. Fiorentino R, Chiarelli F. “Statins in children, an update.” Int J Mol Sci. 2023; 24(2):1366.  

5. van Rosendael AR, et al. “Association of statin treatment with progression of coronary atherosclerotic plaque composition.” JAMA Cardiol. 2021 Nov 1;6(11):1257-1266.  

6. Stroes ES, et al. “Statin-associated muscle symptoms: impact on statin therapy-European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel Statement on Assessment, Aetiology and Management.” Eur Heart J. 2015 May 1;36(17):1012-22.  

7. Mach F, et al. “Adverse effects of statin therapy: perception vs. the evidence – focus on glucose homeostasis, cognitive, renal and hepatic function, haemorrhagic stroke and cataract.” EHJ. 2018;39:2526–2539.  

8. Geleijnse JM., et al. “Dietary intake of menaquinone is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease: The Rotterdam Study.” J Nutr. 2004.  

9. Wen Z, et al. “Habitual natto intake elevates serum MK-7 levels, enhances osteocalcin carboxylation, and supports bone density: a meta-analysis of Japanese evidence.” Front Nutr. 2025 Nov 28;12:1713726.  

10. Shaikh K, et al. “Aged garlic extract reduces low attenuation plaque in coronary  arteries of patients with diabetes: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.” Exp Ther Med. 2020 Feb;19(2):1457-1461.  

11. Nielsen FH. “The Role of dietary magnesium in cardiovascular disease.” Nutrients. 2024 Dec 6;16(23):4223.