This piece is the latter part of Chapter 7 of Stones in the Body: More Frightening Than Cancer (Yoon Jong-won). It is a narrative that contains the author's academic hypothesis, and the body, figures, and citations follow the manuscript as written.
Now We Know the "How"
Now we know. Even before we read this chapter, we knew that a lack of calcium is harmful to the bones, we also knew the fact that inflammation wrecks the body, and the notion that acidification and a lack of oxygen are not good was already as familiar to us as common sense.
But about "how calcium leaves the bone," we in fact knew almost nothing. We only vaguely called to mind the result that "the bone weakens," while where the switch of that process is turned on was not clear.
Now we know. When D (Deficiency) arises, PTH is secreted at once and activates the osteoclasts of the bone; when I (Inflammation) occurs, the inflammatory signal attacks bone metabolism through pathways such as RANKL; when A (Acidosis) accumulates, calcium is mobilized as if the bone were being sacrificed as a pH buffer; and when H (Hypoxia) occurs, the energy (ATP) based pump function is shaken, the calcium balance inside the cell collapses, and an abrupt change begins.
And these four triggers are not signals that each go their own separate way. Inflammation increases calcium consumption and creates deficiency; acidosis draws the bone in as a "buffering device" and mobilizes calcium; hypoxia enlarges cell damage and calls forth inflammation; and the inflammation that begins this way turns back in the direction of once again spurring on deficiency and acidosis. In the end, it is not that one cause ends, but that it leads into a loop that calls forth the next cause, and we come to call that loop a "vicious cycle."
On to the Next Chapter: From the Start to the Bottleneck
Let us check once more the position of this chapter.
The DIAH-7M Aging and Chronic Disease Pathway System is composed of five stages.
[Table] The five stages of the DIAH-7M Pathway System (the position of this chapter)
| Stage | English | Theory name | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| ① Factor | Factor | DIAH Four Gate Funnel Theory | |
| ② Start | Start | DIAH Trigger Bone Calcium Efflux Theory | ◀ This chapter |
| ③ Lockdown | Lockdown | Calcium Absorption and Microcalcification Double Lockdown Theory | ◀ Next chapter |
| ④ Manifestation | Manifestation | Calcification 7M Pathological Manifestation Theory | |
| ⑤ Result | Result | Collapse of the 7M Life System |
The DIAH Trigger Bone Calcium Efflux Theory dealt with in this chapter corresponds to the second of the five stages, that is, to the domain of ② Start. We have examined through what biochemical mechanism the four triggers D, I, A, and H draw calcium out of the bone, and further in what manner the "master key" called PTH operates and moves bone metabolism. In other words, we have now come to understand why, and how, calcium leaves the bone.
In the next chapter we see where that calcium goes after it has leaked out. This is the third stage, the domain of ③ Bottleneck. The calcium that has leaked out of the bone circulates through the whole body riding on the blood, and if things are normal it should return to the bone again and recover its balance, or be excreted appropriately through the kidney. But calcium that has been chronically over-mobilized fails to find its place, in the end clings to the walls of the microvessels, stagnates in the interstitial fluid, and blocks the flow of the lymph, turning the circulation of the whole body toward "the direction of stagnation."
To summarize, if the DIAH Trigger Bone Calcium Efflux Theory (BCO) showed "how calcium comes out of the bone (the start)," the Microvessel-Interstitial Fluid-Lymph Microcalcification Theory (MILC) shows "where the calcium that came out piles up (the bottleneck)." The path that runs from bone calcium efflux (BCO) to calcium misplacement (MILC), that world of the bottleneck, will unfold in earnest in the next chapter.
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