Some thoughts on calcium...
There has never been a link proven between calcium intake and valve calcification, although it has been studied. It's so unproven that tissue valve companies aren't allowed to discuss reduction of calcium by the patient in relation to the longevity of their valves, or even to discourage the taking of calcium supplements.
The use of calcium supplements doesn't really seem to affect the speed or likelihood of valve calcifications. We all know people who are dairy fiends and who take calcium supplements who have no calcification issues at all throughout their lives. Especially for women, reduction of calcium can lead to bone loss and other issues that overshadow any imagined benefit from the apparenty logical (but also apparently faulty) assumption that it might affect valve deposits.
The mineral present on valves is called apatite. It's largely made up of calcium and a mix of other minerals, such as phosphorus and magnesium, and is the same mineral from which bones and teeth are formed. Different concentrations of the trace minerals give it slightly different properties, which turn out to be useful for different bodily purposes. The functions in the body that create the different types of boney materials are probably involved in the creation of valvular apatite deposits, or at least in predisposing the elements of the deposits to coalesce on the valve surface.
Despite numerous attempts to link them, valve "calcification" isn't formed like or associated with the common types of hardened, "calcified" arteries (a form of arteriosclerosis). Nor is it associated with or physically similar to the types of plaques (atheromas) found in atherosclerosis (the most common cause of strokes, and the reason you watch your cholesterol and CRP), although some similar calcification may occur at the base of older plaques over time.
In fact, many valve patients (particularly bicuspid) are found to have otherwise very clean arteries. That doesn't mean that they are mutually exclusive. It just means that one doesn't imply the other, and further diminishes the likelihood of linking them for treatment purposes. Attempts to control valvular deposits with anticholesteral medications (statins) that help to control fatty, atheromic deposits in arteries have been stunning failures, even further separating the two.
The triggers of growth of apatite on a valve seem to be surface chemicals on the valve that are associated with damaged tissue, and to which calcium and other minerals in the blood are attracted. The type of apatite formed is similar to disorganized bone material, and is not unlike the protective bony layer sometimes found coating foreign items trapped inside the body.
The speed of valve apatite growth seems to relate strongly to age, and is comparable to the speed at which normal bone grows and repairs as it relates to the person's age. Once the process has begun, young people tend to calcify their valves (or tissue replacement valves) quite rapidly. As they age and their ability to grow and repair their bones decreases, so does the speed at which their valves or replacement tissue valves will calcify. A bovine valve that may last only five years in a 20-to-30-year-old patient has an average lifespan of over twenty years in those of retirement age.
While age is a generic factor, it's partly because of its effect on the following: people's individual rates of calcium metabolism, the concentrations of bondable minerals in their blood, metabolic inclination (or susceptibility) to transition minerals into bone, and general chemical reactivity (whether it be irritability/inflammation or immune response, which are both sides of the same coin).
The role of the immune system is not understood, but there are some small amounts of immune system markers that tend to appear at the site of apatitic valve calcifications. Whether these are what enable the valve's surface chemicals to attract minerals from the blood or if they are simply there because they are ubiquitous within the body is uncertain.
The upshot is that it most seems to do with the way you metabolize calcium and the general chemical reactivity of your body's immune system. It's how your body is set up to use the calcium, not how much of it is available.
Best wishes,
