“For about twenty years it has been clear that the metabolic problems that cause calcium to be lost from bones cause calcium to increase in the soft tissues, such as blood vessels. The role of phosphate in forming calcium phosphate crystals had until recently been assumed to be passive, but some specific “mechanistic” effects have been identified. For example, increased phosphate increases the inflammatory cytokine, osteopontin (Fatherazi, et al., 2009), which in bone is known to activate the process of decalcification, and in arteries is involved in calcification processes (Tousoulis, et al., 2012). In the kidneys, phosphate promotes calcification (Bois and Selye, 1956), and osteopontin, by its activation of inflammatory T-cells, is involved in the development of glomerulonephritis, as well as in inflammatory skin reactions (Yu, et al., 1998). High dietary phosphate increases serum osteopontin, as well as serum phosphate and parathyroid hormone, and increases the formation of tumors in skin (Camalier, et al., 2010). Besides the activation of cells and cell systems, phosphate (like other ions with a high ratio of charge to size, including citrate) can activate viruses (Yamanaka, et al., 1995; Gouvea, et al., 2006). Aromatase, the enzyme that synthesizes estrogen, is an enzyme that’s sensitive to the concentration of phosphate (Bellino and Holben, 1989).“ -Ray Peat
Author
Cari