Let me start off by clarifying my position on coral calcium. For starters, coral calcium is a good source of calcium. And like many forms of calcium that are good for you, coral calcium can be used effectively as your supplement for calcium. Is it superior to all other forms of calcium? No! It is not more effective nor does it act any differently in the body once it's absorbed. With that said, this article isn't about coral calcium's effectiveness; this article is to inform you about how Robert Barefoot and Kevin Trudeau misrepresented coral calcium in their infomercial. 

Its sad how many people have fallen prey to the magic marketing machine called infomercial. Furthermore if you or anyone you know actually purchased a bottle of coral calcium based on the information Robert Barefoot promotes, I would encourage you to send it back for a refund. Before I share what this quack is doing, let me begin by discussing how a company can get away with saying misleading things all in an effort to extrapolate money from your wallet.

        It's important to remember that in America we have the privilege of the first amendment which allows us to express our opinions even if they are not accurate or true. Robert Barefoot in my opinion abuses this right to freedom of speech when he sites research that is greatly flawed, outdated and suffers severe metadology problems. The reason I say he is abusing his right to freedom of speech is because he is using it to create financial gain at the expense of others lack of knowledge. And this is what separates freedom of speech from consumer fraud. It should also be pointed out that although he never says he's a medical doctor, his discussions about "cancer patients" and other health related discussions could be misinterpreted by those watching that he is a medical doctor. And although anyone with a PhD can refer to themselves as "doctor" that doesn't always mean that their PhD came from 6 or more years of schooling from a reputable University.

Another way that companies get away with pedaling junk is to use a host that's in on the scam, acting as if he's hearing the information for the very first time and pretending to be amazed by the information. And of course don't forget the testimonials. No rip-off could be complete without a few sensational testimonials that tout the powerful effects of the product that supports what the doctor is saying and thereby giving credibility to the sales. Another way the rip-off works is to sensationalize the effects of the product while insinuating that you can only get the right form by ordering from one specific company. In addition to the exclusive processing that no-one else seems to have access to, charging an outrageous price that cannot be justified other than for the purpose of lining the pockets of these scam artists.

        I sat down one day with a notepad and pen and watched Kevin Trudeau's fake interview with Robert Barefoot and coral calcium. Whenever Robert Barefoot made a claim that sounded outlandish I made a note of it so that I could research it later. The more I watched, the more amazed I was that the FDA or FTC hasn't stopped the airing of this infomercial. So many of the claims about coral calcium and disease prevention were so misleading and false, I hard a hard time watching it in its entirety.

        Robert Barefoot claims that his supplement "is derived from the living remnants of living coral that have fallen from coral reefs, and that it is mined from ocean beds at the base of the coral reefs in Okinawa, Japan." Sometimes it is what we are not being told that often says more than what we are being told. The first red flag should be the words living remnants. How can something be a living remnant? Remnant is defined as "residual." Which means it's what is left over after something is gone. Thus, you can't be alive and a remnant too.

Another red flag is the fact that it's illegal to mine live coral from the oceans. There is not one single country that allows the practice of mining from ocean beds live coral! Think of the ecological disaster that mining would create for any inhabitants near the coral beds. There would be a complete destruction of fishing, not to mention the destruction of natural habitants that live within coral beds and that are protected by the coral. In fact, it really doesn't matter where you get coral calcium because coral calcium is actually limestone. Limestone is a very cheap source of calcium and is derived from a layer of earth where coral remnants have fallen, been crushed by the force of the earth that has been there for centuries. There are no unique properties of this form of calcium, although it does contain other minerals, but that's nothing new, all soils contain a variety of minerals. About 60% of limestone's calcium is unabsorbed and passes through the intestinal tract leading to constipation. If you want to find out just how cheap limestone is, walk into any garden center and ask for a 50 pound bag of limestone and it should only cost you about 75 cents!

        When Robert Barefoot starts talking about medical references and disease, I have to really wonder if this guy cheated his way through school. He seems to ignore the current research and blurts out information that just doesn't hold up to any scientific research. For example, in one section of his infomercial he states that "there are several countries in the world that never, ever get sick. they never get cancer, heart disease or diabetes. They have no doctors, and they don't grow old." He also claims that the reason that this happens is because the countries he's referring to the people take in 100 times the RDA of everything. This claim should really send up another red flag. Show me one country in which this is reality. It simply isn't true. I did a Medline, Pubmed, and every online search I could think of to locate any epidemiological studies that could support this claim and came up with zero. I just have to wonder where this guy comes up with stuff like this. But what's so sad about all this is that so many people viewing this infomercial are swallowing this garbage and actually buying the product. Remember, if much of what is being said can be easily disproved, than everything this guy has to say should be suspect. Just consider his statement about these unnamed countries that ingest 100 times the RDA of everything and apply that to the intake of iron. Iron is toxic can if taken in high dosages can cause liver failure. More childhood deaths occur from overdosing on iron than any other mineral. In addition to that, ingesting 100 times the RDA for vitamin D would also have fatal effects. Just look at what happened a short while ago when too much vitamin D was accidentally added to one shipment of milk. Children and adults were sent to local hospitals from vitamin D overdose.

       
I'm almost embarrassed to quote this one because it's so easy to research and disprove. He claims that you should not be concerned about cholesterol levels in your blood because abnormal levels are not the cause of heart disease. The real problem he states is a calcium deficiency. You would really have to be out of the loop to think that cholesterol levels don't play a role in heart disease. I won't even honor this statement with anything else; his stupidity should stand on its own merits. Enough said.

       
I guess it's hard for many people to differentiate opinion from fact, but consider this next claim he makes. He claims that in cultures that live very, very long lives all the people consume 100,000 mg. of calcium. This simply isn't true. There is no culture that has ingested that much calcium. It's not only physiologically impossible to consume that much calcium from food, you would have to swallow 100 tablets containing 1,000 mg. of calcium everyday to reach that dosage. Most calcium supplements sold on the market today come in 500 mg tablets. His claim has to make me wonder. If what he claims is true, why doesn't the coral calcium that he sells contain 100,000 mg of coral calcium? Or why doesn't his label recommend that you ingest 2,000 tablets a day of his product? Although the FDA does not regulate supplements, they do remove harmful products from the marketplace. Any product containing that much calcium would be removed because of the potential harmful effects (like death) it would have on consumers.

        He claims that Lupus, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's are caused by a calcium deficiency. Does this even sound plausible to you, when in fact these three diseases have been studied so extensively that if a calcium deficiency was the cause of these major diseases, don't you think we would know that by now. In fact, when I did a Medline search on calcium deficiency and Lupus, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's there was no research that linked calcium deficiency as a root cause of those diseases. What I find deplorable is how he speaks in regards to placing calls to Michael J Fox. He very clearly stated that he has tried to reach out to Michael J. Fox in an effort to inform him about his Parkinson's disease being a result of a calcium deficiency.

Personally the last thing Michael J. Fox should do is call Robert Barefoot. Based on one independent study by http://www.consumerlab.com/ the lead concentrations found within coral calcium was too high to recommend to consumers.  Lead poisoning or too much lead would only worsen the effects of Parkinson's disease. Lead toxicity is a significant public health problem in the U.S. causing impairment of cognitive abilities and significant delays in behavioral development in children. The intellectual deficits persist throughout life. Toxicity often occurs because of the exposure to lead, which can be found in many homes. But since Coral Calcium is mined from areas of limestone beds the lead concentrations vary widely. The effects of lead poisoning on the brain are manifold and include delayed or reversed development, permanent learning disabilities, seizures, coma, and even death. Since studies have shown coral calcium to contain too much lead, this is one product I would tell Michael J. Fox to stay away from.

If you really are interested in stopping this type of misleading information from happening again, call or write to your local DA office. Tell them that you were mislead by statements that were made by Robert Barefoot on his infomercial. Be sure to include the hosts name Kevin Trudeau. By using his name it will throw a red flag because he's been in trouble with the FTC before. In fact, he was convicted of fraud and larceny and was sentenced to state prison. Because these infomercial people only understand one thing, and that's money, do us all a favor if you are one of the people that purchased this stuff. Pack it in a box and send it back for a full refund.