We’re paying a hefty price on our health for the conventional wisdom we hold to be true – especially women and their children – said Dr.

Robert Thompson, an OB/GYN and integrative medicine specialist deemed by his peers to be in the top 5 percent of U.S. physicians.

The conventional wisdom, more accurately described as ignorance, is that we need an abundance of prescription drugs and vitamin supplements, including calcium, to have strong bones and overall good health.

“Bones are composed of at least a dozen minerals and we need all of them in perfect proportions in order to have healthy bones and healthy bodies; osteoporosis is caused by a loss of minerals from the bones, not just calcium, and we cannot possibly replace minerals with calcium alone, which hardens concrete!” said Thompson, author of “The Calcium Lie II: What Your Doctor Still Doesn’t Know,” (calciumliebook.com), a new book, coauthored by health journalist Kathleen Barnes, that details the roles minerals play in overall health and how to identify and correct deficiencies and imbalances.

Too much calcium, through food sources or by taking supplements, set individuals up for an array of negative health consequences, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 hypothyroidism, hypertension, depression, problem pregnancies, dementia, heart disease, kidney stones, gallstones and more.

Mineral deficiencies are responsible for a host of health problems, and trying to compensate with flavor-ofthe-month drugs or vitamins compounds the problem.

Thompson reviews how this affects women, children and women who are experiencing menopause, and what they can do about it.

• The mineral cost of pregnancy … Women become very vigilant, and sometimes hypervigilant, about their health during pregnancy, because they know it affects their babies. Depending on a woman’s beliefs about health, this could lead her on one of several directions. The bottom line is that pregnant women lose about 10 percent of their total mineral supply to their babies, which means the average woman loses nearly four pounds of minerals to her baby with each pregnancy.

• Embrace the farmer way. Skilled and experienced farmers know that unrefined sea salt is essential to the health of his animals. For more than 50 years, farmers have known that sea salt, or rock salt, is essential for their stock to remain healthy and to breed without birth defects. This data refers to farm mammals; since we’re mammals and all mammals have similar physiology, minerals gained from unrefined salt, which is the best source of sodium and ionic minerals, has similar health benefits for pregnant women and their children.

• The problems women experience with menopause. It’s estimated that up to 40 percent of perimenopausal (nearly menopausal) women have low thyroid function that adds to their symptoms when their hormones begin to fluctuate, “but I believe this is far too conservative of a figure,” Thompson said. “More realistically, it’s near 90 percent or more, and hypothyroidism is probably near 95 percent, especially if a woman is more than 20 percent above her ideal body weight. Excessive calcium contributes to this and other menopausal problems.”

• Consider bioidentical hormones for treatment. There is overwhelming biological evidence that bioidentical hormone replacement is not only natural and safe, but it also improves the quality of life and reduces breast cancer incidence, heart disease, stroke, dementia, osteoporosis, high cholesterol and nearly all known chronic illness associated with aging. Balanced physiologic transmucosal bioidentical hormone replacement is the specific method to consider.