--you mention having excessive calcium in your arteries; do you also have (if you know) excessive serum calcium?

As a mineral, calcium is kept in very tight check by the body, specifically by hormones secreted by the parathyroid glands imbeded in the thryoid. (They are like four little peas inthe flesh of the thyroid.)

It is not uncommon for calcium imbalances to result from problems of these glands. My mother had a tumor--benign--of one of them that was discovered when her calcium serum levels--and evidence of arterial deposits--became abnormally high. She underwent surgery and is fine, though she must now take more supplemental calcium than before.

Another thing--high serum calcium levels often result when calcium is being leached or broken down from bone. There are a number of reasons for this, but often it results from tumors of the bone or blood cell producing tissues, and if calcium levels come back high, more sophisticated testing, including calcium ion levels, peripheral blood smear/cell typing, and a bone scan may be indicated.