“If you are deficient in only one nutrient, you will get sick, guaranteed.” Although many people still focus single-mindedly on calcium, bone-building is a team sport. While calcium may be the star player, it’s ineffective and even dangerous without its teammates. If even one member of the team goes AWOL, your bones will suffer.

Bones are about half mineral and half protein. Minerals give bones their hardness—an important quality if you want to stand up straight. However a large part of bone consists of “bone matrix:” flexible tissue made of collagen and studded with hard minerals.

Calcium accounts for about 64% of bone’s mineral content, but phosphorus and magnesium also contribute to bone hardness. Zinc, manganese, silica and copper are used as co-enzymes in constructing bone matrix. Vitamin C is needed to create collagen. Vitamins C, D and K and the minerals boron, chromium, germanium, selenium and vanadium play various roles in what’s called bone remodeling: breaking down old bone (called bone resorption) and building new (replacing about 10% of our skeleton yearly.)

Loading up on calcium alone can have some seriously negative consequences. Not only will you deprive your body of nutrients that are essential for building healthy bone, you won’t even be able to utilize the calcium appropriately. And when calcium isn’t utilized properly it gets excreted, or worse, deposited in soft tissues. This can lead to bone spurs, kidney stones, gallstones, arthritis and heart disease.

Calcium needs vitamin D for absorption in the gut and eventual integration into bone, but magnesium and boron are necessary first to convert vitamin D into its useful, active form. Vitamin K2 activates a special protein in bone called osteocalcin that draws calcium into bone. Vitamin K2 also activates another protein, MGP, which keeps calcium out of your soft tissues.

Can you see why there’ve been alarming reports linking calcium supplementation with heart attacks? Too many people are taking calcium by itself or at most with vitamin D. In addition, a high calcium-to-magnesium ratio will increase heart attack risk since adequate magnesium (a relaxant) is needed to balance calcium (a stimulant).

If you think this is getting complicated, it’s really only a small part of the many interactions and interdependencies involved among different nutrients needed for healthy bones. Creating a truly comprehensive, state-of-the-art supplement was no easy task.