Essential Minerals Your Body Needs To Function Well.

Essential minerals.... minerals.... minerals... the spark plugs of metabolism! Without enough minerals, the enzymes in our bodies have a hard time doing the jobs they need to do, which affects every. single. cell.

Minerals are inorganic substances required by the human body to function correctly. Your body requires varying amounts of essential minerals daily in order to build strong bones, muscles, bodily fluids, etc. When your body does not receive enough essential minerals, you might develop nutritional deficiencies and diseases such as:

• Goiters

• Osteoporosis

• Anemia

• Diarrhea

• Low thyroid

• Low Hormones

• Headaches

• Toxin build up

• Diabetes

Essential minerals and their functions

Phosphorus

Helps the body store and use energy

Phosphorus in combination with calcium creates your metabolic rate

Works with calcium in the formation of strong, healthy bones / teeth

Magnesium

Cell membrane permeability

Involved in energy production

Balances sugar metabolism

Necessary for all 300 enzymatic functions

Relaxation of muscles

Reduces inflammation

Potassium

Regulates blood pressure in conjunction with sodium

Maintains fluid balance

Sensitizes cells to thyroid hormones

Nerve conduction

Sodium

Primary alkalizer

Regulates the adrenal glands and blood pressure

Maintains fluid balance

Calcium

Controls the nervous system

Muscle contractions

Maintains the pH balance of the body

Reduces lactic acid build up

Helps secret insulin

Copper

Formation of red blood cells

Necessary for nervous system function

Makes iron bioavailable

Necessary for reproductive system

Stimulates production of neurotransmitters

Supports thyroid and adrenal gland function

Immune support

Needed for bone and connective tissue production

Zinc

Supports the immune system

Important for the essential process of cell division and reproduction

Iron

Needed for thyroid hormone conversion

Helps in transporting oxygen to all parts of the body

Chloride

Maintains proper blood volume, blood pressure and pH of bodily fluids

Iodine

Promotes thyroid hormone production

Supports brain function

Sulfur

Involved in protein synthesis

Protects cells from damage

Selenium

Makes DNA and protects against cell damage and infections

Reproduction and metabolism of thyroid hormones

Cobalt

Necessary component of Vitamin B12

Important role in forming amino acids and proteins in nerves cells, neurotransmitters

The higher our stress OR the faster our metabolism, the more essential minerals we need.

All stressors, including good stress, increases our needs for essential minerals.

• Exercise & Sweating

• Pregnancy

• First Dates

• Competing in a game

• Job promotion

When we develop imbalances, many stressors have contributed to a depletion of minerals over time, such as:

• Fasting

• Imbalanced Blood Sugar

• Poor Sleep

• Overly-Low Carb Diets

• Overly-Low Protein Diets

• Emotional Stress/Trauma

• Over-drinking water

As we work to restore our metabolism, restoring our minerals is a foundational step.

It's a good idea to focus on lowering the stressors that are depleting us, while simultaneously implementing easily digestible, bioavailable sources of essential minerals from nutrient dense foods including:

• Broth and Stocks

• Fruit and fruit juices (fresh, no additives)

• Well-cooked greens

• High quality milk and dairy products

• Liver and other organs

• Oysters and other shellfish

Once we have reduced stress and shifted to a diet with more bioavailable nutrients, adding in extra sources of minerals to restore reserves that have been depleted is a helpful next step.

• Shilajit

• Fulvic acid

• Trace mineral drops and powders

• Sea Salt

• Herbal teas

• Cream of Tartar

• Adrenal cocktails

• Magnesium bicarbonate

• Mineral foot soaks

By no means is this an exhaustive list, nor do you necessarily need all these mineral sources.

These are just some of many effective sources of minerals.

Another point to consider is your mineral absorption rate. You don’t just need enough essential minerals, you need to be able to digest and absorb what you're taking in. Getting essential minerals in bioavailable form is the best way to ensure your body can use them.

A lot of things interfere with absorption or speedup depletion:

• Structure of food

• Synthetic vs bioavailable minerals

• Food interactions

• Damage to intestines (infections)

• Inflammation

• Trauma

• Antibiotic and herbal pathogen protocols

Bioavailability of minerals is considered to be the relative absorption of a nutrient from the diet.

Here is what matters:

1. What form the essential mineral is delivered in (animals, protein, plant)

2. What other cofactors (other nutrients) are needed for optimal absorption

3. What other cofactors might inhibit nutrient absorption

4. The health of the person (gut and metabolic health)

If nutrients are not absorbed or released during the digestive process they will be of no nutritional value, even if you are eating a nutrient rich diet.

Here are some examples:

Calcium

Cooking foods will decrease the effects of oxalates and phytates, so the bioavailability of calcium will increase with cooking. If there are too many phytates and oxalates present in food, calcium absorption is inhibited.

Sugar and Vitamin D will increase calcium absorption. Having a class of milk is the perfect combination of all these nutrients.

There are other things that prevent calcium absorption such as an intestinal disease, dietary fiber and smoking for example.

Vitamin A

The animal source of Vitamin A (Retinol) is 10x more bioavailable than the plant version of beta carotene. Beta carotene needs to be converted to vitamin A in the liver. Yet if the liver is undernourished it prevents beta carotene from converting and you see it build up in the tissue instead of being utilized. You see people who eat lots of carrots sometimes get orange skin! Not good.

Dietary Fat will increase Vitamin A absorption since it is a fat soluble vitamin. And again, intestinal disease, alcohol and interaction with drugs can inhibit Retinol absorption.

Iron

Heme iron from animal sources is more bioavailable than non-heme from plant sources.

Excess phytates, calcium and polyphenols will inhibit iron absorption and vitamin C will increase the absorption of non-heme iron. Your small intestines regulate iron absorption. Your body will decide how much to absorb or not according to your individual needs!

Find out your mineral status by running a hair tissue mineral analysis here.

Always talk to your healthcare provider and do your own research before supplementing!

Resource:

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/vitamins-and-minerals#:~:text=A%20number%20of%20minerals%20are,fluoride%2C%20manganese%2C%20and%20selenium.