Minerals And Your Health

Minerals are just as important as vitamins for our health. In fact, both are critical, as they both work as co-enzymes, which means they catalyze normal reactions and processes within the body.

They are both also important for the formation of our blood and bone, healthy nerve functioning, the regulation of muscle tone - including the smooth muscles of the heart. They are also crucial for the correct structure of body fluids.

Vitamins actually need minerals so that they can be used by our bodies. Minerals are important for growth and healing, the production of energy, and other important functions of health.

It's not just a simple matter of taking the correct amount of minerals. The minerals actually affect each other - they must be taken in the correct ratios. This does not mean that the amounts aren't important either - we can still be deficient and it is going to affect our health.

Absorption Of Minerals

One of the issues that can arise when taking minerals in excess, is due to the fact that minerals compete with each other for absorption in our bodies. Once a mineral is taken or eaten, it enters the bloodstream, and from there must be carried across the membranes of our cells in a form that the cells can use them.

Examples of minerals that compete with each other include zinc and copper, and calcium and magnesium.

Other things, like fiber, also affect the body's capacity to absorb minerals. You should always take a fiber supplement at a different time to your mineral supplements.

Mineral Sources

The minerals we use in our bodies occur in nature naturally - just look at the dirt and rocks in a park. However, we only get them after they have been incorporated into plants, or a herbivorous animal has eaten plants and incorporated those minerals into them. Plants and herbivorous animals give us the minerals we need in a form the body can use.

There are actually two types of minerals - bulk minerals and trace minerals. The bulk minerals are also called 'macrominerals'. They include magnesium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, and potassium.

The trace minerals are needed in much smaller quantities, and can be toxic in large doses. However, they are still important to our health. The trace minerals include copper, boron, germanium, chromium, silicon, manganese, vanadium, zinc, iron, iodine, sulfur, and molybdenum.

Like the fat soluble vitamins, minerals are stored in our body, particularly the bones and muscle tissue. That's why you have to be careful not to take excessive amounts of them. They can build up and become toxic. Fortunately this doesn't happen very often because you have to take a lot of them over a long period of time to create this effect.

The best place to get our minerals is in food, of course. However, sometimes this is not always practical. Our soil is generally of much poorer quality, which affects the mineral balance of the fruit and vegetables we eat. That is why organic produce is so much more preferable. Also, if we eat a lot of processed food, this can affect the quality of the nutrients we get.