USANA Nutritionals

Unlike vitamin research, serious study of the roles of the various minerals in the human body has been carried out mostly during the last two decades. Some minerals have been extensively studied, but many others are not well understood. Minerals such as chromium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc are now the subject of research projects all over the world. We believe that the next few decades will shed a vast amount of light not only on how these minerals function but also on how they can be used as possible therapeutic agents.

What Is a Mineral?

Minerals are basic elements that have then origin in the earth and, unlike vitamins, cannot be made by living systems. Those that have been found to be essential to body function are calcium,phosphorous, magnesium, iodine, iron, and zinc. Very small amounts of the important trace minerals copper, chromium, fluoride, manganese, molybdenum, and selenium are also needed by your body. Little scientific information is known about the other trace elements—arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, nickel, silicon, tin, and vanadium. The best guess is that they are required in very small amounts and that even the most nutritionally inadequate diet contains sufficient quantities.

As in the case of vitamins, we get most of our minerals from plants and from animal products that contain minerals as a result of the animal's consumption of mineral-rich plant life. However, whereas the vitamin content of a plant is stable, the mineral content is not. In fact, the amount of any particular mineral in a plant varies dramatically from region to region because of variations in the mineral content of the soil. For instance, iodine is found in much higher concentrations in seaside soils man in those inland. Accordingly, dietary sources of iodine that originate in the sea or areas near the sea are much higher in iodine than those that do not. Plant sources of the mineral usually provide about one-twentieth as much iodine as animal sources that have originated in the sea, such as shrimp, crab, halibut, perch, and other seafoods. Plants from the sea such as kelp and seaweed provide more than forty thousand times as much iodine per ounce as plants grown inland.

How Minerals Work

In the body, minerals work through a variety of mechanisms. One of the most important roles involves building basic body structure: Calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, and fluoride, for example, are major elements in forming bones and teeth. Some minerals are involved with enzyme activity, or they may combine with other chemicals to perform functions that are essential to life. Iron, for example, is a basic component of hemoglobin, the chemical contained in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout our bodies. Copper plays a role in the process of building red blood cells and is also found in several different body enzymes, and chromium is involved in the metabolism of glucose. 

Unlike vitamins, minerals are neither manufactured nor broken down within the body because they are basic elements. Minerals must combine with vitamins, enzymes, or other body substances to produce their effects. These combinations can be broken down, used up, or eliminated from the body, and therefore must be recycled or remade.

Many minerals can cause definite adverse effects if you take too much of them, in contrast to vitamins, which are not as often associated with severe adverse effects. This potential for toxicity has been a natural barrier to die inappropriate use of minerals in the same way as vitamins have been misused.

Since mere is so much we don't know about the specific functions of minerals in the body, there is considerable speculation as to their possible roles. Some people have even promoted minerals as a tool for life extension and a treatment for disease, but although every possibility must be examined, we believe mat it is premature to conclude mat any of these claims is valid.

Electrolytes are minerals that serve very specific functions. The most important of these is related to the maintenance of the balance of water within the body. Electrolytes regulate the Bow of water across cell membranes by osmosis, a process wherein water shifts from areas of high electrolyte concentration to areas of low concentration in a natural effort to establish a balance. When electrolytes move, water moves with them! Electrolytes also have a rote in certain enzyme and chemical reactions and are responsible for transmission of electric impulses across cell membranes.