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Recognition of the importance of
the minerals required for perfect health is so new, that few textbooks
contain much about it. It is now believed that up to 24 elements may be
essential to living matter. Minerals are essential to physical and mental health. They are a basic
part of all cells, particularly blood, nerve, muscle, bones, teeth, and
soft tissue. Some are essential for functional support such as the electrolyte
minerals (sodium, potassium, and chloride), that help regulate the fluid
and acid-base balance of our bodies, while other minerals are part of enzymes
that catalyze biochemical reactions, aid energy production, metabolism,
nerve transmission, muscle contraction, and cell permeability. Carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals are the building blocks of our diet
and provide the fuel, or source of energy, to maintain life and promote
cell and tissue growth and other biochemical support. Minerals contain
no calories or energy in themselves, but assist the body in energy production.
Minerals (or elements), come from
the earth, and eventually return to the earth, and can most simply be defined
as chemical molecules that cannot be reduced to simpler substances. They
exist in their inorganic state in the earth, and in their organic state
as the basic constituent of all living matter. The main elements essential
to health, each of which makes up more than .01 percent of total body weight,
are termed macrominerals (calcium, phosphorus, chlorine, potassium, sulfur,
sodium, magnesium and silicon). The next group of elements, termed microminerals
or trace minerals, each of which constitute less than .01 percent of total
body weight, though found only in minute amounts, are also essential to
health (iron, copper, zinc, iodine, cobalt, bromide, boron, manganese,
selenium, fluorine, molybdenum, vanadium, arsenic and chromium). Other
elements contained in the body include some of the toxic metals (lead,
aluminum, cadmium, and mercury).
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