Minerals – The Most Overlooked Nutrient

Here is the updated formula of Total Complete Minerals:

Amount per 3 caps

% Daily value

Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin)

2.4 mcg

100%

Calcium (DiCalcium malate / calciumbisglycinate)

300 mg

30%

Magnesium (diMagnesium malate/ Magnesium bisglycinate)

300 mg

75%

Iron (Ferrous bisglycinate)

6 mg

33%

Zinc (Zinc bisglycinate)

10 mg

91%

Selenium (Albion Selenium glycinate)

45 mcg

90%

Copper (Copper bisglycinate)

1 mg

111%

Manganese (Manganese glycinate)

3 mg

131%

Phosphorus (diCalcium phosphate)

11 mg

Chromium (Chromium glycinate)

66 mcg

188%

Molybdenum (Molybdenum bisglycinate)

50 mcg

111%

Iodine (Potassium iodide)

225 mcg

150%

Silicon (Silicon dioxide)

10 mg

—

Vanadium(Vanadium nicotinate glycinate)

200 mcg

—

Nickel (Nickel sulfate)

4 mcg

––

[Disclaimer: As with all food supplements on this site
we are not guaranteeing or claiming to diagnose,
cure, or treat any disease condition. These are not drugs]

Total Complete Minerals is probably the best mineral supplement available anywhere. Two reasons: source and absorption.

Much of what is written about minerals is speculative, market-oriented, or dead wrong.

Minerals come from mines. Except when you’re talking about nutrition. Then they come from food. At least they used to. When we still had some viable topsoil that could result in food-bound minerals.

Four elements compose 96% of the human body’s makeup:

carbon

hydrogen

oxygen

nitrogen

The remaining 4% of the body’s composition is mineral.

The following table shows the 21 minerals that have been shown to have nutritive value for humans.

Macro means more than 100 mg per day.

Trace usually means either the requirements are measured in micrograms or that the amount required has never been measured.

Essential means the body can’t manufacture it. We must get it from the diet.

Essential Minerals:

. . . . MACROMINERALS……..

. . . . TRACE MINERALS

Deficiency amounts have never been determined for many trace minerals, although several diseases have been linked with deficiencies.

– U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, National Research Council

Beyond this, the marketplace takes over and science bows out. People are out there talking about 88-mineral toddies, minerals from ancient lakes, longevity of 150 years, calcium from pasteurized milk, calcium from coral reefs, mineral doses measured in grams, salubrious doses of silver, “normal” doses of lead, eye of newt, tail of frog, etc., making claims about this or that combination, trumpeting anecdotal cures for everything from cancer to hangnails.

The purpose of this chapter will be to try to sift through the debris and leave behind only that which can be verified.

For several years, even mainstream medicine acknowledges the incontrovertible importance of mineral supplementation.

For example, in an article in JAMA, once the top American medical journal, 24 Dec 1996, a controlled study of selenium use for cancer patients was written up. [24]

Selenium effects powerful antioxidant activity, neutralizing free radicals, which are rampant in the presence of cancer. In this study, 1312 subjects were divided into groups. Some were given selenium; others the placebo.

There was a resolution of 63% with prostate cancer, and 46% with lung cancer in the selenium group. The results were so blatant that the designers actually terminated the study early so that everyone could begin to benefit from selenium.

This is just one example of the research on mineral supplementation. The problem is, if the results of studies economically threaten a current drug protocol, like chemotherapy, it is unlikely that an inexpensive natural supplement like selenium would be promoted by oncologists as a replacement any time soon. It is just as likely to be blocked.

HISTORY

The necessity for minerals is a recent discovery, only about 150 years old. In the 1850s, Pasteur’s contemporary, Claude Bernard, learned about iron. Copper arrived about 10 years later, and zinc about the turn of the century.

By 1950, after about 14 vitamins had been discovered, attention returned once more to minerals when it was shown that they were necessary co-factors in order for vitamins to operate. Minerals are co-factors for most metabolic reactions.

Soon the individual functions of minerals in the body were demonstrated:

Structural: bones, teeth, ligaments
Solutes and electrolytes in the blood
Enzyme action
Energy production from food breakdown
Nerve transmission
Muscle action

NUTRIENT MINERALS

The following is a table of minerals linked with the specific functions most commonly agreed upon today:

Calcium

Sodium

Potassium

Phosphorus

Magnesium

Muscle contraction
Nerve transmission
Calcium metabolism
Enzyme cofactor

Chlorine

Sulfur

Copper

Chromium

Iron

Selenium

Nickel

Iodine

Thyroid function

Vanadium

Molybdenum

Metabolic enzyme co-factor

Silicon

Tin

Metabolic enzyme co-factor

Manganese

Metabolic enzyme co-factor

Fluorine

Teeth enamel

– Larry Berger, PhD and Parris Kidd, PhD [21]

Zinc is necessary for antioxidant production, which prevents aging and cancer. It is also a co-factor for some 80 metabolic enzymes. (Erasmus, p 172) Zinc is necessary for wound healing, fat metabolism, myelin, insulin function, semen production, tissue repair, especially skin, and HCl production. (Erasmus) [30]

Mineral deficiency means that some of these jobs will not get done. The body is capable of prodigious degrees of adaptation, and can operate for long periods of time with deficiencies of many of the above. But someday those checks will have to be cashed. When that happens: premature aging: cell breakdown. Dorian Gray’s portrait matures …

Without minerals, vitamins have little or no effect. Minerals are co-factors – triggers for thousands of essential enzyme reactions in the body. No trigger – no reaction.

Without enzyme reactions, caloric intake is meaningless, and the same for protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake. Minerals trigger the vitamins and enzymes to act; not just digestion, but thousands of cell functions.

DEFICIENCY

Contrary to “experts” who say “you should be able to get all the nutrition you need from your food,” a virtually undisputed fact is deficiency. Mineral deficiency is the reason for the titanic output of websites, articles, and supplements visible today.

The majority of mineral websites quote a 1936 source – Senate Document #264, as scientific proof that dietary minerals were generally inadequate for optimum health:

“The alarming fact is that food…now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough…minerals are starving us, no matter how much of them we eat.”

“Lacking vitamins, the system can make use of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless.”

– Senate Document 264 – – 74th Congress, 1936 [25]

The same document went on to quantify the extent of mineral deficiency:
“99% of the American people

are deficient in minerals, and a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease.”

Congressional documents are not highly regarded as scientific sources, and scientific reference texts cite other percentages. The figures quoted by Albion Laboratories, longtime leader in patents on supplemental minerals, are somewhat lower, but the idea begins to come across:

DEFICIENCIES – % of U.S. Population

Magnesium – 75%
Iron – 58%
Copper – 81%
Manganese – 50%
Chromium – 90%
Zinc – 67%
Selenium – 60%

sources: Albion Labs, Fats That Heal [9, 30]

FIVE REASONS FOR MINERAL DEFICIENCY:

1. SOIL DEPLETION

There is certainly no lack of evidence for mass deficiencies of mineral intake. The most obvious of these are soil depletion and demineralization.

In 1900, forests covered 40% of the earth. By 1992 the figure was below 30%. (Relating Land Use and Global Land Cover, Turner, 1992 [5]). Diminishing steadily since then. {33} Aside from hacking down rainforests in order to raise beef cattle or soy, or to build condos, one of the main reasons for the dying forests is mineral depletion.

According to the 1994 meeting of the International Society for Systems Sciences, the 20th century was the first time ever that “mineral content available to forest and agricultural root systems is down by 25%-40%.” Less forests means less topsoil.

In the past 200 years, the U.S. has lost as much as 75% of its topsoil, according to John Robbins in his Pulitzer-nominated work Diet for a New America [4]. To replace one inch of topsoil may take anywhere from 200 -1000 years, depending on climate. (Utah Teachers Resource Books) [3]

Demineralization of topsoil translates to loss of productive crop capacity.

The standard NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium) fertilizer that farmers commonly use is able to restore the soil enough to grow fruits and vegetables which are healthy looking. But it may be entirely lacking in vital trace minerals. The inventor of the entire NPK philosophy, Baron von Leibig, recanted his own theories before he died when he saw the deficiencies his methods were fostering as they became the agricultural standard in both Europe and America. [29]

Mineral depletion in topsoil is hardly a controversial issue. The question is not if, but how much. Plants are the primary agents of mineral incorporation into the biosphere.

You won’t find any source that insists that the mineral content of American topsoil is as good today as it was 50 years ago. Generally, source materials talk in terms of how much, if any, minerals are still present.

2. DIET

The second contributor to mineral deficiency within the population is obviously, diet. Even if our produce did contain abundant minerals, less than 4% of the population eats sufficient fruits and vegetables to account for minimal RDAs.

To compound matters, mass amounts of processed food, excess protein, and refined sugars require most of our mineral stores in order to digest it and remove it. The removal process involves enzymes, which break things down. Enzyme activity, remember, is completely dependent on co-factors like zinc and copper and chromium. No minerals – no enzyme action.

In addition, milk and dairy products, alcohol, and drugs inhibit the absorption of these minerals, further depleting reserves. So it is cyclical: refined foods inhibit mineral absorption, which then are not then efficiently digested because of diminished enzyme activity.

And then we go looking for bugs as the cause of disease …?

3. MUCOID PLAQUE

In the chapter on the COLON we saw how the standard indigestible American diet packs layer upon layer of plaque onto the inner lining of the colon. One of the prime functions of the colon is to resorb water, in order to prevent dehydration. Plaque blocks re-absorption, and the result is that we lose both water and minerals.

4. COMPETITION

The fourth reason for inadequate minerals is a phenomenon known as secondary deficiency. It has been proven that an excess of one mineral may directly cause a deficiency of another, because minerals compete for absorption. They compete for the same binding sites, like a molecular Musical Chairs. Secondary deficiency means that an excess of one mineral causes a deficiency of another. (Kidd)[21]

For example, iron, copper, and zinc are competitive in this way. Copper is necessary for the conversion of iron to hemoglobin, but if there is excess zinc, less iron will be available for conversion. This may cause a secondary deficiency of iron, which can manifest itself as iron deficiency anemia. All due simply to excess zinc. Researchers have found that these secondary deficiencies caused by excess of one mineral are almost always due to mega-dosing on mineral supplements, since the quantities contained in food are so small.
Examples: women diagnosed with osteoporosis are told to take 3000 mg of calcium per day. Not just ineffective – creates secondary deficiency of other minerals. [21, 9]

5. DRUGS

A fourth reason for mineral deficiency in humans is overuse of prescription drugs. It has been known since the 1950s that antibiotics interfere with uptake of minerals, specifically zinc, chromium, and calcium. (The Plague Makers [32]) Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, and aspirin have the same inhibitive effect on mineral absorption.

Moreover, when the body has to try and metabolize these drugs to clear the system, its own mineral stores are heavily drawn upon.

Such a waste of energy is used to metabolize laxatives, diuretics, chemotherapy drugs, and NSAIDs out of the body. This is one of the most common mechanisms in drug-induced immunosuppression. [21, 32]

BIOAVAILABILITY

Ultimately, a primary criterion for minerals is bioavailability. Really doesn’t matter what we eat; it only matters what makes it to the body’s cells.

Let’s say someone is iron deficient, for example. Can’t he just take a bar of iron and file off some iron filings into a teaspoon, and swallow them? Just took in more iron, didn’t he? Well, yes but here is a major distinction: the difference between elemental minerals and nutrient minerals. Iron filings are in the elemental form; absorption will be 8% or less. [Ashmead, 9]

Same with most store-bought multi supplements.

Food-bound iron, on the other hand, like that contained in raisins or molasses, will have a much higher rate of absorption, since it is complexed with other living, organic forms, and as such is classed as a nutrient mineral.

Minerals are not living, though they are necessary for life. Minerals are necessary for cell life and enzyme reactions and hundreds of other reasons. But they must be in a form that can make it as far as the cells. What is not bioavailable passes right through the body.

Bioavailability has a precursor, an opening act. It is called absorption. Take a mineral supplement pill. Put it in a glass of water and wait half an hour. If it is unchanged, chances are that the tablet itself would never even dissolve in the stomach or intestine, but pass right out of the body. You’d be astounded how many mineral supplements there are in this category.

OK, let’s say the tablet or capsule actually does dissolve in the digestive tract. Then what? In order to do us any good, the mineral must be absorbed into the bloodstream, through the intestinal walls. Elemental (inorganic) minerals are absorbed about 1-8% in this manner. The rest is excreted. [9, 22]

Elemental minerals are those found in the majority of supplements, because they’re very cheap to produce. For the small percentage that actually makes it to the bloodstream, the mineral is available for use by the cells, or as a cofactor in thousands of essential enzyme reactions that keep every cell alive every second.

With this background, we can begin to understand that varying amounts of the seven macrominerals and approximately 14 trace minerals, are necessary for optimum cell activity, optimum health and longevity.

So besides epidemic mineral deficiency, what’s the problem?

In a word,

SUPPLEMENTATION

Mineral deficiency has become such an obvious health concern, causing specific diseases because of a lack of a single mineral, and general immune suppression with a lack of several. The obvious need for supplementation has spawned an entire industry. But in any market-driven industry involving pills, we sometimes find the cures are worse than the original problems. Why?

First off, toxicity. Remember, even macrominerals are only necessary in tiny amounts. Most trace minerals require amounts too small to be measured, and can only be estimated.

Toxicity is a word that simply means excess. When extra stuff gets put into the body, it’s a big deal. All forces are mobilized for its removal. Antigens, toxins, poisons, reactants, etc. Toxicity results from taking a nonessential non-nutrient mineral into the body.

Take lead poisoning, for example. If lead gets into the blood, the body will try to remove it. Since the metal atoms are so heavy compared with the body’s immune forces, removal may be impossible. Lead can initiate a chronic inflammatory response and can remain in the body permanently, which is why we don’t have lead in paint or gasoline any more.

Most minerals can be toxic if taken to excess. And this excess would not happen from food; only from supplements or the environment.

SO, WHAT SUPPLEMENTS WOULD BE INFERIOR?

Well, for starters, any supplement containing more than about 21 minerals, because that’s all that have been proven to be necessary for humans. New toxicities are always being discovered. Aluminum linked to Alzheimer’s is a recent discovery.

Beyond these 21 or so it’s simply anybody’s guess, no matter what they tell you about the 5 civilizations where people live to be 140 years old, etc. People who show dramatic improvements from taking these 60 and 80 mineral drinks generally were likely so depleted that they rapidly absorbed the essential minerals in which they were deficient. But the toxicities from the nonessential, unknown minerals may take a long time to show up. Why take in anything extra?

Here’s an example of an ingredient list from one of these mega-mineral drinks: Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Vanadium, Manganese, Potassium, Selenium, Chromium, Phosphate, Iron, Sulfur, Carbon, Sodium, Barium, Strontium, Cesium, Thorium, Molybdenum, Nickel, Cerium, Germanium, Copper, Rubidium, Antimony, Gallium, Neodymium, Lanthanum, Bismuth, Zirconium, Thallium, Tungsten, Ruthenium, Boron, Iodine, Chloride, Bromine, Titanium, Cobalt, Dysprosium, Scandium, Samarium, Fluoride, Niobium, Praseodymium, Erbium, Hafnium, Lithium, Ytterbium, Yttrium, Cadmium, Holmium, Rhenium, Palladium, Gold, Thulium, Terbium, Iridium, Tantalum, Europium, Lutetium, Rhodium, Tin, Indium, Silver, Beryllium, Tellurium, and Platinum.

Any questions?

Amidst all the confusion about minerals, one thing should be made clear: we only need a little. So the mineral supplements we take should be as absorbable and as bioavailable as possible. That way we won’t have to take much. Less chance of toxicity.

So the question then becomes: which mineral supplements are the most absorbable and the most usable, and therefore effective in the smallest amounts possible? Four candidates present themselves, all contending for the title:

Elemental
Ionic
Colloidal
Chelated

Unraveling this puzzle is one area where the internet can actually impede progress.

There’s only one answer, but it’s buried deep. To find it, we have to review a little

BASIC PLUMBING

The digestive tract goes like this: mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and out. Mineral absorption means transferring the mineral from the digestive tract through the wall of the intestine, into the bloodstream.

The digestive tract is a long tube, from one end to the other. As long as food and nutrients are inside this tube, they are actually considered to be still outside the body, because they haven’t been absorbed into the bloodstream yet.

This is an essential concept to understanding mineral absorption. Minerals can’t do any good unless they make it into the bloodstream. This is exactly why most minerals from the grocery store are almost worthless: they pass right through the body – in one end and out the other. It’s also why many nutritionists’ and dieticians’ advice is valueless; they pretend everything that is eaten is absorbed.

Two main reasons for lack of absorption:

– the pill never dissolved

– the mineral was in its elemental form (non-nutrient)

Let’s say these problems are overcome. Or let’s say the mineral is contained within some food, such as iron in molasses, or potassium in bananas. Food-bound minerals are attached or complexed to organic molecules. Absorption into the blood is vastly increased, made easy. The mineral is not just a foreign metal that has been ingested; it is part of food.

Fruits and vegetables with high mineral content exemplify the best way to provide the body with adequate nutrition. Food-bound minerals are the original mode. As already cited above, however, sufficient mineral content is an increasingly rare occurrence. Foods simply don’t have it any more.

So the necessity for supplementation becomes obvious: if the food no longer has it, and we need it, pass the supplements, please. At that point, the marketplace assaults one’s awareness and we’re almost back to the days of the tonics, brews, toddies, and snake potions of yesteryear.

Supplement minerals are one of four types

1. ELEMENTAL

Least beneficial are the supplements containing minerals in the elemental form. That means the mineral is just mentioned on the label. It’s not ionized, it’s not chelated, it’s not complexed with an oxide or a carbonate or a sulfate, or with a food, and it’s not colloidal. Like under “ingredients” it just says “iron” or “copper,” or “calcium,” etc.

Elemental minerals are obviously the cheapest to make. A liquid would only have to be poured over some nails to be said to contain iron. Elemental minerals are the most common in grocery store and drugstore supplements. They may not be toxic, as long as only the minerals mentioned on the label are included in the supplement. The problem is absorption: it’s between 1 and 8 percent. The rest passes right through.

2. IONIC

Next comes ionic minerals. Usually a step up. Ionic means in the form of ions. Ions are unstable molecules that want to bind with other molecules. An ion is an incomplete molecule. There is a definite pathway for the absorption of ionic minerals through the gut (intestine) into the blood. In fact, any percent of the elemental minerals that actually got absorbed became ions first, by being dissolved in stomach acids.

But ionic minerals are not very easily absorbed through the intestine intact.

The model for mineral ion absorption through the intestine is as follows. Ions are absorbed through the gut by a complicated process. Active transport is involved; meaning, energy is required to bring the ionic mineral from inside the intestine through the lining, to be deposited in the bloodstream on the other side. [7]

Minerals require an acidic environment for absorption. Remember low pH (less than 7) is acidic; high pH (above 7) is alkaline.

As the stomach contents at pH 2 empty into the small intestine, the first few centimeters of the small intestine is the optimum location for mineral absorption. The acidic state is necessary for ionization of the dissolved minerals. If the pH is too alkaline, the ions won’t disassociate from whatever they’re complexed with, and will simply pass on through to the colon without being absorbed.

As the mineral ions are presented to the lining of the intestine, if all conditions are right, and there are not too many competing minerals present, the ions will begin to be taken across the intestinal barrier, making their way into the bloodstream. This is a multi-step process, beyond the scope of this chapter. [7]

Ionic mineral supplements do not guarantee absorption by their very nature, although they are certainly more likely to be absorbed than elementals.

The uncertainties with ionic minerals include how many, how much, and what else are the unstable ions likely to become bound to before the carrier proteins pick them up.

The idea is to offer the body an opportunity for balance; rather than to overload it with the hope that some will make it through somehow. All we need is a little.

3. COLLOIDAL

The third type of supplemental minerals is called colloidal. What does colloidal really mean? Colloidal refers to a solution, a dispersion medium in which mineral particles are so well suspended that they never settle out: you never have to shake the bottle.

The other part of the dictionary definition has to do with diffusion through a membrane: “will not diffuse easily through vegetable or animal membrane.” Yet this is supposed to be the whole rationale for taking colloidal minerals – their absorbability.

Colloidal guru Joel Wallach himself claimed that it is precisely the colloidal form of the minerals that allows for easy diffusion and absorption across the intestinal membrane, because the particles are so small. Wallach claims 98% absorption, but cites no studies, experiments, journal articles or research of any kind to back up this figure. Why not? Because there aren’t any. The research on colloidal minerals has never been done. It’s not out there. Senate Document 264 doesn’t really cover it.

In reality, colloidal minerals are actually larger than ionic minerals, as discussed by top researcher Max Motyka, MS. [22] Because of the molecular size and suspension in the colloid medium, which Dorland’s Medical dictionary describes as “like glue,” absorption is inhibited, not enhanced.

No less an authority than Dr. Royal Lee, the man responsible for pointing out the distinction between whole food vitamins and synthetic vitamins, stated:

“A colloidal mineral is one that has been so altered that it will no longer pass through cell walls or other organic membranes.” [2]

Does that sound like easy absorption?

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary talks about colloids “resisting sedimentation, diffusion, and filtration ” Again, resisting diffusion seems to indicate inhibition of absorption, not increased absorption, wouldn’t you think?

As Alexander Schauss and Parris Kidd both explain, colloids are suspensions of minerals in clay and water. [18] Clay often has levels of aluminum as high as 3000 parts per million, with safety levels set at 10 ppm or lower ([21] Kidd). Aluminum has been proven to kill nerve cells, as we see in Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Schauss characterizes the aluminum content as the big problem with colloidal minerals. He cites a standard geology reference text – Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy – describing clay as primarily aluminum:

– -Dana’s Manual

And another geology text:

“[clays] are essentially hydrous aluminum silicates and are usually formed from the alteration of aluminum silicates.”
– Mineral Recognition p 273 [20]

Schauss states that he has done an exhaustive search for any human studies using colloidal minerals and after searching 2000 journals, like everyone else, has come up with zero.

For a mineral to be well absorbed, it must be either in the ionic state, or else chelated, as explained above. The percentage of colloidal minerals has to have been ionized somehow in order to be absorbed, due to the acidic conditions in the small intestine.

But why create the extra step? Ionic minerals would be superior to colloidal, because they don’t have to be dissociated from a suspension medium, which is by definition non-diffusible. All this extra work costs the body in energy and reserves.

COLLOIDAL QUALITY CONTROL

Consistency of percentages of each mineral from batch to batch. Very simply, there isn’t any with the mega mineral supplements, as the manufacturers will themselves admit. That would be impossible.

The ancient lakes and glaciers apparently have not been very accommodating when it comes to consistent composition. Such a range of variation might be acceptable in, say, grenade tossing or IQ threshold of congressmen, or other areas where high standards of precision are not crucial. But a nutritional supplement that is supposed to enhance health by drinking it? This is an area in which the details of composition should be fairly visible, verifiable, the same every time.

In these 80-trace-mineral toddies, there is no way of testing the presence or absence of many of the individual minerals. Many established essential trace minerals do not even have an agreed-upon recommended daily allowance, for two reasons:

How much less is known about the amounts and toxicities of those unknown minerals which have never been studied, but are claimed to be present in these miraculous toddies?

TOXICITY AND COMPETITION

Some essential minerals are toxic in excess, but essential in small amounts. Iron, chlorine, sodium, zinc, and copper are in this category. Toxic levels have been established, and resulting pathologies have been identified: we know what diseases are caused by their excesses. How risky is it to take in 40 or 50 minerals for which no toxicity levels have ever been set?

The problem is selective utilization, as explained by Dr. Parris Kidd. [21] Toxic trace minerals may closely resemble the essential minerals in atomic configuration. The result is competition for enzyme sites by two similar minerals only one of which is beneficial:

“aluminum competes with silicon
cadmium competes with zinc
tellurium competes with selenium
lanthanum competes with calcium ” – Kidd, p 42

We also know that zinc competes with iron. (Erasmus) [30]

Beware! A separate hoax is being played out with

COLLOIDAL SILVER
used by many as a “natural antibiotic.” Extremely uninformed physicians may recommend daily doses of colloidal silver, in order to “prevent” colds, in the absence of any evidence or trials whatsoever. As Dr. Kidd points out:

” the body is not well-equipped to handle silver. This element can poison the kidneys, become deposited in the brain, and even give to the skin a gunmetal type of gloss.” [21]

Many nutritionists note [6] several minerals which frequently appear on the ingredient labels of mega-mineral products they actually admit their supplements contain or “may contain” some of the following:

Aluminum: Documented since the article in Lancet 14 Jan 1989 to be associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as blocking absorption of essential minerals like calcium, iron, and fluoride.

Silver

: questionable as a single-dose antibiotic, consistent intake of silver accumulates in the blood-forming organs – spleen, liver, and bone marrow, as well as the skin, lungs, and muscles. Serious pathologies have resulted: blood disorders, cirrhosis, pulmonary edema, chronic bronchitis, and a permanent skin condition known as argyria, to name just a few. [21] Silver is better left in the ancient lakes, and in tableware.

Gold

Manufacturers of mega-minerals hawk that “there’s more gold in a ton of seawater than there is in a ton of ore.”

So what? Our blood is not seawater; it evolved from seawater. Gold used to be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, but has largely been abandoned when they proved that it caused kidney cell destruction, bone marrow suppression, and immune abnormalities.

Lithium

: Sometimes used as an antipsychotic medication, lithium definitely can cause blackouts, coma, psychosis, kidney damage, and seizures. Outside of that, it should be fine. [1, 8, 35]

The list goes on and on. These are just a few examples of mineral toxicities about which we have some idea. But for at least half the minerals in the mega toddies, we know nothing at all.

The phrase “may contain” has always been scary for me. If they’re not sure, then what else is there that this product “may contain” that they don’t know about?)

4. CHELATED

Finally. The fourth form of supplemental minerals is the chelated variety.

Many molecules in the body are chelated in normal metabolic processes, including minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. Minerals in food may be bound with organic molecules in a chelated state. Chelated is a general term that describes a certain chemical configuration. When a mineral is bound to certain amino acids in your body, and a claw-like molecule is the result, we say that a chelate is formed.

Here’s a picture:

If you have a good imagination, it sort of looks like a claw. Chelate is from the Greek word for claw, with the mineral ion in the center (M).
Food supplement minerals may be engineered to be chelated. This means bound with amino acids, in order to increase absorption. Exponentially. [22, 9]

Sometimes people get the word Chelated mixed up with Chelation. Two entirely different animals.
Chelated is a nutrient mineral that has been bound to two amino acids for better absorption. Chelation is a detox technique for removing heavy metals from the blood and tissues.
Chelation is for detox: debris out. Chelated is for supplements: nutrients in. Remember!

The most bioavailable form of mineral supplement is chelated. That’s beyond controversy – no science disagrees. As we saw above, since the mid-XXth century the most advanced suppliers learned that by engineering two glycine amino acids molecules to a mineral ion, a chelate would be formed. It’s an expensive and complicated process, but the demand for the added bioavailability could not longer be ignored. It has grown exponentially in the last decade.

Glycine is the smallest of the 20 amino acids essential for human metabolism. As such, it is the preferred amino acid for chelating mineral supplements. The smaller the chelate, the easier it’s absorbed through the intestinal lining, into the blood. From there the mineral is available for uptake at the cellular level. [9,22]

Chelated mineral supplements are not drugs. They are food supplements.

SMALL CHELATES – BEST ABSORPTION

Molecular weight is measured in units called daltons. The ligands or binding agents may very small (800 daltons) or very large (500,000 daltons) resulting in a many sizes of chelates. Mineral + ligand = chelate.

Generally the largest chelates are the most stable, but also the most difficult to absorb.

Using the word chelated with respect to mineral supplements refers to a very specific type of chelation. The idea is to bind the mineral ion to amino acids that will facilitate absorption through the intestine into the bloodstream.

Normal digestion breaks down the proteins to its amino acid building blocks so they can be absorbed. But total breakdown is not always necessary. It has long been known that many nutrient chains of two or three or even more amino acids (peptides) may be absorbed just as easily as single amino acids.

One example, in abnormal digestion it is well known that chains of amino acids – dipeptides, tripeptides, even polypeptide proteins – sometimes become absorbed intact in a pathology known to gastroenterologists as Leaky Gut Syndrome. Obviously it is not healthy and has many adverse consequences, but the point is that amino acids chains are frequently absorbed, for many different reasons.

This chapter is a vast oversimplification of why chelated minerals may be superior to ionic. Again, all chelates are not created equal. Inferior chelates, used because they are cheaper to produce, include the following:

– carbonates
– citrates
– oxides
– sulfates
– chlorides
– phosphates

If the label cites one of these chelates, it means the mineral is bound either too strongly or not tightly enough, and may be released at the wrong time and the wrong place. Chelation of minerals in nutrient supplements is a very precise science, yielding chelates superior to those occurring naturally in foods.

Intact absorption is faster, easier, and requires less metabolic energy, provided the chelate is about 1500 daltons. [9]

Again, this is just the briefest glance at the prodigious amount of research comparing ionic with chelated minerals, but the results are uniform. The hands-down winner of the bioavailability contest is: chelated minerals, provided the chelate was maintained as small as possible, generally using glycine at a total weight below 1500 daltons.

FOOD-BOUND CHELATED MINERALS

Often you will hear this or that company claiming that minerals contained in “organic” food are the best, cannot be improved upon, and are superior to all possible types of mineral supplements. This is almost true. The only exception is glycine-chelated minerals, for two reasons:

Empty Harvest

– the ligands that bind the mineral in the food chelate may be too strong or too weak to dissociate at exactly the right time in the human digestive tract.

Glycine chelates are uniform and easily measurable. No question about dosage.

WHY TAKE MINERALS AT ALL?

The average lifespan of an American is about 79 years. No one has ever proven that taking mineral supplements will extend life. Many old people never took a mineral or a vitamin in their life. It really comes down to quality of life – trying to keep your cells healthy as possible. Incidence of disease during the lifespan. For how many days or months of the total lifespan was the person ill?

We are the walking petri dishes of Alexis Carrel – remember? Carrel was the French biochemist, Nobel prize winner, who did the famous experiment in which he kept chicken heart cells alive in a petri dish for 28 years just by changing the solutes every day. Could’ve gone longer, but figured he’d proven his point. Mineral content factors largely in the quality of our solutes: the blood – the milieu interior, the biological terrain. {Man, The Unknown, Alexis Carrel][16]

The U.S. has the highest incidence of degenerative diseases of any developed country on earth. In addition, infectious diseases are coming back; antibiotics are getting less effective every year. Americans’ confidence in prescription drugs is weakening. Please be disabused of any unfounded hopes: cancer and AIDS will never be cured by the discovery of some new drug.

There probably will never be another Alexander Fleming. Turns out penicillin was just a brief detour anyway. Bacteria have had 3 billion years to figure out how to adapt. The only way that anyone recovers from any illness is when the immune system overcomes the imbalance. Allergy shots never cured an allergy; people who take allergy shots always have allergies.

Our only hope of better health is to do everything possible to build up our natural immune system. One of these preventative measures is diet and nutritional supplementation. It may not be dramatic, but daily deposits to the immune system bank account will pay off down the road. Healthy people don’t get sick.

With respect to minerals then, what are our goals? Dr Stan Bynum’s opinion is that having once realized the necessity for mineral supplementation, our objectives should be simple:

The above basic framework is verifiable. The reader is encouraged to expand a little by consulting the attached reference list.

THE NEW BOTTOM LINE

What mineral supplement should you buy? The reader now has enough background data to be somewhat discriminate.

People have been very happy with our Total Complete Minerals for the past 15 years. Most sales are re-orders. Minerals have been part of the 60 Day Program from its inception.

Are minerals important? Two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling thought so:

“You can trace every sickness, every disease, every ailment to mineral deficiency.”

Healthy people don’t get sick.

To order Minerals

[Disclaimer: As with all food supplements on this site
we are not guaranteeing or claiming to diagnose,
cure, or treat any disease condition. These are not drugs]

REFERENCES

1. Guyton, A.C., MD — Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9th Ed. Saunders 1996

2. Lee, Royal, DDS— The Mineral Elements in Nutrition

3. Anderson, F.— “The Thesis of Body Mineral Balancing”
Utah Teachers Resource Book

4. Robbins, John — Diet for a New America

5. Turner — Relating Land Use and Global Land Cover Change, 1992

6. Grant, Douglas — “The Truth About Colloidal Minerals” 1996

7. Ashmead, H. DeWayne, PhD Intestinal Absorption of Metal Ions and Chelates, 1985—
Charles C. Thomas

8. Fisher, Jeffrey A., MD — The Plague Makers 1996

9. Ashmead, Harvey, PhD— “Tissue Transportation of Organic Trace Minerals”
J Appl Nutr, 22:42 1970

10. Underwood, E — “Trace Elements in Human and Animal Nutrition”
Academy Press, New York 73, 1977

11. Matthews, D — “Final Discussion” in Peptide Transport and Hydrolysis,
Amsterdam: Elselvier, 1977

12. Miller, G.T. — Living in the environment: An introduction to environmental science,
Sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company 1990

13. Banik, Allen— Hunza Land Whitehorn Publ., Long Beach 1960

14. Taylor, Renee— Hunza Health Secrets Universal Publishing, NY, 1964

15. The Merck Manual— 16th ed., 1996

16. Carrel, Alexis MD— Man, The Unknown – Dell 1939

17. Tilden, J.H., MD— Toxemia Explained 1926

18. Schauss, A PhD — “Collloid minerals: clinical implications of clay suspension products’
Am J of Nat Med vol4, no.1, Jan-Feb 97 p5

19. Hurlbut, C et al.— Dana’s Manual of Minerology Wiley & Sons NY 18th Edition
p 436

20. Vander & Kerr —- Mineral Recognition Wiley & Sons NY 1967 p 273

21. Kidd, Parris, PhD — “Colloid and Clay Minerals: Latest Nutrition Fad”
Total Health vol 19 no 1 p 41

22. Motyka, Max, MS— “Minerals, Trace Minerals, Ultra Trace Minerals”
Albion Research Notes vol.5 no.2 May 1996

23. Jong, Carol, PhD— Precious Metals 1998
Biomed Publications

24. Journal of the American Medical Association — 24 Dec 1996

25. Senate Document 264 === 74th US Congress, 1936
http://hills.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jinouy01/mineralgovt.html

26. “US CO2 Budget for Atmosphere & Climate Stabilization”—
Presentation, June 1994
International Society for Systems Sciences

27. McDougall, John MD— McDougall’s Medicine: A Challenging Second Opinion

28. Birchall, JD — “Aluminum, Chemical Physiology, And Alzheimer’s Disease”
Lancet 29 Oct 1988

29. Von Leibig, Baron Justus— The Natural Laws of Husbandry

30. Erasmus, U Fats that heal fats that kill Alive 1993.

31. Ashmead H: Tissue transportation of organic trace minerals. J Appl Nutr 22:42–51, 1970.

32. Fisher, J The Plague Makers Simon & Schuster 1994.

33. Forest Area World bank 2014 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS

34. Jensen, B Empty Harvest Avery

35. Garrett, L The Coming Plague Jenson books

Minerals – The Most Overlooked Nutrient

Customers who bought this item also bought

SUPPLEMENTS

Sign Up for our Newsletter!