supplement advisor
trace minerals
Your secret weapon for optimal health
E
veryone talks about vitamins A Other macrominerals, such as calcium through K, but it turns out minerals and magnesium, are among the most have a far more important role in popular supplements in America. human health than most people imagine. Here’s a basic guide to what you need They’re often the gatekeeper when it comes to know when it comes to minerals. to your body’s ability to perform complex, enzyme-dependent metabolic operations The Macrominerals and even to access important vitamins. * Magnesium. Magnesium is needed Take iron. “In my practice, I saw [a lot of] for more than 300 different metabolic females with anemia,” says Darrin Starkey, operations, but almost no one gets ND. “But now we’re seeing more boys with enough of it. Magnesium lowers stress, anemia as well.” Starkey, who is research blood pressure, and blood sugar. I director for Trace Minerals Research, Inc., recommend magnesium supplementapoints out that the reason for this surge in tion for almost everyone. Like potasanemia may have less to do with iron and sium, magnesium is found in vegetables, more to do with molybdenum. fruits, and other plant foods. “Molybdenum is the gatekeeper for * Sodium and Chloride. Sodium and iron stores in the liver,” said Starkey. chloride—molecules that are often “Without it, your liver won’t release its combined (as in salt)—are two of the iron stores effectively, and you could most important electrolytes in the body, wind up with iron-deficiency anemia.” essential to balancing fluids. Almost no Molybdenum is what’s known as a one needs to supplement with sodium. trace mineral (also known as microminer* Potassium. Potassium is vitally als). Minerals in your diet come in two important for your heart. And it has a categories: macrominerals such as symbiotic relationship with sodium: calcium and magnesium, and microminerals such as iron, copper, manganese, and zinc. The macrominerals are the ones you need a lot of. Microminerals, aka trace minerals, are essential, but in tiny amounts. According to Starkey and many other researchers, the diminishing amounts of these minerals in our soil is causing or Pumpkin seeds are a great source of magnesium, which promoting a host of human health can help lower stress and problems. Not all minerals (in either control blood sugar. category) need to be supplemented, though trace minerals as a group probably should be since they’re the minerals most neglected in multivitamins. They’re also the ones that seem to be disappearing from the soil the quickest. Don’t confuse the importance of a mineral with its value as a supplement. Some macrominerals, including sodium and chloride, are so essential that you would die without them, but they’re almost never taken as supplements.
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you need the two to be balanced, or to favor potassium. You need thousands of milligrams of potassium a day, and it’s next to impossible to get that amount from supplements. Virtually every plant food has a ton of potassium, so eat plenty. Calcium. The conventional wisdom on calcium is turning out to be only partially true. You definitely need calcium for strong bones, but you need to make those deposits in your calcium bank before age 25. It’s no longer clear that supplementing with calcium in middle age—particularly when not accompanied by synergistic nutrients such as vitamins D and K2, magnesium, and the trace minerals boron and silica—is very effective at preventing fractures or osteoporosis. Phosphorus. Eighty-five percent of the phosphorus in the body is found in bones and teeth. Phosphorus helps filter waste in the kidneys and helps synthesize and absorb vitamins and
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May 2020
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3/22/20 6:45 AM
