Mineral is a naturally occurring, homogeneous inorganic solid substance having a definite chemical composition. It different from vitamins since it does not contain the element carbon in their chemical. Soil, water, plants, animals and humans all contain minerals in varying amounts. Minerals are elements that originate in the Earth and cannot be made by living systems. By the way, did you know that minerals form 4% of our overall body weight?
Getting the proper amount of minerals - not too little and not too much - is important not only for preventing deficiency disease and symptoms, but also because the body depends on minerals for nearly every bodily process. In the body, minerals play a number of vital roles. Several mineral elements are necessary to maintain the structural integrity of bones and teeth, while others are required for numerous essential biological processes. For example, minerals are required for transporting oxygen to body cells, regulating heartbeat and blood pressure, and producing hormones and enzymes that are crucial to many body processes.
What Minerals do we Need?
The categories of minerals for human needs are separated into groups based on the amount that we need. They are called "Macro Minerals", and "Trace Minerals".
Macro Minerals
The minerals that we need in the largest quantity (hundreds of milligrams per day) are called "Macro Minerals". This group includes six important minerals: Calcium, Chloride, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Sodium. Our body will not function if any one of the six is missing or deficient. Since there are many diseases today are either caused or effected by the deficiency of these minerals, scientists have been studying them for years. Every research lead to a conclusion that us human just can not live without an sufficient amount of these elements. Since we can not generate these minerals ourselves, therefore, the only source for us to get them into our body is by eating them. Mineral supplements are also suggested to many people in order to stay away from the dangerous mineral deficiencies.
Trace Minerals
Those that are required in much smaller amounts are called "Trace Minerals". The trace minerals include over fifteen elements: Boron, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Fluoride, Iodine, Iron, Lithium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Selenium, Tin, Vanadium and Zinc. Although the required quantity of these minerals for our bodily processes are less than the macro mineral, however, they are still quite easy to be deficient in. For example, many people today are still likely to be deficient in iron, manganese and zinc.
Mineral Deficiency
The body is good at regulating its mineral balance. In many cases, excesses are being "washed out" of the body daily. And, when the body stores of mineral are running low, more of that mineral will be absorbed from food. However, some people are genetically predisposed to retain excessive amounts of certain minerals, such as calcium and iron for the.
Mineral deficiencies are not as common as vitamin deficiencies but there are several exceptions. Calcium is an extreme exception. Many people with an age of 50 or over are likely to be deficient in Calcium. This is simply because they are not able to absorb as much minerals from the normal food sources as when they are younger. Less exercise and less varity of food sources make the problem worse.
