Classification of Minerals by

Amount Found in the Human Body

 

               Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic, homogenous substances. These substances are very important to keep the human body in a balancing working order. Minerals are constituents of the bones, teeth, soft tissue, muscle, blood, and nerve cells. Minerals act as catalysts for many biological reactions within the body. They are vital to overall mental and physical well-being.

               There are two categories of minerals that the body needs to properly operate. These divisions are the major minerals and trace minerals.

MAJOR MINERALS           

               Major minerals are essential nutrients found in the human body in amounts larger than five grams. While all the major minerals help to maintain the balances described, each also plays special roles of its own.

Calcium           

               Nearly ninety-nine percent of calcium is stored in the bones, where it plays two important roles. First, it is a basic part of bone structure. Second, bone calcium serves as a “bank” that can release calcium to the body fluids if the slightest drop in blood calcium concentration occurs. The other one percent of the body’s calcium is in the body fluid. This tiny amount plays major roles such as: maintains normal blood pressure, allows secretion of hormones, and plays an essential role in the clotting of blood.

Phosphorus

               Eighty-five percent of phosphorus is found combined with calcium in bones and teeth. The rest of the percentage of phosphorus is found in the blood where its functions are critical to life. Phosphorus salts buffer the acid-base balance of cellular fluids. Each cell also depends on phosphorus as a part of its genetic material, thus making phosphorus essential for the growth and renewal of tissues.

Magnesium

               Over half of the body’s magnesium is in the bones. The rest of it is in the muscles, heart, liver and other soft tissues. One percent is found in the body fluids. Magnesium is critical to the operation of hundreds of enzymes and it directly affects the metabolism of potassium, calcium and vitamin D. Magnesium acts in the cells of all the soft tissues, where it is part of the protein-making machinery and is necessary for the release of energy. Magnesium helps muscles relax after contraction and promotes resistance to tooth decay by holding calcium in tooth enamel.

TRACE MINERALS

               Trace minerals are essential nutrients found in the human body in amounts less than five grams. An obstacle to determining the precise roles of the trace elements is the difficulty of providing an experimental diet lacking a certain element under study. Although small amounts of these minerals exist in the body, trace minerals play important roles as do major minerals.

Iodine

               Iodine’s’ principle role in human nutrition makes obtaining the tiny amount of iodine critical. Iodine is a part of thyroxine, the hormone responsible for regulation the basal metabolic rate. It must be available for thyroxine to be synthesized. When iodine concentration of the blood is low, the cells of the thyroid gland enlarge in an attempt to trap as many particles of iodine as possible. Sometimes the gland enlarges until it makes a visible lump in the neck, called a goiter.

Iron

               Most of the iron in the body is a component of the proteins hemoglobin in red blood cells and myoglobin in muscle cells. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. Myoglobin carries and stores oxygen for the muscles. Both hemoglobin and myoglobin contain iron, and the iron helps them to hold and carry oxygen and then release it. All the body’s cells need oxygen to help them handle the carbon and hydrogen atoms they release as they break down every nutrient. Besides helping hemoglobin to carry oxygen around and myoglobin to hold it in muscles, iron helps many enzymes in energy pathways to use oxygen. Iron is also needed to make new cells, amino acids, hormones, and neurotransmitters.

Zinc

               Although Zinc occurs in a very small quantity in the body, it works with proteins in every organ. It helps more than one hundred enzymes to: make parts of cells’ genetic material; help the pancreas with its digestive functions; help metabolize carbohydrates, proteins, and fats; release vitamin A from storage in the liver. Zinc also affects behavior and learning, assists in immune function, and are essential to wound healing, sperm production, and fetal development.

               Minerals in the body, whether they are found in large or tiny amounts, have their very own way of interacting with the body to keep it in balance. Understanding the role that each of these minerals play can keep the average human in good heath by consuming the right amount of each element daily.

               Holly Hutchens