Minerals are the spark plugs of life. They are required to have sufficient energy and health and to detox the body. Without enough, we accumulate heavy metals to perform various functions in the body. Mineral depletion is truly at the root cause of all disease. As such, it is important to constantly replenish your body with the mineral elements it expends on a daily basis.
Unfortunately in today’s world, naturally occurring, nutrient-rich soil is becoming increasingly rare. Eons of vegetation growth and aggressive modern farming techniques have brought many of the earth’s minerals to the surface where they have been washed away. Synthesized fertilizers are routinely applied to farms and fields where minerals have been depleted. But man-made chemical fertilizers provide only enough mineral substance to support basic plant life. Numerous minerals essential to human life don’t get replenished.
Experts estimate that 90 percent of Americans suffer from mineral imbalance and deficiency. If you are one of them—whether because of overexercise, stress, or a diet of refined, nutrient-poor foods—your body will suffer fatigue, thyroid and adrenal issues, food cravings and numerous health symptoms including muscle cramps.
Mineral deficiencies also result in the body accumulating toxic metals. Metal toxicity causes all kinds of health issues and disease that baffle modern medicine, which do not pay close enough attention to chronic (non-acute) heavy metal toxicity and mineral deficiency. Toxicity is the main health consequence if you don’t supplement minerals. Not only does your body not have the basic materials it needs to function, but it leaves you more vulnerable to our toxic modern world.
Mineral Functions
Your body is truly a masterpiece formed from minerals. Chemical, enzymatic and electrical processes are occurring within your body at every moment. These processes can only function correctly if the proper balance of minerals is continually being supplied to your system. Iron for your blood, sulfur for your muscles, calcium for your bones, and an aggregation of many other elements in balanced amounts help to ensure the proper function of your body.
Minerals are used for thousands of processes in the body, namely:
- Food digestion, absorption, and assimilation.
- Formation and control of numerous body enzyme systems.
- Synthesis of hormones.
- Reduction of damage resulting from toxic substances.
- Movement of vitamins, hormones, minerals and other nutrients to required tissues and organs.
- Regulate interrelated functioning of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, hormones, etc. in the body’s cellular metabolic processes.
“Minerals are the spark plugs of life.” Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, MD, PhD
Almost Everyone is Deficient in Minerals
Sadly, almost everyone today is mineral deficient. The main reason is a nutrient deficient diet. However, even if you eat a perfect organic Paleo diet, you will still be mineral deficient. It comes as a surprise to many of my clients that have eaten healthy for years that they are, in fact, mineral deficient based upon their hair mineral analysis. The reason is due to a combination of the following:
- GMOs. A nutritionally bankrupt, genetically modified food supply. The soil is depleted in most of the world and hybrid crops are designed for depleted soil but do not contain nearly as many minerals. This is amply proven by USDA statistics that measure mineral content of soils since the early 1900’s.
- Organic is deficient. Even organic farms have mineral deficient soil.
- Hybridized foods. Hybrid fruits and vegetables are deficient in minerals. The more a plant is bred to have desirable characteristics like shelf longevity or tougher skins to survive travel, the more nutrient content suffers.
- Super Phosphate Fertilizers. Fertilizers like MiracleGro and other NPK (Sodium, phosphorus and potassium) fertilizers cause food to grow faster leaving less time to absorb nutrients from the soil.
- Chelating Pesticides. Pesticides like Roundup that are sprayed heavily on food crops work by chelating minerals from a weed, killing it. The pesticide also chelates minerals from the soil. The pesticide continues to do its job of chelating (removing) minerals in your body when you eat these residues from conventional produce. Even organic produce can contain pesticides if sprayed illegally.
- Refined Food. Eating unnaturally refined white flour, white rice, white sugar and table salt rob minerals from your body in order to be processed by the body.
- Food Additives. Several thousand chemical food additives found in processed and prepared foods inhibit the absorption of nutrients.
- Gluten. Eating a lot of wheat and other irritating gluten-containing foods damage the intestinal tract, reducing nutrient absorption.
- Raw foods. Eating too many raw foods makes nutrient deficiencies worse. Of course, some foods can only be eaten raw, but I’m mainly referring to vegetables. Vegetables must be cooked to obtain the minerals within the plant cell walls. We don’t have the digestive system to break down the hard plant cell walls in raw foods to benefit enough from their nutrition.
- Congenital deficiencies. Even babies are extremely mineral deficient and toxic because their mothers are nutritionally depleted and toxic, and the conditions are passed directly from mother to child.
- Poor Digestion. Many people have poor digestion due to poor diet, intestinal infections, stress, fatigue, improper food preparation, and improper eating habits (eating too quickly), which will interfere with mineral absorption.
I think the only people who are not mineral deficient are people that have been eating and growing their own produce for years in mineral-rich soil or they go the extra mile to replenish their soils every year. These would also be people sourcing natural, organic grassfed meat, eggs and raw diary. The Amish are a good example.
“Experts estimate 90 percent of Americans suffer from mineral imbalance and deficiency.”
What Causes Mineral Imbalances?
Many factors cause mineral deficiencies and imbalances. I listed many of the issues in the food supply and people’s eating habits above, but there are many more factors that contribute to mineral imbalances:
- Stress. It can actually deplete minerals from the body. Stress reduces digestive ability in most people and quickly uses up vital minerals.
- Toxic Metals and Chemicals. They can replace minerals in enzyme binding sites and interfere with mineral absorption.
- Fatigue. Fatigue reduces digestive ability in a vicious cycle that leads to more illness. Many people today suffer from adrenal and thyroid issues that contribute to fatigue. If you are addicted to sugar and caffeine you likely have adrenal and/or thyroid issues. Your body is pushing you to eat foods that will give you quick energy.
- Improper drinking water. Tap water, even with a filter, is not safe due to added chlorine, aluminum, fluoride and perhaps copper. There are other types of water that do not hydrate the body enough such as reverse osmosis. The only type of water I recommend is spring water because it hydrates the body the best and contains a lot of trace minerals. Distilled water chelates minerals from the body. If you must filter water read my article The Best Water Filter on the Market..
- Taking the wrong supplements. Taking minerals and vitamins which are not compatible with your body chemistry. Many people take nutritional supplements that are not compatible with their body chemistry. This is a common mistake and can cause further mineral imbalances. Additionally, many people take minerals, but most do not take nearly enough. Minerals are very bulky and you must take them in large amounts to correct mineral deficiencies. I always advise people to do a Myers Detox Protocol to get testing so they can take supplements custom to their body chemistry.
- Unhealthy lifestyle habits. Many individuals do not get enough sleep and go to bed too late. We need a minimum of 8-9 hours each night. Excessive exercise also causes a tremendous loss of minerals. Exercise is good but should be done in moderation (roughly 3-4 times per week). Learn how to live a Healthier Lifestyle.
- Parasitic infections. These impair mineral absorption. We suggest you eat mostly cooked food at home to reduce parasites. A Myers Detox Protocol kills hundreds of parasites in many different ways, including a supplement called GB-3 and Infrared Saunas.
- Negative emotions. Emotions such as anger, fear, worry and more contribute to stress and use up a lot of minerals.
Why You Need Chelated Minerals
Chelated minerals are the best form of minerals. There is a considerable difference between chelated minerals and inorganic minerals, like the calcium from oyster shells, for instance. Chelated minerals consist of a mineral attached to an amino acid to assure better absorption than is possible with inorganic minerals. They are more easily transported across the cell membrane and into the cell.
Organic chelation is the natural process of building an amino acid, peptide, or polypeptide fence around a mineral so that it is available for absorption and utilization within the body. Minerals found in plant and particularly animal tissues are already chelated. But since we cannot get all the minerals we need from food, we must supplement – preferably with chelated minerals.
Less expensive supplements use mineral oxides, phosphates, sulfates or gluconates. These are sometimes called weak chelates. These are not as well absorbed as true chelates. I like the minerals in Endomet Supplements. Their minerals are bound to amino acids derived from rice protein.
Mineral supplements may also be in the form of colloids, called colloidal minerals. Colloids are larger, solid particles that are suspended but not dissolved in a liquid. Contrary to popular literature, colloidals are not well absorbed. This is why one can safely take silver, which is toxic, when it is in a colloidal form.
Ionic minerals are readily absorbed by the body and don’t need any further steps to be used by the body. I really like Trace Elements brand of ionic minerals.
Heavy metal contamination is a big problem with many mineral supplements, especially trace and some colloidal minerals. I would not recommend colloidal minerals from ancient sea beds. Endo-met Laboratories have tested a number of these products, and all are high in toxic metals. Endo-met products do not contain minerals from bone meal and rock or sea beds as they are usually contaminated with heavy metals.
Minerals come in many forms. There are 92 known mineral elements, 22 hypothesized others, and hundreds of isotopic variations. It’s no wonder that scientists are only now beginning to discover the effects and interrelationships of minerals in our human systems, such as how minerals help maintain a healthy balance, and what adverse effects are created by a mineral imbalance.
What Are Trace Minerals?
You may collect silver coins, wear a platinum ring, or have a gold filling. You’ve likely sipped tea poured from a copper kettle, eaten a cookie from a fancy tin container, or traveled on an airplane made of titanium. But did you know that these elements and many others—in very small, balanced trace amounts—are critical to your health? Although trace minerals are no longer as plentiful in the foods you eat, they exist plentifully in their proper proportions in the mineral-rich waters of the earth’s oceans and seas.
Many of the trace elements once abundant in soil are now only found in the oceans. In the oceans they are found in their proper proportions—the same basic proportions that are found in healthy human bodies. This healthy, intricately balanced proportion of minerals and trace elements found in sea water is beneficial to the human body. Today, these life-sustaining sea waters contain all of the minerals and elements necessary to support human life.
For this reason, I recommend taking kelp to get all your trace minerals. It has every mineral you need as kelp if born of the ocean. Kelp also contains some heavy metals, but it also contains alginates, which bind to heavy metals and take them out of the body.
“It is the relationships between the minerals in your body that determine how much energy you will have.”
– Dr. Paul Eck, researcher and developer of mineral balancing science using hair mineral analysis
My Favorite Minerals
I love the food-based chelated minerals and glandulars (which are taken for their mineral content) by Standard Process. I love trace mineral supplements like Organic Kelp (contains about 20-30 trace minerals) and Anderson’s Trace Minerals. Anderson’s contains 84 trace minerals missing from the soil. It’s very important to take a supplement like this to replenish minerals you’re not getting in the diet.
Myers Detox Protocol!
How do you resolve your mineral deficiencies? You can start by making sure you’re getting enough minerals in your diet. Eat 6-8 cups of cooked organically grown vegetables every day. Juicing is a great form of concentrated minerals as well. In addition, you must take chelated minerals daily like calcium, magnesium, zinc and selenium and a trace mineral supplement like kelp. A multivitamin/mineral will give you the rest of your minerals. Many people take minerals, but they’re not taking nearly enough.
That’s a good start, but even those measures are likely to leave your body wanting for a full spectrum of properly proportioned minerals and trace minerals. That’s where I can help. It’s impossible to know the exact amounts and ratios of minerals that you need without doing a hair mineral analysis. A hair mineral analysis will tell you what dosages of each mineral you need and in what proportion. This is key to regain health.
When you do a Myers Detox Protocol, based upon a hair mineral analysis, you will replenish all your lost or lacking stores of macro and trace minerals. You will get a customized supplement plan in exactly the dosages you need and in the correct ratios. People who supplement with adequate levels of minerals feel a difference in their health and well-being when replenishing these vital nutrients. I hear it every day in my practice. It’s time you start to supplement the minerals your body desperately needs.
The Medicinal Supplements Summit
Did you know that of the 54,000 dietary supplement products sold today, only a third have some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence? Many supplements, even organic ones, are contaminated with toxic metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic. You could be taking supplements that are actually doing more harm than good!
That’s why I’m hosting the Medicinal Supplements Summit taking place from September 12 – 19!
This amazing online summit is dedicated to educating consumers on healthy supplementation and the latest in supplement customization testing. Join me and over 35 like-minded health professionals – including doctors, supplement manufacturers, and best selling authors – who are dedicated to helping you HEAL.
Register for FREE now >>>> Click Here
Own all of the expert talks to watch at your own pace >>>> Click Here
My deepest hope is that you and your family experience vibrant health. And it all begins with taking the right supplements for YOU. So mark your calendars and join us for the Medicinal Supplements Summit September 12-19th! I’ll see you there!
