Mineral Metabolism

 Mineral Metabolism

Introduction  

It is a known fact that salt starvation causes death much earlier than food starvation. Although these salts give no energy yet they are essential for our life as these are concerned with the structure and function of cells. Each one of these salts serves some essential functions. Even the minute quantity of iodine found in the food is utilized for the synthesis of different thyroid hormones.

Elements such as iron, copper, cobalt, manganese, iodine, selenium, etc., are required by our cells in very small quantities for some specific functions. From various experimental data it is proved that these inorganic salts and elements, individually and collectively, are part of various life processes and that life becomes impossible without them.  

In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element required as an essential nutrient by organisms to perform various functions necessary for life. However, the four major structural elements in the human body by weight (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen), are usually not included in lists of major nutrient minerals. These four elements make about 96% of the weight of the human body, and major minerals (macro minerals) and minor minerals (also called trace elements) compose the remainder. 

Nutrient minerals cannot be synthesized biochemically by living organisms. Plants get minerals from soil. Most of the minerals in a human diet come from eating plants and animals or from drinking water. Minerals are one of the four groups of essential nutrients, the others of which are vitamins, essential fatty acids, and essential amino acids.

The five major minerals in the human body are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. All of the remaining elements in a human body are called trace elements. The trace elements that have a specific biochemical function in the human body are sulfur, iron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, iodine, and selenium. 

Most chemical elements that are ingested by humans are in the form of simple compounds. Plants absorb dissolved elements in soils, which are subsequently ingested by the herbivores and omnivores that eat them, and the elements move up the food chain to humans. At least twenty chemical elements are known to be required to support human biochemical processes by serving structural and functional roles and as electrolytes.

Together these eleven chemical elements (H, C, N, O, Ca, P, K, Na, Cl, S, Mg) make up 99.85% of the body. The remaining 18 ultra trace minerals comprise just 0.15% of the body, or about one hundred grams in total for the average person. Most of the known and suggested mineral nutrients are of relatively low atomic weight, and are reasonably common on land, or for sodium and iodine, in the ocean. 

 

Factors affecting mineral metabolism

 

1. Age- Requirements of various minerals and their metabolisms are less in young age and gradually increases with age but may decrease in old age. 

2. Gender- This metabolism is more in males due to growth hormone and other endocrine factors. 

3. Diet- A diet is essential to provide micronutrients for mineral metabolism to take place. 

4. Climate- A hot or cold climate with different levels of humidity of air effects daily requirements of various minerals and thus their metabolism. 

5. State of digestion- A proper digestion and absorption is needed to ensure regular supply of minerals in the body. 

6. Endocrines- Mineral metabolism is controlled by various hormones like Aldosterone, Mineralocorticoids, thyroid and parathyroid hormones etc. 

7. Genetics- All the above factors are bound by expression of related genes of an individual.