Copper health benefits
Why do we need copper
Copper is an essential trace mineral in animals and many plants. There is less than one-tenth of one gram of copper in the human body.
Copper is involved in a lot of body processes, but its main functions are to help keep heart and blood vessels healthy.
We need copper to make an enzyme that keeps your arteries flexible. If we don’t get enough, they could rupture. We also need copper to make the insulating sheath that covers our nerves. Copper works with iron to keep our red blood cells healthy. It’s also very important for making the natural antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD).
Copper is essential for the utilization of vitamin C.
Copper deficiency
is rare. There are some inherited conditions such as Wilson’s disease that make you store too much copper in your body, but on the whole, copper toxicity is also rare. You’d have to take in more than 10 mg a day to have any symptoms. The most common symptoms of copper overdose are nausea and vomiting.
Food sources of copper
Copper is found in a lot of common foods. There’s over 2 mg of copper in a single oyster; other shellfish, such as lobster, are also good sources. Other good foods for copper include nuts, avocados, potatoes, organ meats, whole grains, and beans and peas. You may also be getting some from your drinking water if it goes through copper pipes. Copper is also found in most good daily multi supplements.
It’s important to keep your zinc and copper levels in balance, because the two minerals compete with each other to be absorbed into your body. Most nutritionists recommend a ratio of ten parts zinc to one part copper. In other words, if you’re taking 30 mg of zinc, be sure to take 3 mg of copper as well—but don’t take more than that.
FACTS ABOUT COPPER:
- Copper required to convert the body’s iron into hemoglobin.
- Makes the amino acid tyrosine usable, allowing it to work as the pigmenting factor for hair and skin.
- Copper present in cigarettes, birth control pills, and automobile pollution.
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