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Our Lost Minerals - a Case for the Need for Mineral Supplementation

David Thomas D C

There are many questions asked by practitioners and members of the public alike regarding the supplementation of micro-nutrients. The following are among the most often asked. "Don't we get sufficient minerals, vitamins, trace elements, digestive enzymes, probiotics from the foods we consume? " "If not, and supplementation is recommended, what form should it take?" "What amount of each nutrient should be taken?" "Could they prove toxic?" "When is the best time to take supplements?" "By taking only specific minerals and vitamins couldn't potential imbalances be created?"

Unfortunately the answers to these questions depend on the nutritional reference/s you personally have access to and the recognition that we are all different and have different nutritional requirements at different stages during our lives.

Even our science of diagnostics is not 100%. What samples are most appropriate to send in for analysis? Hair, urine, sweat, faeces, blood, lymph? All of them? Or just a few? With regards to the results, different laboratories can provide different analytical results on the same sample and unless there are tight 'control' procedures the same laboratory could produce different results using the same batch of samples. All of which often leave the practitioner confused. I would, therefore, like to tread the philosophical path, with a little science thrown in, to argue the case for supplementation based primarily on my own clinical experience and recent research on the historical deterioration of the mineral content of our foods.

Over the past fifteen years I have used, as an adjunct to Chiropractic, a variety of herbs, vitamins, minerals and complex homeopathic remedies. As I originally studied and qualified as a geologist my personal preference has always been towards mineral supplementation since minerals and trace elements may be considered the fundamental building blocks of which we are made. In fact all life could be considered as an amalgam of the stuff of the earth and a quality called 'life force'. Also, being imbued with a strong chiropractic philosophy, it just makes sense (to me) that without the correct amounts and ratios of all the appropriate elements, trace elements and ultra-trace elements our innate intelligence cannot possibly operate at its optimum. Once deficiencies are present to the degree that the body is unable to compensate adjust and adapt, symptoms will manifest.

My initial use of mineral supplementation was with the Blackmore's Mineral Colloid Therapy; this is based on Dr Schussler's homeopathic tissue salt concept where he hypothesized that all diseases could be interpreted as the result of definitive mineral salt deficiencies. Later I was introduced to a liquid trace element product called Beres Drops Plus. This product was developed by a Hungarian bio- chemist, Dr. Beres, who was given the research task by the Hungarian government to ascertain why there had been successive potato crop failures in a certain part of Hungary. Dr Beres's conclusions were what many gardeners could have told him - the health of the crop depended on the health of the soil. He discovered there were a number of what he considered to be essential trace elements missing: on replacing these, healthy crops were grown.

As a result of these insights Dr Beres turned his attention to human diseases and formulated the Beres Drops Plus which contain seventeen trace elements 'blended' together with organic carrier molecules. His product is not available in the U.K. but has many enthusiasts world-wide.

Last year I was introduced to an American Herbalist Paul Bergner. He came to the U.K. to help me promote a naturally derived, full spectrum, liquid, trace element supplement called ConcenTrace ®. Professionally he had observed that the successful protocol he had used with his patients over a 20 year period, i.e. a wholefood diet together with appropriate herbal tinctures, had become less effective over the past 10 years. As the tinctures had not changed he decided to research the 'wholefood'. What he discovered was a dramatic decrease in many of the minerals and trace elements present in the vegetables, fruit and meats available to the American public, now, in comparison to twenty to thirty years ago.

I decided to conduct a similar research project on the foods available to us in the U.K. Data obtained from 'The Chemical Composition of Food published in 1940 by the Medical Research Council' was compared with later updated editions including the 5th edition entitled 'Composition of Food' published in 1991 under the auspices of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods. These publications contain the 'official' statistic regarding the composition of food, including their mineral content. A summary of the results of this work is tabulated below and a full report can be obtained on request.

Source - The Healing Power of Minerals. Paul Bergner 1997 Benefits demonstrated in animals but not necessarily humans.

If Copper and Zinc have become significantly depleted - by the often exclusive use of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK) fertiliser - then the likelihood is that there has been a similar degree of depletion of all the other trace minerals listed above. Also what about all the other trace and ultra trace elements which 'science currently does not give any relevance to? Perhaps they also may yet prove to have an essential physiological role to play.

What a dilemma we have got ourselves into over the past 50 years! If these statistics were not alarming enough, the question has to be asked 'How much fresh fruit, vegetables and meat do we consume?' The answer is often precious little; modern convenience diets invariably consist of refined, processed, manufactured foods and drinks made from de-natured ingredients which incorporate artificial additives, flavorings, colourings, preservatives, sweeteners etc. Can there really be any reasonable doubt that there is a link between this circumstance and the ever more prevalent incidence of chronic disease conditions such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, emphysema, eczema, MS, ME, rheumatoidarthritis, AIDS, leukaemia. breast cancer, prostrate cancer, etc?

That's not all: what about how diet / lifestyle / lack of nutrients affect or psyche? Research has indicated that the nervous system stimulants - which includes stress, coffee, alcohol and cigarette smoking - deplete our reserves of magnesium as well as many other nutrients. Yet the lack of magnesium (for example) has been directly linked to many disorders including anorexia, anxiety, depression, disorientation, hallucinations, hyperactivity, insomnia, irritability, mental confusion, nervousness and vertigo.

It was in the 1960's that Dr Richard MacKarness first wrote his book "Not all in the Mind" which detailed his research link between poor diet and psychotic illness in an American Sanatorium. I personally find it disturbing that a basic, fundamental, mineral supplement like ConcenTrace® is recommended by the HyperActive Children's Support Group as well as the Autistic Society because it can help improve the quality of the life of those children who have these conditions: what inferences should we draw from this?

Those of you who have read the work of Weston Price D.D.S. written in the 1930's will recall the very strong link that he demonstrated between the incidence of poor dentition and full arch development and the ingestion of modern foods by peoples of "primitive" cultures. Similarly, Alan Gaby MD has put forward compelling evidence regarding the incidence of degenerative disease conditions and the link to lack of micro-nutrients in our diet. He also puts forward the hypothesis that although we are manifestly getting less of the vital nutrients in our diet, we actually need more than we historically have ever needed. Why? Because the body uses these micro-nutrients to help neutralise anti-metabolites (environmental pollutants) that inhibit the normal bio-chemical functions of these very same micro-nutrients!

So where do we go from here? OK so we can supplement but what? When? And for how long? Well, despite the results of the work Paul Bergner and I have conducted, I would always recommend people eat a wholefood diet, preferably organically or bio-dynamically derived. But we are all exposed to environmental pollutants and it is unlikely that the majority of us during our day to day way of life will not have the occasional biscuit, cigarette, cup of coffee, piece of chocolate, pizza, cake, alcoholic drink etc. Consequently the reality (for me) appears to be to educate people about the reasons why there is a real need to return to food which has been grown on healthy soils and to eat foods that are less processed and less contaminated by pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, fungicides etc. In reality educating people is a slow process, one that will take a significant amount of time and yet there is a dire need, right now, to at least give the body a chance, by going some way towards providing a full complement of the basic building blocks.

Once the decision to supplement is made, however, further considerations present themselves. Most of us recognise that our diets need to contain sufficient water, protein, carbohydrate and essential fatty acids, but what should the correct configuration of the extra vitamins and minerals be? The debate goes on. If you take too much calcium it can affect the magnesium levels: if you take too much zinc it will upset the copper balance, etc. Also if supplements are taken in an inappropriate form there is a possibility the supplement will go unchanged from one end of the alimentary canal to the other! Or, it maybe so rapidly assimilated it could prove toxic.