Step 2: Trace Minerals

No Oxides, Sulphates
Sulphides or Carbonates Please

If B vitamins are the cell's spark plugs, trace minerals are its nuts and bolts. Very important parts of everything the body makes, they're not much by weight or volume but critical for hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, cell walls, bones, the connective tissue holding it all together. Without tiny amounts of trace minerals nothing gets built.

This article describes why we need trace mineral supplements, how to pick a good one, and how to take them. For a summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base on the effects trace minerals have on mental health, go here.

The body's digestive juices don't dissolve pieces of solid metal very well. Inorganic salts like oxides, sulfates or carbonates dissolve just fine, but a new problem arises - intestinal walls are made up of long-chain proteins, electrochemically "neutral". The free-floating metal ions carry an electrical charge. The difference in these electro-chemical charges causes the metal ions to stick to the intestinal wall - so they can't get through and they're not very well absorbed. The body's solution is to surround the metal ions with amino acids, a process known as chelation. This chelation is not the strong protein-bonding action of EDTA, used in chelation therapy to pull toxic metals out of the body. These chelates are strong enough to withstand stomach acid, but not so strong that they can't release their ion heart back to the body when the time comes.^1,2

Unchelated trace mineral pills are common because they're usually cheaper and smaller.³ Some digestive systems will do the work of chelating the minerals, but as we get older our ability to do this well can decline. That's why it's important to buy a trace mineral supplement that's already chelated. Perhaps because more people don't understand how important it can be to take fully chelated trace minerals the best-made formulas tend not to move so much product. Therefore they don't get as much shelf space (or sometimes any at all) at the local health food store. You may have to hunt for them or special-order them.

It's not enough to find a mineral supplement that says on the front label in large type that it's chelated. You have to turn the bottle over and read the tiny type on the back: many manufacturers only partly chelate their products so they can call them chelated on the label while still keeping the pills small and cheap. People like small pills. But if you see any oxides, sulphates, sulfides (aka sulphides) or carbonates back there you it's not completely chelated.

You'll hardly ever find full Daily Value (DV) doses of fully chelated trace minerals in a multi-vitamin. There's too much of a premium placed on keeping the required caps small and few. My quick test is to check the magnesium. If there's 400 mg of magnesium in the supplement and none of it is magnesium oxide, that's a very good sign. (If the small print doesn't tell you what form the magnesium is in, that's not a good sign. If it's a good form (no oxides, sulfates, sulphides or carbonates, remember) but it's less than 400 mg, that's a slightly better sign. Best is 400 mg or more.

Unless one receives specific medical guidance, it's not a good idea to take large amounts of single minerals, especially chelated ones (they're absorbed so much better.) Instead, it's best to get a good trace mineral formula. As of this writing I'm recommending Nature's Plus Ultra-Mins. You may have to have your local health food store order this for you, although some stores do carry it. (Product #3300). This formula is probably better for vegetarians like myself because of its high iron content; if you're an omnivore you might want to find one without iron.

When we start resupplying trace minerals to a mineral-depleted body it's usually a much smoother process than resuppling B vitamins to a B-depleted body. Every once in someone will get a little nauseous when taking trace minerals, this usually means liver trouble. If this happens to you cut back, take fewer capsules (or pills) either by reducing one's daily dosage or taking them every second or third day instead of every day. One can also try taking them with meals. It might be good to get a liver checkup.