Minerals: Essential to Your Body’s Survival

Minerals are often clumped in with vitamins as something that is necessary for your body’s optimum health.  In this sense that definition is true: minerals are necessary for optimum health.  Many minerals are even considered essential minerals, as in the human body must absolutely have them to survive.  So what exactly are dietary minerals?

Dietary minerals are the chemical elements that your body requires to live (as do most living organisms) that are present in most organic molecules.  Translation: they’re the chemicals in your body and the bodies of most animals that keeps everything functioning the way it should so you can live happy, healthy, and normal.  The actual word “mineral” confuses many people, and it’s an archaic term from a time when science didn’t understand the functions of the body as fully as they do now.

Minerals, like vitamins, can be provided naturally through food, and can also be ingested through various supplements that are available to bodybuilders and the common public as well.  While the differences between vitamins and minerals is hard to describe (and some are the same), minerals are an absolute necessity for good health, and even life itself.  There are 17 minerals that are just essential for a human body to live and function.  Some have obvious and well known uses, others aren’t as well known but remain necessary.  Those 17 essential minerals are:

#1 Calcium: Everyone knows about calcium, which is used for muscles, heart, and building bone.  This mineral is where dairy products shine.

#2 Chloride: This is what produces the acid in your stomach, and is mostly acquired in your body through the intake of salt.

#3 Cobalt: This is also known as vitamin B12 and can be found in concentrated supplement form.

#4 Copper: Copper is a critical part of many enzymes that the body needs to function a full capacity.

#5 Fluorine: This is related to the word fluoride, which more people will be familiar with.  This mineral is what allows tooth enamel to form, allowing us our ability to chew food and eat.

#6 Iodine: Iodine is the mineral required for thyroid regulation.  An iodine deficiency is what causes goiters, which are often a problem in older age.

#7 Iron: Protein may build the muscles, but iron is what makes the protein work.  Iron is one of the most essential of the minerals of the body.

#8 Magnesium: Required for bones, this element tends to decrease in older age.

#9 Manganese: Think of this mineral as an enabler for enzymes.

#10 Molybdenum: Works with oxidation of cells in the body.

#11 Nickel: Helps strengthen bones and keeps them healthy.

#12 Phosphorus: This mineral is another part of keeping bones healthy, but phosphorus also helps the body create energy, and also assists in a wide array of other functions.

#13 Potassium: Potassium is actually an electrolyte that is extremely important in keeping the electrolyte count balanced and using sodium and water with maximum effectiveness.

#14 Selenium: This mineral is the ultimate enabler of antioxidant enzymes in the human body.

#15 Sodium: Is an important electrolyte and works hand in hand with potassium.  One of the most well known minerals

#16 Sulfur: Critical in working with certain amino acids in the body.

#17: Zinc: Zinc is one of the most important minerals and works with several enzymes to keep the boy healthy.

These are the seventeen essential minerals that help the human body function, and taking quality multi-vitamins will help keep your mineral levels healthy.

Health Supplements: A Wide Array of Choices

The term “health supplements” can refer to a wide array of vitamins, supplements, powders, and other extras that can be used to help enhance your health or bodybuilding regiments. These can refer to basic or advanced multi-vitamins, to whey protein powder or fish oil gel capsules. Some will be completely natural, others won’t, but the good news is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of quality health supplement products out there and if you are looking for a specific boost to one part of your diet plan or another, chances are that there is a quality supplement out there that matches exactly what you’re looking for.

Natural vitamin supplements are some of the most popular health supplements. These include all types of vitamins. There are health supplements that focus on only one vitamin, or one set of vitamins, like A or B vitamins, and then there are the popular multi-vitamins like Centrum that are there to provide the daily needed amounts of a wide range of vitamins.

There are also herbal supplements. Herbal health supplements can vary widely from fish gel pills, since fish oil has been shown to be excellent for the health of the heart (and possibly a boost to the body’s fat burning ability). Herbal supplements could refer to green tea, St. John’s Wort, or a wide array of natural herbs that are thought to have some kind of an effect. Some of these will be meant to add vitamins, others to aid weight loss, while others still are there to boost immunity and/or general health. Herbal supplements cover a very wide variety of health issues.

There are specific health supplements that are also designed for very specific purposes. Creatine, for example, is designed to boost your energy and also help aid in the building and recovering of muscles from intensive workouts. Whey protein is a near perfect protein supplement that gives your body tons of digestible protein to help strengthen all your muscles. This is far different than say a colon cleanser, or “internal cleanser,” which is basically a laxative designed for you to purge all the bad out of your system to clean up your body and put you in better health.

As you can see, “health supplements” is a very broad term that can encompass a wide range of different pills, powders, vitamins, and other forms. There are dietary supplements and bodybuilding supplements, and everything else under the sun. There are even supplements that are designed specifically to get the synapses in your brain to fire more rapidly, therefore in theory improving the level that your mind is working on and your ability to study and remember things.

There are so many choices, but in the end the health supplements you want are the ones that specifically address the areas that you want help in, and if that means a few supplements, don’t be afraid to take more than one. I take a multi vitamin, a fish oil gel tablet, and a green tea supplement every day, and the extra boost absolutely makes my day.