Minerals-controllers of metabolic processes

Minerals that a person adds to their diet can alleviate or even eliminate the symptoms of many diseases. Minerals have the ability to control metabolic processes in the body. Not everyone, and not every mineral has the same properties.

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Magnesium and Metabolism

Without magnesium, the human body will have a very hard time. Magnesium takes the most active part in the control of metabolic processes. It actively helps transmit impulses between nerve cells, thanks to it, muscles contract and bones become stronger, magnesium helps stabilize high blood pressure.

Magnesium has the most active effect on stopping headaches, helps the heart and blood vessels work better, reducing the risk of heart attack, and also fights arterial spasms.

Magnesium and the functioning of internal organs

Magnesium helps the brain work more actively, promoting the production of the hormone dopamine, which has the ability to control appetite. Therefore, a person who takes magnesium can more easily control his weight than without this wonderful mineral.

Magnesium has a positive effect on the nervous system, helping to stabilize mood, combat symptoms of depression, irritability, and increased fatigue. This is especially important for women during menopause and before PMS (a week before).

Magnesium and other substances

Magnesium is needed so that some substances in the body can better manifest their properties and impact on the body. For example, B vitamins. They act as catalysts in the process of secreting proteins, which are used as building material for muscle tissue. Thanks to protein, energy is released, which we get from food.

When a person breathes deeply and zinc and magnesium enter their body, oxygen enters the blood more actively. Its intake ensures more active fat burning, which helps control weight and lose weight. Thus, magnesium helps to cope with obesity.

Magnesium against free radicals

Free radicals are deformed molecules that cause the risk of premature aging, as well as various diseases. The less magnesium in the body, the weaker the person and the less he can fight aging. If there is enough magnesium in the diet, the immune system is strengthened, and the risk of developing cancer is reduced. Magnesium also helps to slow down the risk of developing cancerous tumors or stop it.

Magnesium and its interaction with estrogen

Magnesium helps estrogen to more fully manifest its properties. And vice versa, with a lack of magnesium, the beneficial effect of estrogens on the body is reduced. Estrogen, in turn, promotes more active absorption of magnesium into muscle tissue and bone tissue, and this makes bones and muscles stronger and more elastic. Their functions become more pronounced.

Estrogens combined with magnesium help the cardiovascular system to work better, and bone tissue to not deteriorate so quickly with age. However, the doses and ratios of these drugs must be accurately calculated according to the doctor's recommendation.

When a woman's body has low levels of estrogen due to age or poor diet, magnesium is not absorbed as quickly, and the person may have high blood pressure, as well as uncontrolled weight gain, headaches, brittle bones, cardiovascular disease, and insulin resistance.

What happens when magnesium and estrogen enter the body at the same time? With a small amount of magnesium and a large amount of estrogen, magnesium will enter the muscles and bone tissue, and there will be almost no magnesium in the blood. This situation is fraught with muscle spasms, blood clots in the vessels, pain in different parts of the body. Blood clots form in the vessels because calcium and magnesium, interacting, increase the risk of their occurrence due to increased blood clotting.

If your medications contain calcium and estrogen, you also need magnesium to ensure that the blood clotting process goes smoothly.

What substances reduce magnesium levels in the body?

If a woman has little magnesium in her body, despite a normal, complete diet, it means that it contains products or substances that flush magnesium out of the body. What are these products?

1. Carbonated drinks with sweeteners. They prevent calcium and magnesium from being absorbed normally. The reason is that calcium and magnesium are bound by phosphates, which are contained in carbonated drinks. Calcium and magnesium are poorly absorbed because they become insoluble when exposed to phosphate acids and the body rejects them.
2. Soft drinks and low-alcohol drinks with dyes and sweeteners. They contain preservatives sodium glutamate and aspartate, so the body increases magnesium consumption. Its doses when consuming soft drinks and low-alcohol drinks should be increased, since the substances in carbonated drinks steal calcium from the body.
3. Coffee. This drink provokes an increase in the concentration of catecholamine, which also reduces the dose of free calcium in the blood.
4. Anti-stress drugs. They contain hormones that reduce stress levels, but can reduce magnesium levels in the body.

How much calcium does a person need per day?

The norm for a woman, if she does not use drugs that steal calcium, is from 400 to 600 mg. And statistics show that a woman on average consumes much less calcium - 4-6 times less than the norm.

It is important for women to know one secret: when consuming calcium, coordinate the amount of estradiol in the body. If a woman consumes balanced doses of estradiol and magnesium, then her irrepressible craving for chocolate, candy and other sweet things that make us fatter will significantly weaken and then disappear.

If a woman takes magnesium and calcium 2 times a day as prescribed by a doctor, this allows both of these elements to be perfectly absorbed and act for a full day - 24 hours. As for the ratio of intake, the calcium norm should be 2 times higher than the magnesium norm. The ratio of these two drugs is two to one.

Instead of tablets, you can use capsules with calcium and magnesium - they are absorbed much better, because the capsules contain powder already crushed into tiny particles.

Magnesium in liquid form is also good because it is much better absorbed by the stomach, its walls are not as irritated by liquid magnesium as by the drug in tablets, which, moreover, is poorly absorbed.

Magnesium is very good in treating headaches, obesity, muscle spasms, muscle pain, anxiety. If you give this mineral its due, your health will be at its best.

Manganese and its effect on weight

Manganese is a very important mineral for the body, including maintaining normal weight. If there is not enough manganese in the body, a person may suffer from depression, muscle and joint pain, brittle bones, fluctuations in blood glucose levels, and constant allergies - protective reactions of the immune system, which becomes aggressive.

Manganese helps to better absorb vitamins E, B, C, because it helps special substances enzymes to process them better. Thanks to manganese, metabolism, the immune system, and the thyroid gland improve.

Thanks to manganese, hormones T4 and T3 (thyroid hormones) are produced in sufficient quantities, the work of the pituitary gland, the part of the brain responsible for many processes in the body, improves. Manganese controls pain receptors and also affects mood swings.

Manganese is actively involved in cellular metabolism and helps fight free radicals because it is part of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD), which is involved in eliminating free radicals that deform healthy cells. Thanks to manganese, you can improve your metabolism and thus control your weight.

Why do we lack manganese?

Often our menu contains very little of this useful microelement. The reasons are poor soils where plants containing manganese are grown. Processing of products containing manganese, which destroys this mineral. The content of phytates in plants, which prevent manganese from being normally absorbed by the body.

Carbonated drinks also prevent the body from absorbing manganese, as well as other useful minerals. They contain phosphate acids and phosphorus, which prevent useful substances from being absorbed into the intestinal walls.

If there is a lot of iron and calcium in the body, this is also a reason for poor absorption of manganese by the intestines.

Sources of manganese

These are mainly plants: raisins, cereals, nuts, carrots, spinach, oranges, broccoli, sprouted wheat grains, tea leaves. If plants are processed thermally or cleaned with chemicals, the manganese in them is destroyed. In the highest grades of flour there is almost no manganese at all due to several stages of processing.

Since our body uses at least 4 mg of manganese every day, this level needs to be restored. This can be done with a menu enriched with manganese or with pharmaceutical preparations containing manganese. If manganese is part of a vitamin supplement, you do not need to take preparations with it separately, so as not to exceed the dose. Essential zinc

This mineral is extremely necessary for our body, since it takes an active part in the construction and growth of tissues, as well as their restoration. The role of zinc in the body can be compared to the role of proteins, without which the full development of tissues is impossible.

Zinc is simply irreplaceable for the nervous system and brain function. Zinc helps synthesize protein and regulates blood glucose levels. Thanks to zinc, the skin acquires a healthy appearance due to the correct formation of collagen fibers, without which muscle plasticity is impossible.

Zinc not only helps the nervous system to work well, strengthens it, but also affects the reproductive system, helping the ovaries to work normally. It controls the process of producing more than 20 enzymes necessary for the body, due to which the reproductive system works perfectly.

Zinc takes an active part in the healing of wounds, scratches, and recovery from injuries. Zinc helps reduce a person's pain.

Zinc norms in the body

Women especially need zinc because with age their reproductive system produces less and less sex hormones, and this directly affects the functioning of other body systems. If a woman lacks zinc, it means that her menu lacks products that are rich in this mineral. Sources of zinc are varied: these can be both products and minerals from pharmacy complexes.

If you take zinc from cereals, it is very important what kind of soil these cereals grew on. If on depleted soil, then the zinc will be of low quality. Then you will need to replenish zinc reserves in the body with the help of pharmaceutical complexes.

There is less zinc in products, and therefore less passes into the body, due to the fact that products containing it are processed by cleaning and heat. Unprocessed products are richer in this mineral than processed ones.

How much zinc do we get?

The zinc content in a plant and its concentration depend on how much phytate the plant contains. This is a compound that also prevents calcium, iron, and magnesium from being absorbed. And when a person eats grain products with phytate, the body does not absorb the beneficial minerals.

Zinc can be obtained not only from grains, but also from seeds, seafood, and animal food. Pumpkin seeds are an irreplaceable source of zinc. If you eat a glass of them once a day, the daily norm of zinc will be eaten. As for meat, its lean varieties, doctors recommend eating a piece of meat the size of half a palm in the morning and evening to replenish zinc in the body. This is the daily norm of zinc.

Zinc for Vegetarians

Vegetarians have it harder than meat eaters because they are more likely to have zinc deficiency. This deficiency is aggravated if you frequently include soy products in your menu, which many vegetarians do. The fact is that soy products contain a lot of phytate, which makes the absorption of zinc extremely difficult. To reduce the amount of this chemical compound in soy, you need to use it as a fermentation product.

Neither boiling, stewing, nor frying soy products reduces the amount of phytate in them, which means that the beneficial microelements of soy will be almost not absorbed.

As a result, a person who does not eat meat needs to take special supplements to replenish zinc reserves in the body.

If you exceed the dose of zinc

This can cause negative reactions in the body, preventing the intestines from absorbing copper from food. But copper and zinc are minerals that need to be taken separately. If you take zinc in the morning, then copper in the evening. Otherwise, they will mutually inhibit each other's effect on the body. Ideally, you need to take 1.5 to 3 mg of copper per day, and 15 mg of zinc.

The extent to which the body will absorb zinc also depends on other microelements in the body. For example, a lack of vitamin B6 and tryptophan can lead to zinc being almost not absorbed by the intestinal walls. Also, with a lack of chromium, zinc will be absorbed by the body much more slowly than with its norm. Chromium also helps maintain normal glucose levels.

If a woman takes 100 mcg of chromium twice a day, there will be no problems with zinc absorption and normal glucose levels. And vice versa - excess doses of chromium provoke glucose intolerance, and also saturate the body with toxins.

For people who suffer from obesity, chromium and zinc supplements are very good for weight control and preventing fat accumulation.

Of course, we shouldn't forget about other minerals and a healthy diet with proteins, fats and carbohydrates.