The Copper Connection

Through years of research, I came to appreciate the infinite complexity of the human body, its systems, and the varied interactions it performs with substances in nature even those the support its health and survival, including food supplements. And not understanding such interaction can be dangerous to your health.

ELEMENTAL copper abounds in nature. Our regular diet may provide 5 mg per day, of which only 20-50 percent gets absorbed into the body, according to the Halfdanarson study in 2008 (published in the European Journal of Haematology).

Dietary copper can be found in whole grain cereals, legumes, oysters, organ meats (particularly liver), cherries, dark chocolate, fruits, green leafy vegetables, nuts, poultry, prunes, and soybeans. This abundance, and its low daily requirement level (copper is only a trace element), make acquired copper deficiency very rare indeed.

Copper is an essential cofactor in many enzymatic reactions vital to the normal function of the blood, skeletal, antioxidant, and nerve systems. Features of copper deficiency are largely blood-related—anemia (low red blood cell levels), neutropenia (low neutrophil levels), and leucopenia (low white blood cell levels). Neutrophils are white blood cells that are active in our body’s defense against bacterial infection, environmental toxins, and some cancers.

Copper deficiency affects the strength of elastin, a protein in connective tissue that allows many tissues to resume their original shape after stretching or contracting. (For example, elastin makes it possible for your skin to return to its original position when pinched.)

Copper forms an essential component in the molecular structure of lysyl oxidase, an enzyme that cross-links connective tissue. When the activity of lysyl oxidase drops, the blood vessel becomes thinner than it should. Its medial layer where elastin is gets less and less protein. A study in 1993 (the Tilson study) published in the Archive of Surgery noted a depleted copper level in the liver at 26 percent of normal in men who died of an aneurysm.

That makes copper deficiency a non-lifestyle-related risk factor in the disease development of an aneurysm, as we mentioned in a previous article on aneurysm.

Here is one thing for zinc (Zn) fans (zinc is an essential element found in nearly 100 specific enzymes), excessive absorption of zinc... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 31 July 2013.

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