Have you ever looked at your teeth and seen white spots or streaks appear on them?  What about your nails or how about a hard bone or something poking through your hand or your feet.

People are typically told it has to with calcification. Then they say, oh no! I have too much calcium! I need to limit my intake of calcium. Or I have high blood pressure or cholesterol is high due to the calcification of the arteries. The truth of the matter is that it is not the calcium that is the problem, but what is not there to balance it out. Hmm, I am trying to think of another that doesn’t have to do with calcium and is with another mineral or maybe vitamin…Ah! magnesium is another one. Oh, and vitamin D! So here are some minerals that need to be in balance with one another or they have a tendency to cause problems for us.

Magnesium -Calcium
Sodium – Potassium
Zinc- Copper
Selenium – Sulfur – Oxygen
Manganese – Iron

This is what we know, but what we don’t know is how these are dependent on other trace minerals and vitamins. So while we know that magnesium and calcium play a role with each other. Recently we have learned that calcium also requires Vitamin D & K to be absorbed properly along with a little fat and hydrochloric acid ( Hawthorn, 2017). So if you have poor digestion/low stomach acid, you may be low in the vitamins and minerals mentioned above. When you think about it. That is a lot of things to take to get one thing to work. But fortunately, nature provides all these things wrapped up in a package.

So the question asked 1st is why does this happen? How do we become unbalanced? What causes this? As we know there isn’t one main reason but many that cause mineral imbalances the same way that they can cause a vitamin imbalance.  Dr. Ashmead who wrote a book called Chelated Mineral Nutrition in Plants, Animals and Man stated: There are at least eighteen barriers to mineral absorption, which means that the minerals we consume do not necessarily wind up in our bodies.

Diet plays a big part in mineral imbalance due to eating habits.If you like enjoying foods that are refined, it caused poor mineral nutrition. Especially since it takes stored nutrition to digest them. Sometimes the mineral content of a “healthy” diet can be inadequate, simply based on the quality of the soil  the food was grown in

Stress either physical or emotional can lead to mineral imbalances. Certain nutrients such as the mineral zinc and the B-complex vitamins are lost in greater quantities due to increased stress. Nutrient absorption can also decrease when the body is under stress.

Medications can deplete the body’s bank account of nutrient minerals and even increase the levels of toxic metals. Something that is commonly known is that diuretics increase the loss of sodium loss and because of sodiums connection to potassium and magnesium, they can be depleted as well. Antacids, aspirin, and oral contraceptive agents can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as toxic metal excesses.

We already know that Pollution is bad for us. the results affect us faster when we are around it. Plus we have talked about the toxic metals before. Lead, mercury, and cadmium can interfere with mineral absorption and increase mineral excretion. Cigarette smoke (cadmium), copper and aluminum cookware, hair dyes (lead), lead-based cosmetics, hydrogenated oils (nickel), antiperspirants (aluminum), and dental amalgams (mercury and cadmium). These are just a few of the hundreds of sources an individual, may be exposed to every day (Nutritional Balancing, 2018).

Here is something that most people don’t realize, Nutritional Supplements. Vitamin and mineral supplements can also lead to mineral imbalances the caveat here is synthetic supplements do this. Calcium absorption is decreased in the presence of phosphorus. Vitamin C is required for iron absorption, but in excess amounts, it can cause a copper deficiency. Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption but, in excess amounts can produce a magnesium deficiency, etc. There was a Harvard study done showing evidence that excess folic acid (which is the synthetic version of folate, a vitamin found abundantly in vegetables, fruits, and grains) may be contributing to an uptick in colorectal cancer. Multivitamins contain the recommended daily amount — 400 micrograms (mcg) — but folic acid is also added to breakfast cereals and enriched grain and cereal products, including bread, rice, and pasta. A person taking a multivitamin can easily exceed the recommended total intake, and maybe even the safe upper limit of 1,000 mcg. However, they noticed that excess isn’t a problem with folate found naturally in foods. because your body can use convert and eliminate (Harvard, 2009). We talked about this more in the episode ” Are you sure it’s Pure”  but I just wanted to remind you of what the body recognizes and doesn’t because it is important to your body and your wallet that you are receiving the results that you are expecting.

As we look at balancing vitamins and minerals we need to be conscious that we are also looking to balance our entire lives. Our minds and thoughts, our energy, work-life, our love as well as our body.


Harvard (2009) Getting you Vitamins and Minerals Though Diet https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/getting-your-vitamins-and-minerals-through-diet

Nutritional balancing (2018) Balancing Biochemistry  retrieved March 2018 from http://nutritionalbalancing.org/center/htma/science/articles/balancing-biochemistry.php

Bartholomy, P. (2016) Supplements  Hawthorn University: Lecture 11 from https://portal.hawthornuniversity.org/Course_AudioLectureDetails.aspx?id=86