Copper Health Professional Fact Sheet

This is a fact sheet intended for health professionals.

Copper health professional fact sheet.

Copper health professional. For a reader friendly overview of selenium see our consumer fact sheet on selenium. For a reader friendly overview of zinc see our consumer fact sheet on zinc. Yes copper can be harmful if you get too much.

This is a fact sheet intended for health professionals. Most copper is excreted in bile and a small amount is excreted in urine. Copper is a mineral that you need to stay healthy. Zinc is an essential mineral that is naturally present in some foods added to others and available as a dietary supplement.

Your body uses copper to carry out many important functions including making energy connective tissues and blood vessels. Copper also helps maintain the nervous and immune systems and activates genes. These include vitamins minerals herbs and botanicals probiotics and more. Getting too much copper on a regular basis can cause liver damage abdominal pain cramps nausea diarrhea and vomiting.

Nuts are a rich source of copper. Copper toxicity is rare in healthy individuals. Selenium is a trace element that is naturally present in many foods added to others and available as a dietary supplement. You may think of copper as something to do with wiring and electronics but it s also an important mineral that you take into your body when you eat some types of seafood nuts veggies fruit and.

Known land based resources of copper are estimated to be 1 6 billion metric tons of copper usgs 2004. Only small amounts of copper are typically stored in the body and the average adult has a total body content of 50 120 mg copper 1 2. Manganese health professional fact sheet author. Total fecal losses of copper of biliary origin and nonabsorbed dietary copper are about 1 mg day 1 2.

1 000 mg plus trace minerals 5 mg manganese 15 mg zinc and 2 5 mg copper for 2 years improved spinal bone density compared with placebo in 59 healthy postmenopausal women mean age 66 years. The epa has found copper to potentially cause the following health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the acceptable level. Use of water that exceeds the acceptable level over many years could cause liver or kidney damage. Your body also needs copper for brain development.

Short periods of exposure can cause gastrointestinal disturbance including nausea and vomiting. However it is not possible to determine to what extent if.