Supplements

Copper

Copper aids in the formation of bone hemoglobin, and red blood cells, and works in balance with zinc and vitamin C to form elastin, an important skin protein.

Copper helps the heart to function correctly and also controls cholesterol, sugar and uric acid levels.

Copper is essential in maintaining the heart's pumping ability, preventing aneurysms, and ensuring the growth of strong arterial connective tissue that won't rupture. The heart muscle's own connective tissue relies on copper as well to prevent a nutritional form of cardiomyopathy.

Copper is a key supplement for healing because it's needed to manufacture collagen in bone. Deficiency if frequently found in older women who develop leg fractures. Supplementation could reduce the frequency of these injuries.

A study by Walter Hangarter and John R. Sorenson gave 1,140 people with rheumatoid arthritis intravenous doses of a copper salicylate compound. For 89 percent of them, joint swelling decreased and joint mobility increased. Fevers and other signs of rheumatic activity went into remission for an average of three years.

Copper helps the body produce superoxide dismutase (SOD), its more therapeutic intracellular anti-inflammatory enzyme.

In the nervous system, copper conducts electrical impulses and helps maintain the myelin sheath around nerve fibers through the synthesis of phospholipids.

Copper is involved in iron metabolism and may play a role in thermal regulation, glucose metabolism, and blood clotting. Recent evidence suggests it also plays a role in proper functioning of the immune system.

The average daily intake by individuals consuming a typical Western diet has now been established as 1.0 to 1.5 mg of copper. This is lower than the 1.5 to 3.0 mg per day recommended to be safe and adequate. Pregnant women have higher needs, and greater supplementation may be indicated.

Copper is important to the bacterial balance that wards off candida, but an excessive amount counterproductively strengthens the yeast's own pathogenic nature.

Copper sebacate appears to offer some help against diabetes, radiation damage, cancer, and convulsions. It may also improve wound healing.

Deficiency: A deficiency of the mineral will weaken the immune system. Other signs of possible copper deficiency include anemia, baldness, diarrhea, general weakness, impaired respiratory function, and skin sores. A lack of copper can also lead to increased blood fat levels.

Depleting Agents: Copper is not easily destroyed.

Sources: Food sources include almonds, avocados, barley, beans, beets, blackstrap molasses, broccoli, garlic, lentils, liver, mushrooms, nuts, oats, oranges, pecans, radishes, raisins, salmon, seafood, soybeans, and green leafy vegetables.

Precautions: Copper toxicity is rare. Circumstances in which acute copper poisoning has occurred include accidental consumption by children, ingestion of several grams in suicide attempts, application of copper salts to burned skin, drinking water from contaminated water supplies, and consumption of acidic food or beverages stored in copper containers.

Toxicity results in nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, headache, dizziness, weakness, diarrhea, and a characteristic metallic taste. In severe (but rare) cases, tachycardia, hypertension, jaundice, uremia, coma, or death can result.

Chronic copper toxicosis has been observed in dialysis patients following months of hemodialysis when copper tubing was used and in vineyard workers using copper compounds as pesticides.

Copper is an emetic. As little as 10 mg usually produces nausea, and 60 mg usually produces vomiting. The lethal dose for copper may be as little as 3.5 g. Copper supplements should be kept away from children.

Dosage Ranges and Duration of Administration:
Daily dietary copper intake recommended by the National Research Council of the United States: 1.5 to 3.0 mg per day for adults. For children 2 to 11 years, 1.5 to 2.5 mg. Not recommended for children under 2. A zinc-to-copper ratio in the range of 8:1 to 15:1 is consistently recommended. For leukopenia and anemia, daily doses up to 0.1 mg/kg of cupric sulfate orally, or 1 to 2 mg per day added to nutrient solution of nutrients for parenteral administration.

INTERACTIONS

Allopurinol
Allopurinol forms complexes with copper in vitro. The ability of the drug to chelate copper may impart the protective effects against cardiac damage in bypass patients.

Cimetidine
In young rats, intermediate to high doses of cimetidine (875 to 1750 mg/kg/day) administered intragastrically four times weekly for 5 weeks elevated hepatic and plasma copper concentrations, and caused mineral redistribution as well as pathological changes in some tissues.

Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)
Administration of copper aspirinate to arthritic rats for 20 days increased hepatic copper concentrations. However, copper complexes of NSAIDs exhibit more potent anti-inflammatory activity than NSAIDs alone. It is not known whether copper supplements enhance the anti-inflammatory activity of NSAIDs.

Oral Contraceptives
Oral contraceptives have been shown to increase the levels of copper in women.

Penicillamine
D-penicillamine chelates copper and inhibits accumulation of copper in cells.