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Mineral deficiency

Encyclopedia of Medicine by Tom Brody

Definition

The term mineral deficiency means a condition where the concentration of any one of the minerals essential to human health is abnormally low in the body. In some cases, an abnormally low mineral concentration is defined as that which leads to an impairment in a function dependent on the mineral. In other cases, the convention may be to define an abnormally low mineral concentration as a level lower than that found in a specific healthy population.

The mineral nutrients are defined as all the inorganic elements or inorganic molecules that are required for life. As far as human nutrition is concerned, the inorganic nutrients include water, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphate, sulfate, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, iodine, selenium, and molybdenum. Some of the inorganic nutrients, such as water, do not occur as single atoms, but occur as molecules. Other inorganic nutrients that are molecules include phosphate, sulfate, and selenite. Phosphate contains an atom of phosphorus. Sulfate contains an atom of sulfur. We do not need to eat sulfate, since the body can acquire all the sulfate it needs from protein. Selenium occurs in foods as selenite and selenate.

There is some evidence that other inorganic nutrients, such as chromium and boron, play a part in human health, but their role is not well established. Fluoride has been proven to increase the strength of bones and teeth, but there is little or no reason to believe that is needed for human life.

The mineral content of the body may be measured by testing samples of blood plasma, red blood cells, or urine. In the case of calcium and phosphate deficiency, the diagnosis may also involve taking x rays of the skeleton. In the case of iodine deficiency, the diagnosis may include examining the patient's neck with the eyes and hands. In the case of iron deficiency, the diagnosis may include the performance of a stair-stepping test by the patient. Since all the minerals serve strikingly different functions in the body, the tests for the corresponding deficiency are markedly different from each other.

Description

Laboratory studies with animals have revealed that severe deficiencies in any one of the inorganic nutrients can result in very specific symptoms, and finally in death, due to the failure of functions associated with that nutrient. In humans, deficiency in one nutrient may occur less often than deficiency in several nutrients. A patient suffering from malnutrition is deficient in a variety of nutrients. In the United States, malnutrition is most often found among severe alcoholics. In part, this is because the alcohol consumption may supply half of the energy requirement, resulting in a mineral and vitamin intake of half the expected level. Deficiencies in one nutrient do occur, for example, in human populations living in iodine-poor regions of the world, and in iron deficient persons who lose excess iron by abnormal bleeding.

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Inorganic nutrients have a great variety of functions in the body. Water, sodium, and potassium deficiencies are most closely associated with abnormal nerve action and cardiac arrhythmias. Deficiencies in these nutrients tend to result not from a lack of content in the diet, but from excessive losses due to severe diarrhea and other causes. Iodine deficiency is a global public health problem. It occurs in parts of the world with iodine-deficient soils, and results in goiter, which involves a relatively harmless swelling of the neck, and cretinism, a severe birth defect. The only use of iodine in the body is for making thyroid hormone. However, since thyroid hormone has a variety of roles in development of the embryo, iodine deficiency during pregnancy results in a number of birth defects.

Calcium deficiency due to lack of dietary calcium occurs only rarely. However, calcium deficiency due to vitamin D deficiency can be found among certain populations. Vitamin D is required for the efficient absorption of calcium from the diet, and hence vitamin D deficiency in growing infants and children can result in calcium deficiency.

Dietary phosphate deficiency is rare because phosphate is plentiful in plant and animal foods, but also because phosphate is efficiently absorbed from the diet into the body. Iron deficiency causes anemia (lack of red blood cells), which results in tiredness and shortness of breath.

Dietary deficiencies in the remaining inorganic nutrients tend to be rare. Magnesium deficiency is uncommon, but when it occurs it tends to occur in chronic alcoholics, in persons taking diuretic drugs, and in those suffering from severe and prolonged diarrhea. Magnesium deficiency tends to occur with the same conditions that provoke deficiencies in sodium and potassium. Zinc deficiency is rare, but it has been found in impoverished populations in the Middle East, who rely on unleavened whole wheat bread as a major food source. Copper deficiency is also rare, but dramatic and health-threatening changes in copper metabolism occur in two genetic diseases, Wilson's disease and Menkes' disease.

Selenium deficiency may occur in regions of the world where the soils are poor in selenium. Low-selenium soils can produce foods that are also low in selenium. Premature infants may also be at risk for selenium deficiency. Manganese deficiency is very rare. Experimental studies with humans fed a manganese deficient diet have revealed that the deficiency produces a scaly, red rash on the skin of the upper torso. Molybdenum deficiency has probably never occurred, but indirect evidence suggests that if molybdenum deficiency could occur, it would result in mental retardation and death.

Causes & symptoms

Sodium deficiency (hyponatremia) and water deficiency are the most serious and widespread deficiencies in the world. These deficiencies tend to arise from excessive losses from the body, as during prolonged and severe diarrhea or vomiting. Diarrheal diseases are a major world health problem, and are responsible for about a quarter of the 10 million infant deaths that occur each year. Nearly all of these deaths occur in impoverished parts of Africa and Asia, where they result from contamination of the water supply by animal and human feces.

Health Care Industry

Mineral deficiency

Encyclopedia of Medicine by Tom Brody

Definition

Description

Causes & symptoms

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