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Copper is very important trace minerals in the body. Unfortunately, issues with copper metabolism are very common today and can lead to wide-ranging problems that often go unnoticed until it's too late. In fact, I would go so far as to say copper is the most misunderstood mineral out there. So in this video, I want to talk about what exactly copper is, its roles in the body and how to get enough of it, which means we will talk about copper supplementation at the end of this video.
Let’s start by discussing what copper is and why we need it.
Copper is an essential dietary mineral, meaning we need to get it from food and cannot produce it ourselves. Unlike the macro minerals, for example magnesium or calcium, which the body needs a lot of every day, copper is a trace mineral, meaning the body needs only a fairly small amount of it. The RDA for adult men and women is about 900 μg/day. Unfortunately, most people regularly consume much more than this leading to copper overload, which I will talk about later in the video.
First, let’s discuss the roles of copper in the body. The most important ones are:
Energy metabolism:
Copper is crucial for our body’s energy proaction because without it iron cannot be loaded onto carrier proteins for transport through the body. And as you probably know, without iron your body’s energy system basically breaks down. Even though most specialists check for iron deficiency, what many of them don’t know is that iron needs copper at every stage of its metabolism, otherwise the iron gets stuck and causes oxidative stress. So often times symptoms related to iron are really caused by a disfunction of copper in the body.
Connective tissue:
Copper is also required for linking collagen and elastin, which are proteins that provide resilience and elasticity to tissue. That means through these proteins copper indirectly helps maintain the integrity of your body, organs and blood vessels and it also plays a big role in bone formation, because copper is needed to fix calcium to the bones.
Immune system:
Lastly, copper is also extremely important for a properly functioning immune system. It does this in a different way than the traditional nutrients that are normally associated with immune functions, such as vitamin and zinc, which have primarily antioxidative properties. Copper is not an antioxidant but instead very a toxic substance when it is found in large amounts that are not bound to carrier proteins. A functioning immune system will use this to its advantage and transport copper to wherever it detects bacteria to defend itself against it. White blood cells along with proteins such as ceruloplasmin then surround the bacteria and then use their copper ions in order to break down the threatening intruder. Studies have confirmed this and shown that elevated concentrations of copper can be found near the sites of infection. By the way, these same antibacterial properties are the reason we use copper pipes today or why some ancient cultures drank out of copper bottles.
As you can see properly functioning copper is critical to health, and in summary its most important functions are:
- To support your body’s energy system
- To grow healthy connective tissue
- and to neutralize bacteria and infections
The foods highest in copper are shellfish, seeds and nuts, organ meats, whole-grain products, and chocolate. Natural vitamin c, for example from the acerola berry is also a great copper source, because the body can also use it to build ceruloplasmin, the copper transport protein.
Ok, at this point you are probably thinking to yourself: “Copper is awesome, I will make sure to get more of it”. Well, there is a problem. Remember how in the beginning of the video I said that copper is probably the most misunderstood mineral out there?
The reason for this is that most people actually don’t need more copper, the either need less of it or more bioavailable copper, so copper bound to ceruloplasmin. Let me explain.