Ans.to Willowsnan

[Guest guest]

Dear and other members,

I think people should take the minerals in proportion to their weight. I am

presently taking 12 mg of copper per day and I weigh 175 lbs. I've been

recommending to people to take 8 mg, thinking that most of you are women and

weigh about 2/3 of my weight. I really don't think it's critical whether you

take 6, 8, or 10 mg per day. I am quite confident those amounts will satisfy

your daily needs and rebuild your body stores (you will start building more

hemoglobin with the extra copper, etc.) I feel that the more you take

(assuming you absorb more), the faster you will recover.

The absorption is an important point because if we all had great digestion,

we might be able to get all the copper we need from our copper-poor diet.

However, if we get vitamin and mineral deficient, our bodies can't make as

much digestive enzymes, then we absorb less minerals from our foods, and we

begin a vicious downward cycle into mineral deficiency. Fortunately, we can

break this cycle by taking digestive enzymes which will help us to rebuild our

mineral stores and provide the raw materials our bodies need to make more

digestive enzymes.

I recently began taking digestive enzymes with breakfast and supper and let

my body provide all of the necessary enzymes in between. During my recovery,

however, I was not taking digestive enzymes. I highly recommend digestive

enzymes to everyone.

You are taking the same copper (Solgar chelated) which I've taken all along,

so I know it works. The amount you are taking (2 mg per day), however, will

just meet your present daily needs and may not be enough to build up your body

stores to enable you to feel a significantly swift recovery. Try increasing

the amount gradually to get it up to 8 mg per day. Also, remember that you

have to take zinc along with it.

The amount of zinc we should be taking is puzzling me still. During most of

my recovery, I was taking 4-6 mg of copper a day and 100 mg of zinc. When I

discovered that the optimum ratio of zinc to copper should be about 8:1, I

reasoned that a 4:1 ratio would build up the copper faster, so I reduced my

zinc to 50 mg. However, I am now recovered and should really be back at the

8:1 ratio.

As I related in another letter, I experimented by stopping all zinc, while

taking 8 mg of copper a day to see what would happen. Withing 2 weeks I was

zinc deficient and could feel an irritation in my prostate. Within three days

of resuming the zinc my prostate was back to normal.

One way of telling if you are zinc deficient is to look at your fingernails.

White spots on your fingernails is supposed to indicate a zinc deficiency and

my personal experience through the years has confirmed that for me. I haven't

had any white spots for a long time, but now two have just appeared,

apparently a result of my zinc-deprivation experiment.

So as far as the zinc/copper ratio, my present thinking is to just start with

and stay with the 8:1 ratio. This will get your copper built up and keep you

from becoming zinc deficient and is probably the best long-term strategy. If

you take 8 mg of copper, then take about 60-70 mg of zinc.

Your brittle nails sound more like calcium/magnesium deficiency to me. I've

found that the hyperthyroidism interfered with cal/mag absorption or

utilization and had to take a lot more to keep from getting tooth aches and

muscle cramps. The Nutrition Almanac I was quoting yesterday also states on

pg. 112 that about a copper deficiency: " Connective tissue is easily damaged

and bone demineralizes. "

Your brittle nails could be a sign that you are not getting enough cal/mg, so

try increasing your cal/mag. The problems you see with your fingernails could

be minor compared with the bone demineralization which might be occurring

without your knowledge.

The cal/mag is essential to regulate your heart beat. Possibly the calcium

increases the rate and magnesium decreases the rate (I have no idea how it

works and am only speculating), but our heart needs them to operate correctly.

The hyperthyroidism (perhaps from the copper deficiency) interferes with

cal/mag absorption, so our heart beats out of control. You need to take as

much cal/mag (1:1 ratio) or just mag if that's all you have, to slow your

heart down. The cal/mag doesn't cure hyperthyroidism, it just corrects a

deficiency caused by the hyperthyroidism. And it sure makes life easier

without your heart beating out of control!!!

I am recommending to everyone to limit your consumption of sugars and

fruits--maybe have a chocolate bar and a little fruit each day and cut out all

the rest of the sweets. Also, keep your vitamin C intake to about 500 to 1000

mg a day. I think that is plenty and avoiding an excess will enable you to

build up the copper faster and enable you to absorb more cal/mag.

I think the proprietor of your health food store doesn't know what he's

talking about, but you can check for yourself. My trace minerals (Mezotrace)

lists the copper content for 4 tablets as 41.0 mcg. This is really miniscule

and is only 1% of what you need to take each day! Just read the label of the

trace minerals in the store and see for yourself.

Iodine is the main mineral our thyroids need to build the thyroid hormones,

but is not the driving force which makes the thyroid put out too much hormone.

You can eat tons of seaweed, seafood, and iodized salt and your thyroid will

be just fine. If you get deficient in copper, it goes out of control. Kelp

is a great source of not only iodine, but of all trace elements. One man

wrote and told me he cured his hyperthyroidism just by taking 16 tablets of

kelp a day. It's really good for you as are all seafoods. From what I've

seen, hyperthyroidism could be described as a mineral deficiency disease which

is caused by not eating seafood.

Your father's fast pulse could be hereditary, but I think there is a greater

chance of it being a borderline copper deficiency. Take a look at what he

eats--does he eat liver or seafood often? does he drink a lot of beer (6 cans

of beer will get him 2 mg of copper)? Men are more likely to get

hyperthyroidism as they get older or if they are predominantly vegetarian.

Maybe you and your father just have similar eating habits and are both

consuming a diet which is low in copper. Take a look and see if that's a

possibility.

Lastly, I am very glad to be able to provide you with some direction. I

recall exactly that feeling of being totally lost without any bearings in what

I now call the " Hell of Hyperthyroidism " . I remember everywhere I went there

were just deadends and people telling me there's no exit. My goal is to show

everyone I can where the exit is and then when we are all healthy and full of

energy we can work as a team to put this disease in the list of known

deficiency diseases. Hey! Maybe we'll get all the salt manufacturors in the

country to put copper in the salt as they do with iodine!

Thanks for your great questions. I hope to hear from everyone else with

their questions, stories, and comments.

Your friend,

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