Unfortunately in today's world, naturally occurring, nutrient-rich foods are becoming a thing of the past. Eons of vegetation growth and aggressive modern farming techniques have brought many of the earth's minerals to the surface where they have been washed away to the oceans.

As the Soils Become Depleted of Minerals, the Seas Become Enriched with Minerals

Our philosophy at Trace Minerals Research has always been that the Earth was created with the perfect balance of all the nutrients that humans need to be healthy and happy. The only problem is that over the years humans have become victims of the water cycle. Dr. U. Aswathanarayana states, “Soil erosion leads to the depletion of essential nutrient elements in crops grown in depleted soils. When people consume a diet derived from such crops, the intake of essential elements becomes inadequate. This leads to the impairment of the relevant physiological functions, and causes disease.” 1*

Because your body requires nearly two thirds of all the elements currently known to man in order to maintain health, keeping these minerals in balance is a complex yet incredibly vital task. The events of everyday demand a continual ingestion of minerals. Perhaps that is why an estimated 90% of Americans suffer a mineral deficiency or imbalance.

For millions of years, every sprouting seed and towering tree has dissolved minerals in ionic form and raised them from the depths of the soil where they could easily be washed away by water. To add to this problem, aggressive farming has further depleted the soils. Furthermore, many fertilizers and pesticides bind trace minerals in the soil so that fewer minerals are absorbed by fruits and vegetables. The importance of minerals in the soil and their effects on human health are not new concepts. Dr. Alexis Carrel, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1912, states, “Soil is the basis of all human life and our only hope for a healthy world.... All of life will be either healthy or unhealthy according to the fertility of the soil. Minerals in the soil control the metabolism of cells in plant, animal and man....* Diseases are created chiefly by destroying the harmony reigning among mineral substances present in infinitesimal amounts in air, water and food, but most importantly in the soil.” * Even the American Medical Association recognizes the importance of minerals in our diet. “Variations in the distribution of certain minerals in the environment are known to have an effect on health.” 2

The lack of minerals in our soil is evidenced through the need for constant fertilization. Plants need nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, carbon, boron, sulfur, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, zinc, copper manganese, and molybdenum, some of which are commonly replaced through fertilizers to provide maximum crops through minimum investment. However, humans are known to additionally need calcium, sodium, fluorine, bromine, chromium, iodine, silicon, selenium, beryllium, lithium, cobalt, vanadium and nickel, which would not necessarily be replaced through fertilization for plants. 3*

This continual cycle of soil depletion and minor replacement of minerals through fertilization in conjunction with a diet of processed foods has left many Americans deficient in minerals and trace minerals. This does not need to be the case. To discover where the minerals have disappeared, we need to follow the water cycle. As water goes through the constant cycle from evaporation to precipitation, minerals are transported through rivers and streams where it is then collected in the seas thereby creating a natural equilibrium.

Today, Trace Minerals Research harvests minerals and trace minerals from the Great Salt Lake, a uniquely rich and pure desert sea. These minerals are the basis for each of their unique products and help provide a strong foundation for balanced supplementation.*

Trace Minerals: Natural Balance, Perfect Solution

Balance is important to all areas of our lives and nutrition, but it is particularly crucial when it comes to minerals and trace minerals: There are 92 elements found in nature and an additional 22 theoretical and/or observed elements. In addition, there are hundreds of isotopes of the elements, any one of which may play an as yet undiscovered role in human health...It becomes increasingly evident when studying the relationship of minerals to human health that keeping the level of minerals in balance in every tissue, fluid, cell and organ in the human body may be the key to maintaining human health. 4*

Keeping minerals in proper balance throughout the body while providing all of them in sufficient quantities needed for optimal health is complex. This is further complicated when using a bullet approach based on the latest research that finds specific deficiencies and then supplements the diet with just that particular nutrient: The complexity of the mineral imbalance problem is apparent. It is apparent that our understanding of the mechanisms of mineral imbalances is fragmentary. New inter-relationships are constantly being discovered. We are presently recognizing and correcting only a small fraction of the mineral imbalance problems plaguing animals and man. 5*

Imbalanced interactions cause many problems when we consistently consume single processed or refined minerals that are out of proportion with the other minerals and trace minerals. This is particularly evident when it comes to the most commonly refined mineral that Americans take into their diet, sodium chloride and it’s effects on hypertension: *

Clearly, nutrients function interactively both in the body and in their impact on blood pressure regulation. Whenever the consumption of a single nutrient is significantly altered, an entirely new dietary pattern is created. Nutrients occur in clusters in the diet and may therefore act synergistically to alter physiologic variables such as blood pressure. 6

These relationships can, however, have an equally profound benefit on human health when minerals are consumed in proper ratios. Certain minerals and trace minerals, when found in proper balance, can serve additional non-classical roles such as acting as antioxidants. Minerals and trace minerals can also help each other in the process of assimilation and add additional safety buffers for minerals that have the potential of being toxic to human health. 4* However, interrelationships of minerals and trace minerals are not nearly as evident when they are found in a dry or a non-soluble form.* For instance, powdered copper and zinc could be mixed up in ratio of a billion parts of copper to just one part of zinc. Additionally, other minerals and trace minerals in powder form could be mixed up in similar ratios without causing a reaction to occur, but if they made it into the blood stream in those same ratios, the results would be devastating to the body.*

Within the blood stream, lymphatic fluid, cells and extracellular fluid, minerals and trace minerals can be found completely dissociated into solution, which can also be called electrolyte or ionic form. 7 In this state, they all have specific positive or negative electrical signatures that cause a dynamic equilibrium to take place. The body can use minor changes in this equilibrium to create proper osmotic pressure and move nutrients to the areas that need them most and create electrical impulses that run the entire nervous system. 7*

This same equilibrium can also be found in the seas around the world where minerals and trace minerals have collected and concentrated in liquid ionic form for millions of years. It is astounding to realize that the dynamic equilibrium that takes place with liquid ionic minerals and trace minerals has created the same basic balance in sea water that is found in healthy blood plasma and lymphatic fluid.*

As you can tell, the dynamic equilibrium of minerals and trace minerals found in sea water is incredibly complex and has worked itself out over millions of years using natural forces which as of yet are not fully understood by scientists.* Scientists, working in the laboratory have never been able to create sea water from scratch and even if it were possible it would cost thousands of dollars a bottle.

Utah’s Great Salt Lake, where Trace Minerals Research harvests Low Sodium ConcenTrace® Trace Mineral Drops, is the largest body of concentrated sea water in the world and is particularly rich in certain minerals and trace minerals like magnesium, selenium, lithium, and boron which are vitally important to human health. “The Great Salt Lake [has] concentrated many of the same minerals found in the sea through geothermal and evaporative processes. These natural sources of the elements can provide a rich source of minerals compatible to human physiological needs.”4 Also, because of it’s high concentration, the dynamic equilibrium has caused the Great Salt Lake to be uniquely low in certain toxic, heavy metals: "...The total soluble concentrations of heavy metals in the water are extremely low. The heavy metals in the lake, along with clays, organic materials and carbonates, are precipitating to the sediments and deep brines where anaerobic conditions and sulfide formed by sulfate reducing bacteria immobilize the metals. The lake thus avoids accumulation of heavy metals in the lake waters and is non-toxic and self-cleansing...The unique saline condition of [the] Great Salt Lake determines the precipitation and immobilization of heavy metals in the lake.”8 *

Today, Trace Minerals Research uses the naturally balanced, naturally occurring minerals and trace minerals from Utah’s Great Salt Lake as the basis for all of their products. These products have been developed to work with the body and its natural balances to provide many nutrients that may be lacking in modern diets.

Like Your Body, It Only Lights Up with "Ionic" Trace Minerals

Every second of every day your body relies on ionic minerals and trace minerals to conduct and generate billions of tiny electrical impulses. Without these impulses, not a single muscle, including your heart, would be able to function.* Your brain would not function and the cells would not be able to use osmosis to balance water pressure and absorb nutrients.* In fact, “many vital body processes depend on the movement of ions across cell membranes” 2* “Recent research indicates that minerals may play a significant role against a variety of degenerative diseases and processes.* They may also prevent and reduce injury from environmental pollutants and enhance the ability to work and learn. They can also protect the body from the effects of toxic minerals.” 9*

The Power of Electrolyte Trace Minerals...

The form of different minerals also plays a key role in how well they are transported through the circulatory system and the aqueous micro-environment of the cells. 9*

Chemical and electrical processes are occurring within your body at every moment. These processes can only function correctly if the proper balance of minerals is continually being supplied to your system. Iron for your blood, sulfur for your muscles, calcium for your bones, and an aggregation of many other elements in balanced trace amounts to ensure the proper function of your body. In a few surviving inland seas such as the Great Salt Lake of western North America, these essential elements exist in highly concentrated, salubrious proportions. The fact that the minerals are in a similar proportion as healthy, living matter is a key. And this intricate balance of every mineral and trace element in seawater is why it is so beneficial to the human body.

Citations

1. Aswathanarayana, U. Professor. Trace Substances Environment and Health. Science Reviews, London, 1:1994, pp. 222-223.

2. American Medical Association. The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed.Charles B. Clayman. Random House:1989, P. 409.

3. Schauss, A.G. Keynote lecture, Texas Conference on Nutrition and Behavior, University of Texas at Austin, October 28, 1982; and Schauss, A G. Nutrition and Behavior. Journal of Applied Nutrition, 1983; 35:30-43.

4. Schauss, Alexander. Minerals and Human Health: The Rationale for Optimal and Balanced Trace Element Levels. Life Sciences Press: 1995, pp. 1, 5.

5. Hoekstra, W.G. Federation Proceedings. National Academy of Sciences: Washington D.C. (Sept./ Oct., 1964).

6. Reusser, M.E., McCarron, D.A. Nutrition Review, 1994: 52; 367-375.

7. American Medical Association. The American Medical Associations Encyclopedia of Medicine. Ed. Charles B. Clayman. Random House: 1989, pp. 396, 605, 752.

8. Utah Geological and Mineral Survey. Bulletin II 6., University of Utah: 1980, p. 198.

9. Schauss, Alex. Minerals and Human Health: The Rationale for Optimal and Balanced Trace Element Levels. Life Sciences Press: 1995, pp. 1, 3.

10. American Medical Association. The American Medical Associations Encyclopedia of Medicine, Ed. Charles B. Clayman. Random House:1989, P. 605.

11. Rosenberg, I.H., Solomans, N.W. Absorption and Malabsorption of Mineral Nutrients. Alan R. Liss: 1984, P. 2.

12. Nielson, Mark T. Ions: The Body’s Electrical Energy Source. 1993, p. 3.

13. Watts, David L. Nutrient Interrelationships: Minerals-Vitamins-Endoctrine. Reprinted from journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. Vol. 5, Number 1. 1990 p. 1.