Trace minerals

The Sacred Copper

5. Mai 2019 4 min read

Copper is essential for immune function and metabolism but is often misunderstood. We typically consume too little of this important trace element, even though our bodies need more than officially recommended.

Unfortunately, over the years it has become clear that the flood of information on the Internet creates many—let's say—misunderstandings. Topics with little connection to reality are blown up in our minds as if they were life-defining.

That's where statistics come in. You need statistics and, above all, a feel for the subject matter to form a proper understanding—or you rely on someone who clearly knows what they're talking about.

Many of us don't have much experience with statistics and «scientific intuition,» but understandably still want to form an opinion. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, this often leads to misunderstandings.

Topics like «nitrosative stress» get confused with «arginine excess,» even though it's actually arginine deficiency that causes nitrosative stress.
Just because a metabolically unhealthy body can no longer process carbohydrates (and too much in this setting is certainly unhealthy) doesn't mean carbohydrates in general are unhealthy.
And: Copper is an essential trace element that we often don't consume enough of—because some disease patterns seem to show excess copper in cells, people then say copper is harmful.

Specifically regarding copper, you could listen to a researcher who has devoted his entire research career to this trace element—Dr. Leslie M. Klevay. He proposed something remarkable:

The "recommended" 1 mg of copper per day is not enough; we probably need twice or three times that amount.
Even the "recommended" 1 mg is often not reached.

What do we often do: "avoid copper" (note: the average person already does this due to their diet), because we read somewhere on the Internet that it's totally harmful.

The fact is: copper is sensationally important. The real problem is that our copper balance is sometimes slightly dysregulated. But that's not because of too much; it's more about too little and especially about missing important "cofactors." For example, copper needs vitamin A in the body because vitamin A regulates the production of the most important copper transporter in the blood. Aha!

In general, remember this: dysregulation happens because we haven't provided our body with what it needs for a long time. In rarer cases, genes play a role. This would be the case with, for example, hemochromatosis.

Back to copper. Interesting details about copper would include:

Copper is highly toxic to pathogens (e.g., bacteria). That's why there's discussion about using copper-containing surfaces in hospitals again. The body is smart and uses this fact to its advantage—in many ways. For example: macrophages, our first line of defense in the immune system, "shoot" at pathogens with the help of copper. If we have too little copper in our body, it limits the ability to destroy pathogens. In other words: less copper, weaker immune system.
It turns out that copper influences the function of our fat tissue. For instance, it regulates cAMP, which is important for fat breakdown. Recent studies show that copper regulates the metabolic program of fat cells. Too little copper shifts the balance toward cells that store more fat.
Last but not least: a 2018 study states: "Copper deficiency may be one of the leading causes of ischemic heart disease." Why? Because the aforementioned Dr. Klevay already impressively demonstrated that copper deficiency is the only intervention that produces cardiovascular disease in laboratory animals that we also see in humans.

So much for that. For more details, as you'd expect, in our new Springer book.

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