Trace Minerals and Brain Health

When it comes to brain health, without a doubt healthy fats and omegas take centre stage. Rightfully so, your brain is made up of 60% fat.1 That’s the structural component. What makes your brain, more specifically the neurons, your brain cells, actually function?

What keeps the neurons in your brain firing? How does your brain remove metabolic waste and clean itself? How does your brain stay nourished? What incredibly vital role do trace minerals have in regard to your brain health?

Your brain is made up of 75% water, and a loss of electrolytes, and subsequent dehydration of even 2% can cause acute cognitive changes such as memory loss, decreased attention and headaches.2 When we say water, we do not mean pure hydrogen and oxygen, there are a substantial amount of trace minerals, also known as ions or electrolytes, that also compose the water weight of your brain.

Let’s dive into the fluids around your brain, the blood, the cerebral spinal fluid and the glymphatic fluid. Most of us are aware that blood goes everywhere in our body, including our brain. It is the way our tissues breathe, receiving fresh oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from cells. Blood also carries trace minerals and it is trace minerals that facilitate the movement of other molecules such as water in and out of tissues. Dehydration is often associated with a deficiency of water, however trace minerals are a crucial factor in hydration status. Many of our bodily systems work on charges, osmolarity, and gradients and it is trace minerals that are utilized to create these states. Take for example hydration, drinking pure water, also known as dead water, actually dehydrates you because it pulls trace minerals from your cells. The more the cells are depleted of trace minerals the less they are able to draw in and retain water, worsening dehydration. Rehydration involves both water and trace minerals (electrolytes) to allow the movement of both water and minerals into the cells. This applies throughout the body including your brain.

Your brain is surrounded by cerebral spinal fluid, it is the fluid that cushions, protects, cleanses and nourishes your brain. Your body has a lymphatic system and your brain has a glymphatic system, these are the waste management systems of your body and brain, respectively.3 Your brain is highly metabolically active, and produces its own weight in metabolic waste per year. Without being able to properly cleanse itself the waste begins to accumulate, at first causing minor symptoms such as, brain fog, forgetfulness and headaches, to overtime potentially leading to memory loss, neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other dementias, as well as auto-immune conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis.4

How are all these fluids related? Your glymphatic fluid is pulled from your cerebral spinal fluid and your cerebral spinal fluid is made from your blood. So the quality of blood determines the quality of the cerebral spinal fluid and nourishment your brain is receiving. This is in the average brain. What happens when there is added stress to the system in the event of an injury or insult?

In the case of brain injury either from a traumatic cause, such as a concussion, or ischemic cause, such as a stroke, there are both neuroinflammatory and neuroimmunological cascades that are activated to try to heal the brain.5 There is an increased demand not just for energy to help repair the tissues, but also for trace minerals to help rebalance the gradients for neurons to fire.

Source matters, with a brain injury there is always an increased permeability to the
gastrointestinal barrier, also known as “leaky gut” and blood brain barrier “leaky brain”. The last thing we want is to add insult to injury by using manufactured electrolyte formulations that are not balanced, not in their most bioavailable form and are filled with inflammatory artificial colourings and flavourings.

Heavy metals are another consideration for brain health and disease processes. Toxic metals can be taken up instead of essential minerals. There is competition at binding sites between toxic metals and trace minerals. When you have plentiful essential trace minerals there is less likelihood of heavy metals to be bound in the first place. Aussie Trace Minerals performs third party heavy metal analysis to ensure they are free from heavy metals.8 By decreasing the amount being taken up into your bloodstream and therefore the cerebral spinal fluid, the amount that makes it to your brain is consequently limited as well.

Heavy metals have been linked to dementias, auto-immune and neurodegenerative conditions as well as blood sugar dysregulation and metabolic syndrome such as PCOS diabetes, and Alzheimer's which has been dubbed type III diabetes. Studies have also shown that children presenting with autism spectrum disorder have higher levels of toxic metals and lower levels of essential minerals (Calderón-Garcidueñas, 2015).

When detoxifying heavy metals we need trace minerals to support the detox pathways and also replace the heavy metals. Heavy metals are ubiquitous in our environment from our air, to our water, to household and personal care products, our body is constantly working to detoxify these pollutants and it needs the right support through trace minerals.

Trace minerals are also co-factors for neuroplasticity, the formation of myelination, information processing, neurotransmitter synthesis, memory formation, and protection of brain cells.

Trace minerals, more specifically pristine, bio-available, naturally balanced, single source Aussie Trace Minerals should be considered as vital for brain health as healthy fats for energizing, nourishing and optimizing the function of your brain, supporting and supercharging a growing brain, repairing an injured brain, helping detoxify and potentially staving off dementias, neurological and auto-immune conditions.

*not to be taken as medical advice, please consult with your health professional for personalized health recommendations

References

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