Why Our Bodies Depend On Minerals To Function And What Makes The Minerals in The Great
Salt Lake So Special
Life on earth first evolved in the seas and oceans billions of years ago. Sea water isn’t just made up of salt and water, but contains all 92 elements that go to make up the periodic table. In other words microscopic fragments of every ‘inert’ substance the earth is made from.
The earliest life forms – little more than worm like amoebas – evolved by incorporating these microscopic elements (including minerals and trace minerals) into their cells, gradually becoming more and more sophisticated by developing digestive systems, a heart, lungs and kidneys.
As famed environmentalist Rachel Carsen put it in her book “The Sea Around Us” - Fish, amphibian, bird and mammal - each of us carries in our veins a salty stream, in which the elements are combined in almost the same proportions as seawater.
It ’s astounding to realise that the mineral composition of the extra cellular fluid that bathes our cells, which in the typical adult is about 26 pints, has a composition very similar to seawater.
Scientists have never been able to recreate seawater from ‘first principles’ because of its shear complexity. Could it be that seawater contains the secret to life itself? We will probably never know. What we do know is minerals are present in Utah’s Great Salt Lake in exactly the same ratios as found in seawater, only concentrated many times over.
Scientists Are Fascinated By The Healing Powers Of Utah’s Great Salt Lake
Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the oldest landlocked sea in the world. It is a remnant of a much larger body of water – ancient Lake Bonneville - which was once thousands of feet deep and covered 20,000 square miles. As the lake has no outlets minerals eroded from the surrounding mountains have been ‘pooling’ in it for literally billions of years.
Consequently its waters are incredibly rich in minerals and natural elements. As the lake has shrunk to its present size, these minerals have become increasingly concentrated and are now 6 t 10 times more concentrated than ordinary sea water.
Importantly, the minerals in the Lake’s waters are in ‘ionic’ form. That means their molecules are in the very smallest form possible without splitting an atom. In fact, they are so fine they are actually ‘in solution’ having completely dissolved into the water itself. This makes them highly bio-available and incredibly easy for the human body to absorb and use.
The fact that our bodies contain this concentration of what is, after all, seawater, is of enormous importance. For just as the first life forms in the oceans depended on what was in the water for survival, so the fact that we carry this “ocean” of minerals around with us, means that they play a vital role in our lives and confirms that the mineral demands of our cells today are based on a blueprint three billion years old.
Minerals and Trace Minerals – The Sparks of Life – And ‘Key’ to Everlasting Health & Vitality
The major minerals - the ones present in high concentrations - take part in functions concerned with the body's structure, such as growing bone and muscle, as well as determining our energy levels through their involvement with enzymes and hormones. And as 'ions' they help the nerves to carry messages from the brain to every part of the body.
However, trace minerals are just as important, precisely co-ordinating trillions of cell functions every second to ensure that your body works as a single harmonious organism.
Take chromium for example. There is approximately 0.002 of a gram of the trace element, chromium in a body weighing 11 stones (164 lbs). To picture how little this is, imagine holding a single grain of sand in the palm of your hand. You can’t feel it. It weighs nothing and is almost swallowed by the creases in your palm.
Yet this minute amount of chromium plays a vital role in forming a substance that works with insulin to determine how the body uses its blood sugar.
It also helps to metabolise fatty acids and cholesterol. Deprive the body of this one almost invisible, near weightless granule and it would become more vulnerable to diabetes, high blood pressure, arthrosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) and heart disease.
Or how about lithium, a deficiency of which is linked to manic depression, or bromine, which acts as a natural tranquilizer. The list goes on and on. The fact of the matter is even the tiniest deficiencies or imbalances of trace minerals can and do affect our health profoundly, making all the difference between radiant good health or sickness and disease.
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