Breadcrumb Trace Elements

3. Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, chlorine, sodium, and magnesium are elements essential to life.

Is your element found in the human body? If so, what function does it perform?

Certain chemical elements tend to concentrate in one part of the body. For example, nearly all of the iodine that we consume goes to the thyroid gland.

Chemistry relates to everything we touch, see, smell, hear, and taste because atoms make up everything in the universe. Chemistry influences so much in our everyday lives that it is hard to think of an activity that does not involve a chemical process in some way. The science also plays a major role in the human body. Our bodies are made up of chemicals, in fact almost 96% of our body mass is made up of four different elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Besides the physical way I am affected by elements, chemistry also majorly affects me in my line of work as a certified nursing assistant. As a certified nursing assistant I work in a nursing home and

form organic molecules that create the basis for life. The main elements found in biological

Inorganic ions include those of sodium, phosphorus and hydrogen. Describe how these and other inorganic ions are used in living organisms.

1. An Element is a substance that cannot be broken down to other substances by chemical reactions, while a compound is a substance consisting of two or more different elements combined in a fixed ratio.

[25] Which of the following does not play a role in creating the elements needed for life as we know it?

The group 2 metal makes up 4.1% of the Earth’s crust, making it the fifth most abundant metal, and it can only be found in compounds, such as calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate and calcium fluoride (Royal Society of Chemistry). In the body, calcium exists as calcium phosphate to provide

Chelate means claw in Latin. Metal Chelation is a process when a polyvalent metal ion form covalent bonds with a drug and binds tightly to form a 5 or 6 membered ring. 5 and 6 membered ring structure are very stable because their bond angle has no ring strain. Thus, when a compound is chelated, it will not be able to pass through the biological membrane, in another words, it will not be metabolise by the body but to be pass through the renal without being absorbed and being excreted though urine. Essential metal such as magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc are easily found in many food source and is vital to be included as part of our diet as these trace elements are helping our body enzymes, hormones and cells to work. Insufficient intake of trace minerals can cause symptoms of nutritional deficiency. (Glusker,1999) At certain times, these metal are also use as an active ingredient or excipients in pharmaceutical industry.

Iron is an important element to the scientific community, especially those involved in the branch of chemistry. Consequently, humans rely on iron for many different things. Iron is diverse from all other elements with regards to its natural occurrence, historic and contemporary uses, the origin of its name, and when, how, where, and by whom it was discovered. It also has unique characteristic physical and chemical properties. Without the discovery, and distinctive properties of iron, life on Earth would never be the same as it is now.

Zinc is found in cells throughout the body. It is needed for the body's immune system to properly work and help fight off the things that do not need to be in the body. It plays a role in cell division, cell growth, wound healing, and the breakdown of carbohydrates. Zinc is also needed for the senses of smell and taste. Without zinc your appetite might start to decrease.

Zinc is the second abundant transition element next to iron and is a nutritionally essential trace element in the human body. It is present in a variety of tissues including skin, bone, liver, muscle and brain. Zinc exists as bound or histochemically reactive free zinc in biological systems. Bound zinc serves as a structural constituent in a variety of proteins including enzymes. Besides structural role, Zinc is essential for their biological activity (catalytic and cocatalytic). These bound zinc plays a vital role in the folding of transcription factor motifs such as zinc-fingers, hormone receptor families, etc (Frederickson et al., 2000).

A process known as methylation is used to cleanse the body from heavy metal toxicity absorbed through daily life, In this process an amino acid called Methionine is combined with cobalamin to form methyl-cobalamin, creating a by-product called homocysteine. This by-product is a toxin produced by the body, In a normal human being it reacts with some enzymes

Heavy metals are characteristic parts of the Earth's covering. They can't be debased or destroyed. To a little degree they enter our body by means of drinking water, food and air. As follow components, some substantial metals (e.g. copper, selenium, zinc) are crucial to look after the metabolism of the human body. At higher concentrations they can accelerate poisoning. Devastating poisoning of metals arise from drinking-water pollution (e.g. lead channels), high surrounding air fixations close to emission sources, or through food chain.