HAIR AND HEALTH

How is it that hair can provide so much information about health and that the mineral balance has such a decisive impact on our physical and mental well-being? Our health depends to a large extent on the health of our cells. All the body's cells require not only vitamins and enzymes but also minerals and trace elements, the importance of which was long underestimated by doctors, biologists and food scientists. Minerals cannot be formed by the body itself and must be obtained through nutrition. The difference between minerals and trace elements is the daily requirement. The body needs considerable amounts of minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Without 100 to 300 mg of potassium, for example, our skin would dry out, our digestion would not function properly and we would become nervous and insomniac.

Trace elements are also minerals, but the body only requires tiny amounts, or traces. Even so, a shortage makes itself felt. Although the body requires only fractions of a milligram of sulphur per day, a shortage manifests itself in the form of flaky and dry skin. In many cases vitamin and mineral deficiencies are closely linked.

If just one link in this complex chain is weak, the body will not get the required amount, even with a healthy diet. One remedy, you might think, would be to take a handful of vitamin and mineral tablets every day. This could have the opposite effect, however, as some of these substances can influence or "drive off" other elements. For example, for calcium to have an effect, the body needs vitamins A, C, D and E. Vitamin D, however, antagonizes magnesium, which requires vitamin B6.

Calcium and iron help the phosphate metabolism, but drive out manganese, which in turn lowers the copper level. In addition, most people have not only a mineral imbalance but are also polluted by heavy metals such as lead, nickel and mercury, which are absorbed through the air, water and food. According to Dr. Juchheim this mineral imbalance causes permanent stress, which in turn plays havoc with the immune system, which is already weakened in many people. "The best demonstration is the rapid increase in the incidence of allergic diseases." What is more, this stress cannot usually be seen in the blood. The organism can compensate the imbalance for a relatively long time by replacing the missing substances through its own reserves - from the liver and muscles in the case of iron, for example.