Spring 2014 True Natural Health Magazine – Your Questions Answered
By Roger French
QUESTION: When taking mineral supplements, are colloidal minerals the best form to take them in or is the chelated form better? What makes colloidal and chelated minerals special, and why are they different from other forms of minerals?
ANSWER:
Both forms of mineral supplements have advocates who are enthusiastic about their superior merits. Absorbability and usability are their key advantages. Let’s look at each in turn.
Colloidal Minerals
Colloidal minerals are in liquid form with the minerals held in suspension, making them very easily assimilated.
The discoverer of colloidal minerals was a US rancher, Thomas Jefferson Clark, whose health was helped in 1920 by mineral-rich spring water provided by the local natives. The water was leaching minerals from an ancient rainforest in Central Utah, 60 to 120 million years old. The forest had never been heated and was relatively close to the surface, so that it had been only lightly compressed. In 1925 the US Department of the Interior established a mine from which T J Clark minerals are still available 89 years later.
Since the mine is in a desert, it would appear that there is little or no problem of pollution with toxic heavy metals.
At the mine, T J Clark crushes the rainforest material and washes it to remove the ‘soil’ particles, etc. The material, which is like coal, but can be crushed in the hand, is extracted from different parts of the mine to get a good cross-section of minerals.
There is a vast array of colloidal minerals in the T J Clark brand, which is now owned by the grandson of the founding T J Clark. The minerals are in their original plant form, are non-toxic and are claimed to have the correct electrical frequencies that are compatible with the frequencies of the human brain and nervous system. (This might puzzle many people, but I think it sounds feasible.)
It is claimed that colloidal minerals not only serve as vital nutrients, but also have the ability to extract toxic heavy metals from tissues and flush them from the body. This might be difficult to prove, but it could be possible.
The only drawback with colloidal minerals is that you can’t vary the dose of individual minerals. However, having this wide range of minerals in this easily assimilated form could compensate that in many cases.
Aluminium is naturally present among the minerals because it is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. As with arsenic, cadmium, lead and so on, these minerals in their straight metallic form are all potentially harmful to human health. However, the colloidal forms change this.
The explanation is given by a biochemist who has been working with colloidal trace elements both in research and in practice. He is Steven Whiting, PhD, of the Institute of Nutritional Science in San Diego, California. He says that organic colloidal minerals have been electromagnetically altered within their plant sources during photosynthesis, making them not only beneficial to animal metabolism but also completely harmless.
As a further benefit, says Steven, they act as natural chelating agents to themselves. What this means is that colloidal aluminium chelates out toxic ‘heavy metal’ aluminium, thus removing it from soft body tissues.
The same applies with all the other heavy metals.
Steven has found in his practice that the levels of numerous toxic metals in his clients have been lowered using colloidal minerals. He used hair analysis carried out by independent laboratories to monitor the levels.
He notes that colloidal trace elements cannot be stored in the body for longer than a few hours due to their altered electrical nature and hence need to be replaced on a daily basis, which makes any toxicity “virtually impossible”. The worst thing that can happen due to heavy over-dosing is diarrhoea.
How much colloidal mineral supplement should a person take? One brand suggests adults take 15 ml for every 50 kilos of body weight per day. People recovering from a health problem could double this. For children the suggestion is 3 ml per 10 kilos of body weight, twice daily with food. For best absorption, take the liquid with meals.
A person who is not accustomed to taking supplements and has a history of sensitivities might be wise to begin with a low dose and build up gradually.
T J Clark colloidal minerals have been tested for safety by a German biophysicist who found that the product is completely non-toxic and actually increases the electrical energy output of cells. These minerals have been in use for a very long time apparently without significant harmful effects. And they are said to be safe to give to pets.
Some other brands use standard industrial extraction methods, or even use high temperature extraction, and usually won’t be as effective.
T J Clark colloidal minerals are available in Australia online or from a distributor, such as LifeSPRINGS Mineral Products or Goodness Health Products which has an office in Dee Why in Sydney.
Chelated Minerals
When a mineral is chelated it means that it is attached to (or bound) to a molecule of an organic acid or a sugar. This makes the mineral organic and easily absorbed into the bloodstream. The minerals can be bonded to amino acids, ascorbates, citrates, fumarates, gluconates, lactates and malates.
‘Chelated’, pronounced ‘keylated’, is derived from the Latin word ‘chela’ meaning ‘claw’ and from the Greek word ‘khele’ having the same meaning.
A mineral that is not chelated may combine with other substances in foods, such as phytic acid or oxalic acid, and form insoluble compounds that cannot be assimilated. Chelating a mineral provides a considerable advantage.
Two classic examples of naturally occurring chelates are chlorophyll, the green pigment in green plants which is a chelate of magnesium, and haemoglobin, the red pigment in red blood cells which is a chelate of iron. Interestingly, all the iron in a normally functioning (healthy) human body is in a chelated form, mainly as haemoglobin or ferritin.
Minerals for nutritional supplements may be chelated to make them more readily available and in a very acceptable form for use in the body.
Chelation is also used to treat artery disease. Chelating substances are injected into the bloodstream for the purpose of combining with the calcium in the plaque inside artery walls and so dissolving some of the plaque. This method, as an alternative to bypass, is controversial.
Colloidal or Chelated?
Both forms of mineral supplements appear to be safe, well absorbed and effective if the minerals are needed.
The brand of supplements that are advertised in this magazine on our request, NEOLIFE, uses chelation for their calcium, magnesium, zinc and some other minerals. Because I know this brand to have a highly qualified nutritional board, this ‘underwrites’ the value of chelation in my view
