Copper is a heavy metal and is needed for myelin development. [1-3] Surely too much of a good thing is bad. Often other heavy metals follow copper. A study out of Rhode Island USA correlated neurological health with placental heavy metal concentration. [4] A study out of Taiwan looked at heavy metals and phtalates in the urine of pregnant mothers. [5] Both studies correlated heavy metals with mental functioning of the children. Phtalates are used in the production of plastics. When an expecting mother has concerns about heavy metals in the town’s water supply she drinks more bottled water right? This post makes a weak attempt to explain the statistics used in the Rhode Island and Taiwan studies. The take home is that prenatal copper is likely a good thing. Phthalates are probably bad. You really need to discuss the issue with someone licensed to practice medicine.
Tag Archives: copper
Oleuropein
We at CopperOne have been telling customers to add cuprous niacin to an oil to keep it in the +1 oxidation state. Why not olive oil? Oleuropein is “the most important phenolic compound present in olive cultivars. It has a role as a plant metabolite, a radical scavenger, an anti-inflammatory agent, an antineoplastic agent, an antihypertensive agent, a NF-kappaB inhibitor, an apoptosis inducer, an antioxidant and a nutraceutical.”
Copper and heart disease
Copper deficiency is associated with heart disease. This is a journey through the literature as to which copper enzymes are important.
Sp1 and copper
This post investigates a claim in a review by Morrel and coworkers that excessive dietary fructose can decrease the expression of Ctr1 in the duodenum. [1] How could this happen? What is transcription factor for Ctr1? As it turns out, both Cu+ and Cu2+ can bind to the CTR1 transcription factor Sp1 and negatively regulate its activity [2,3] The featured image describes out Cu can disrupt the Zn2+ finger(s?) Sp1 uses to bind to the promoters of itself and CTR1. If you wish to skip the details of some brilliant experiments, click to go to the lay friendly summary.
POTS and copper
This post on postural orthostatic tachycardia explains how a copper supplement might help this condition.
IL-1 and copper
This pandemic post argues against copper chelation therapy as a treatment for any infection in which interleukin 1 production is involved.
Copper Chaperones
Starting from Ctr1 Let us continue the journey from Ctr1 to some intracellular copper chaperones. The cyoplasmic loops might have their own gating functions, as suggested by Ren (2019), see Ctr1 post Just looking at the sequences, there are a lot of arginines (R) and lysines (K) Fig 1C). Both of these are positively chargedContinue reading “Copper Chaperones”
Ceruloplasmin
This post describes how ceruloplasmin acquires and transports copper. It also looks at the factors that regulate its expression in the first place.
Fatty Liver Disease
This post describes an Egyptian study with cuprous nicotinic acid showing amelioration of fatty liver disease in a rat model.
Niacin benefits infections
This post is lay friendly with some comments on G protein coupled receptors in the same super family as cannabis receptors.