Vitamins and minerals

Chapter 13 Vitamins and minerals



This chapter provides an overview of the vitamins and minerals encountered in pharmacology, and their relevance to practice.






Two Important Elements



Magnesium








Thus adequate levels of magnesium in the body are important.







Calcium





Necessary for muscle contraction (see Chapter 31 ‘The nervous system’, p. 237). Low levels of calcium can lead to tetany.






• Interaction of Food Substances with Calcium


Calcium is absorbed along the entire length of the gastrointestinal tract. Absorption can be affected by:











• Kidney Stones and Calcium


See Chapter 36 (‘Urinary tract infection’, p. 283).



Trace Elements



Iron


Iron is essential to plants and animals and is usually found incorporated in a protein complex called a haem, where it forms the nucleus of the haem complex. This complex is an essential component of:






Iron is also required to deal with bacterial infection; in this situation the body stores as much iron as possible in the storage molecule ferritin inside the cells, so as to deprive the bacteria of it.





Copper


Copper is a cofactor in various metabolic processes:



Scavenging free radicals: copper is a cofactor of superoxide dismutase (SOD; see Chapter 7 ‘Free radicals’, p. 46 and Chapter 19 Pharmacodynamics: how drugs elicit a physiological effect’, p. 139).

Copper is also involved in:









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Jul 22, 2016 | Posted by in PHARMACY | Comments Off on Vitamins and minerals

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