Minerals are as important as vitamins when it comes to overall health and well-being. Since all enzymatic activities in the body require minerals, your body wouldn't be able to use vitamins and other nutrients without them. Calcium, Magnesium, Chromium, Iron, Selenium and Zinc are just a few of the numerous minerals essential to continued health.

For years the supplement market has been dominated by vitamins, but vitamins and amino acids are useless without minerals because all enzyme activities involve minerals. Minerals for healthy bones, organs, and tissue minerals are needed to maintain the delicate cellular fluid balance, to form bone and blood cells, to provide for electrochemical nerve activity, and to regulate muscle tone and activity (including organ muscles like the heart, stomach, liver, etc.)

Minerals act as catalysts for many biological reactions within the body, including muscle response, the transmission of messages through the nervous system, the production of hormones, digestion, and the utilization of nutrients in foods.

Minerals are primarily stored in bone and muscle tissue so toxicity is a possibility. Toxicity risks increase when one isolated mineral is ingested without any supportive cofactor nutrients. Such situations of mineral toxicity are quite rare, because toxic levels accumulate only if massive overdoses persist for a prolonged period of time.

Benefits

• maintains healthy bones, organs and tissue

• regulates muscle tone

• assists with the formation of bone and blood cells

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chester_Ku-Lea