Oddbean new post about login | logout Okay, I need to look into boron then. I've heard about before but assumed it was one of those whacky health fads. I didn't know about kidneys expelling potassium - why would they do that? I also have reduced kidney function, and I'm sure it plays some role in my high blood pressure
yeah, if you are deficient in boron, your kidneys eliminate calcium and magnesium and this leads to bone and nerve problems it definitely also affected my mother too, she almost had a hip fracture from a fall down stairs about 15 years ago, and was diagnosed with osteoporosis, which is a calcium deficiency based problem but magnesium is also critical to absorbing calcium so boron is a limiter there, and she also has celiac like me, but not quite as severe anyhow, yeah, boron is a thing, and i like to joke about how it's the "fifth element" yes, it's element 5.
I think I misspoke earlier when I said potassium and sodium have a balance - I'm remembering a thing a little better now and I think it was potassium and calcium that have the balance. I can attest to the benefits of magnesium - I've felt much better since I started supplementing it. I'm currently doing a vitamin D3/k2, magnesium, and zinc, and its helping a lot.
yeah, that makes sense, i think magnesium limits calcium absorption though, but i never heard this idea that potassium limits/relates to calcium, but it totally makes sense i always had this impression, sodium and calcium relate to muscle tensing, and magnesium and potassium relate to relaxing, they call it polarising and depolarising, the muscle fibres shorten and lengthen in accordance with ionic/electrostatic effects of current flowing through them, and normally the nerves conduct these opposing voltages with these opposite ions, so it still is consistent with the potassium/magnesium vs calcium/sodium pattern, but it's related to not only the nerves but the muscles as well muscles function partially by electrostatic effects as well and nerves have this in their function in the dendrites, the "ion channels" that conduct signals, so, yeah, these 4 minerals are definitely all tied together in neuromuscular health
also, just to mention, zinc is related to vitamin C in not just the health of the lungs but also the skin, it is part of the complex of enzymes that synthesise collagen and both organs (skin and lungs) depend on the ability to regenerate the tissue when it is put under stress, which ... anyway, i talked about the fats/vegan diet and how it accelerates the aging of the skin, it also affects the lungs and makes people more vulnerable to cold and flu viruses zinc helps with this too, and nuts are a key source of zinc so, yeah, for me this is putting nails in the carnivore diet theory a lot more i think that humans are primarily adapted to various kinds of diets, we are able to tolerate everything from high starch wheat/rice based diets to carnivore (eskimos and siberians) and root/leaf based diets that you see more in the equatorial regions where these foods are more available or in other words, humans have adaptations for all three patterns of diet, both grain, meat, and nut/leaf based diets, in various mixtures, but every single individual's health is based on respecting this natural tendency and not imposing some other culture's fucking diet on us is this some kind of extreme racial purity idea, idk, idc, fuck it this is what my body needs, and it is very clearly basically what would have been available to my great grandfather in the papua highlands lol