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Copper

Specific Recommendations:

• Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com
• Copper supplements at Amazon.com

News & Research:

• Why you need to go with a supplement with the right calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper ratio:
  • Vitamin Regimen Can Prevent Blindness - Intelihealth, 10/12/01 - "High doses of zinc can cause anemia, but participants also took 2 milligrams of copper daily to counter that effect"
  • Treating Hair Loss Naturally - WebMD - "taking too much zinc can also cause a copper deficiency, which in turn can actually cause hair loss"
  • Copper - Vitacost Health Library - "Zinc interferes with copper absorption. People taking zinc supplements for more than a few weeks should also take copper (unless they have Wilson’s disease)"
  • Inhibitory effects of zinc on magnesium balance and magnesium absorption in man - J Am Coll Nutr. 1994 Oct;13(5):479-84 - "the overall effect of the high Zn intake of the three groups combined, regardless of the Ca intake, was a highly significant decrease of Mg absorption and of the Mg balance"
  • Increasing the Good Cholesterol - Health & Nutrition Breakthrough, 1/99 - "Low copper levels, which can be induced by taking more than 25 mg/day of zinc, may increase triglycerides as well as reduce HDL levels. Zinc/copper ratios should be monitored."
  • Zinc-Induced Copper Deficiency: A Report of Three Cases - Medscape, 2/2/05 - "Excess zinc ingestion is among the causes of copper deficiency"
• Is Copper Culpable in Parkinson's Disease? - Medscape, 7/21/22 - "Substantially more cell biology and in vivo modeling would be needed to further evaluate the connection of copper specifically to synucleinopathy"
• Micronutrient Supplementation to Prevent, Improve HF? - Medscape, 2/29/22 - "A new review suggests that micronutrient supplementation — particularly a combination of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), zinc, copper, selenium, and iron — might be a potential strategy to improve myocardial function in patients with heart failure (HF) by improving mitochondrial function" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com, zinc supplements at Amazon.com, copper supplements at Amazon.com, Selenium at Amazon.com and iron supplements at Amazon.com.
• Low copper levels linked to fatter fat cells - Science Daily, 10/11/18 - "low levels of cellular copper appear to make fat cells fatter by altering how cells process their main metabolic fuels, such as fat and sugar ... The discovery, they say, adds to evidence that copper homeostasis could one day be a therapeutic target for metabolic disorders, including obesity ... Copper is essential to human biology and helps to facilitate many processes, from the formation of pigments in hair and eye color to new blood vessels. The mineral is also important to cognition. Copper imbalances have been associated with several neurological disorders, and altered copper levels were linked to depression and changes in sleep pattern"
• Are Your Copper Mugs Poisoning You? - WebMD, 8/8/17 - "The FDA’s Model Food Code prohibits food that a pH of less than 6.0 to come into direct contact with copper and copper alloys like brass. A Moscow Mule, as well as wine, fruit juice, and vinegar, have a pH of less than 6.0 ... Something so acidic can make copper leach into food."
• Copper is key in burning fat - Science Daily, 6/7/16 - "copper has been gaining increasing attention over the past decade for its role in certain biological functions. It has been known that copper is needed to form red blood cells, absorb iron, develop connective tissue and support the immune system ... We find that copper is essential for breaking down fat cells so that they can be used for energy ... It acts as a regulator. The more copper there is, the more the fat is broken down. We think it would be worthwhile to study whether a deficiency in this nutrient could be linked to obesity and obesity-related diseases ... an adult's estimated average dietary requirement for copper is about 700 micrograms per day. The Food and Nutrition Board also found that only 25 percent of the U.S. population gets enough copper daily ... Too much copper can lead to imbalances with other essential minerals, including zinc ... Of the copper in human bodies, there are particularly high concentrations found in the brain ... copper helps brain cells communicate with each other by acting as a brake when it is time for neural signals to stop" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.
• Long sleep and high blood copper levels go hand in hand - Science Daily, 9/14/15 - "Based on this study, however, it is impossible to say whether sleeping long results in high serum copper concentrations or vice versa"
• Copper on the brain at rest - Science Daily, 11/26/14 - "In recent years it has been established that copper plays an essential role in the health of the human brain. Improper copper oxidation has been linked to several neurological disorders including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Menkes' and Wilson's. Copper has also been identified as a critical ingredient in the enzymes that activate the brain's neurotransmitters in response to stimuli. Copper has also been identified as a critical ingredient in the enzymes that activate the brain's neurotransmitters in response to stimuli. Now a new study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has shown that proper copper levels are also essential to the health of the brain at rest" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.
• Copper can protect against Alzheimer's disease - Science Daily, 2/17/13 - "under conditions which are approximately similar to those found in the brain, copper can only protect against beta amyloid forming beta sheets and as such it is highly unlikely that copper is directly involved in the formation of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease ... The research, published by Nature's online journal Scientific Reports, may also imply that lower levels of copper in the brain may promote the mechanisms whereby beta amyloid is deposited as senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease"
• New screen offers hope for copper deficiency sufferers - Science Daily, 8/17/10 - "Copper deficiency diseases can be devastating. Symptoms can range from crippling neurological degeneration in Menkes disease -- a classic copper deficiency disease -- to brittle bones, anaemia and defective skin pigmentation in gastric bypass patients"
• Consumers over age 50 should consider cutting copper and iron intake, report suggests - Science Daily, 1/20/10
• Children With ADHD at Risk for Zinc and Copper Deficiency - Medscape, 11/3/09 - "this patient population is at risk for low trace mineral status, including deficiencies in zinc and copper — minerals that may play a crucial role in the production of dopamine, norepinephrine, and melatonin, which regulates sleep ... Presented here at the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 56th Annual Meeting, a study conducted by investigators at the University of British Columbia and the Children's and Women's Health Centre in Vancouver, Canada, showed among 44 children aged 6 to 12 years with ADHD, rates of zinc and copper deficiency were 45% and 35%, respectively" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.
• Protective Role For Copper In Alzheimer’s Disease - Science Daily, 10/8/09 - "Two articles in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease -- by Dr Chris Exley, Reader in Bioinorganic Chemistry in the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Keele University, UK, and Dr Zhao-Feng Jiang, of Beijing Union University, Beijing, China -- have confirmed a potentially protective role for copper in Alzheimer’s disease" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com. Note: High quantities of zinc can lower copper.
• Copper Damages Protein That Defends Against Alzheimer's - Science Daily, 11/7/07 - "Copper can damage a molecule that escorts out of the brain a substance called amyloid beta that builds up in toxic quantities in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease ... having appropriate levels of copper in our body is crucial for our health. Copper helps keep our bones our strong and our skin toned, and it helps our nerves fire crisply and our cells to generate the energy we need to live. It helps keep our blood healthy so we can get the oxygen we need to all our organs. And it plays a role in keeping our immune system strong"
• Copper: An Important Nutrient For Fetal Brain Development - Science Daily, 10/6/07
• Dietary Copper May Ease Heart Disease - Science Daily, 3/5/07 - "Insufficient copper intake is associated with increases in cholesterol levels, clot formation, and heart disease. The new study found that feeding mice copper relieved heart disease and restored proper heart function, even when the animals' hearts were continually stressed ... The human equivalent of the beneficial dose of copper used in this study is about 3.0 mg/day. The current recommended daily intake for humans, however, is only 0.9 mg/day"
• High Copper and Fat Intake Accelerates Cognitive Decline - Clinical Psychiatry News, 9/06 - "the increase in the rate of cognitive decline “for the high-fat consumers whose total copper intake was in the top 20% (more than 1.6 mg/day) was equivalent to 19 more years of age.” This is “an extraordinarily large estimate of effect"
• Copper Deficiency May Be Cause of Mysterious Neuropathy - Doctor's Guide, 5/31/06 - "Unexplained neuropathy may be the result of a copper deficiency ... Copper deficiency has long been associated with anemia and neutropenia, but its neurological consequences have only recently been recognized"
• More magnesium, less copper could benefit health - Nutra USA, 5/15/06
• Intake Of Dietary Copper Helps Alzheimer's Patients - Science Daily, 10/4/05 - "low copper level in blood correlates with advanced memory deficits ... Patients with higher blood copper levels make fewer mistakes in this memory test. This result supports the notion of a mild copper deficiency in AD patients. An increased uptake of dietary copper may therefore be therapeutically relevant"
• Copper levels in supplements should be reduced - Nutra USA, 7/5/05 - "routine use of dietary copper supplements containing 2 mg or more per day could lead to accumulation of excess copper"
• Zinc-Induced Copper Deficiency: A Report of Three Cases - Medscape, 2/2/05 - "Excess zinc ingestion is among the causes of copper deficiency"
• Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase Helps Premature Infants - Medscape, 3/7/03
• Mining Mineral Supplements - Nutrition Science News, 7/01
• The Copper Dilemma - Life Extension Magazine, 9/00
• Most Supplemental Copper 'Worthless' - WebMD, 1/28/00 - "The type of copper found most often in vitamins and supplements, called cupric oxide, is not a type the body can absorb easily ... Studies on animals have shown conclusively that cupric oxide is totally worthless" - Cupric oxide if in popular supplements such as Centrum.
• A Supplement Plan for Seniors - Nutrition Science News, 12/99

Abstracts:

• J-shaped association between dietary copper intake and all-cause mortality: a prospective cohort study in Chinese adults - Br J Nutr 2022 Sep 1 - "When dietary copper intake was assessed as quartiles, compared with those in the first quartile (<1.60 mg/day), the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality were 0.87 (95%CI: 0.71-1.07), 0.98 (95%CI: 0.79-1.21), and 1.49 (95%CI: 1.19-1.86), respectively, in participants in the second (1.60-<1.83 mg/day), third (1.83-<2.09 mg/day), and fourth (≥2.09 mg/day) quartiles ... Overall, there was a J-shaped relationship of dietary copper intake with risk of all-cause mortality in general Chinese adults, emphasizing the importance of maintaining optimal dietary copper intake levels for prevention of premature death" - See copper supplements at Amazon.com.
• Are micronutrient levels and supplements causally associated with the risk of Alzheimer's disease? A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis Food Funct 2022 Jun 20 - "the vitamin D level was causally associated with a decreased risk of AD (IVW, OR: 0.474 ... for minerals, the copper level acted as a causal protective factor for AD risk (IVW, OR: 0.865" - Note: I don't agree with that. There are a lot of supplement associated with reduced risk of AD. What I thought was interesting was that it claims copper reduces the risk when they used to day it increased the risk. I never bought off on that and have always taken my Jarrow Zinc Balance because it contain copper to offset the copper that zinc supplementation inhibits.
• The Relationship between Dietary Copper intake and Telomere Length in Hypertension - J Nutr Health Aging 2022;26(5): - "one unit increasing log-transformed dietary copper in hypertension was associated with longer telomere length (β = 237.95, 95% CI: 114.39, 361.51) in the age group >45 years. The grouping was based on whether the participants take medication for hypertension. We found that one unit increasing log-transformed dietary copper in hypertension was associated with longer telomere length (β = 116.47, 95% CI: 0.72, 232.21) in the group that takes medication for hypertension"
• U-shaped association between dietary copper intake and new-onset hypertension - Clin Nutr 2021 Dec 31 - "A total of 12,245 participants who were free of hypertension at baseline from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) were included. Dietary intake was measured by 3 consecutive 24-h dietary recalls combined with a household food inventory. New-onset hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg or diagnosed by a physician or under antihypertensive treatment during the follow-up ... During a median follow-up of 6.1 years, 4304 participants developed new-onset hypertension. Overall, the associations between dietary copper intake and new-onset hypertension followed a U-shape (P for nonlinearity <0.001). The risk of new-onset hypertension significantly decreased with the increment of dietary copper intake (per SD increment: HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.88) in participants with copper intake <1.57 mg/day, and increased with the increment of dietary copper intake (per SD increment: HR, 1.09; 95% CI: 1.07-1.12) in participants with copper intake ≥1.57 mg/day ... There was a U-shaped association between dietary copper intake and new-onset hypertension in general Chinese adults, with an inflection point at about 1.57 mg/day. Our results emphasized the importance of maintaining optimal copper intake levels for the primary prevention of hypertension" - Note: Zinc supplementation can cause a copper deficiency. See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.
• α-Lipoic Acid Has the Potential to Normalize Copper Metabolism, Which Is Dysregulated in Alzheimer's Disease - J Alzheimers Dis 2021 Nov 30 - "Collectively, these results provide evidence that LA has the potential to normalize copper metabolism in AD" - See alpha lipoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Association of Zinc, Iron, Copper, and Selenium Intakes with Low Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) - J Alzheimers Dis. 2019 Oct 29 - "A total of 2,332 adults aged 60 years or older were included. The association between zinc, iron, copper, and selenium intake and low cognitive performance was significant in different test. Compared with the lowest quartile of total copper intake, the weighted multivariate adjusted ORs (95% CI) of the highest quartile were 0.34 (0.16-0.75) for low cognitive performance in DSST. L-shaped associations between total copper or selenium and low cognitive performance in DSST and animal fluency were found ... Dietary and total zinc, copper, and selenium intakes might be inversely associated with the prevalence of low cognitive performance" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.
• The Effect of Curcumin on Serum Copper and Zinc and Zn/Cu Ratio in Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome: A Double-Blind Clinical Trial - J Diet Suppl. 2018 Jul 18:0 - "The serum Zn/Cu level in phospholipidated curcumin and curcumin groups after intervention was higher than for the control group, but it was more significant in the group taking phospholipidated curcumin (p <.001). Curcumin and phospholipidated curcumin complex, given at a dose of 1 g per day for six weeks, were associated with an increase in serum zinc and consequently zinc-to-copper ratio"
• Zinc Supplementation Does Not Alter Sensitive Biomarkers of Copper Status in Healthy Boys - J Nutr. 2013 Jan - "Traditional (plasma copper and ceruloplasmin activity) and more sensitive biomarkers of copper status, including erythrocyte SOD1 activity and the erythrocyte CCS:SOD1 protein ratio, were unchanged in zinc-supplemented boys, demonstrating that copper status was not depressed"
• Copper Supplementation Has No Effect on Markers of DNA Damage and Liver Function in Healthy Adults - Ann Nutr Metab. Vol. 47, No. 5, 2003 - "Copper supplementation (giving total copper intake at the highest level of 7 mg/day) did not induce DNA damage or adversely affect liver function in healthy adults"
• Low Dietary Copper Increases Fecal Free Radical Production, Fecal Water Alkaline Phosphatase Activity and Cytotoxicity in Healthy Men - J. Nutr. 133:522-527, 2/03 - "One possible dietary factor that may increase susceptibility to colon cancer is inadequate copper intake ... Low dietary copper significantly (P < 0.01) increased fecal free radical production"
• Inadequate Copper Intake Reduces Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I and Bone Strength in Growing Rats Fed Graded Amounts of Copper and Zinc - J. Nutr. 133:442-448, 2/03 - "In summary, growing rats fed low and marginal Cu had lower serum IGF-I than those fed high dietary Cu. Bone strength was also reduced with low dietary Cu, despite compensatory changes in the bone matrix" - So maybe a copper deficiency is a reason that many aren't getting an IGF-1 rise from growth hormone.  A copper deficiency can be caused by taking too much zinc.