Mineral Metabolism: Iodine and Sulphur

Abstract

THE importance of the mineral salts in nutrition is sometimes obscured by th greater attention devoted to other dietary constituents, more especially within recent years to the vitamins; but, of course, they are just as important for life as any of the other irreplaceable elements of the diet. The functions of the chlorides of sodium, potassium, and calcium in maintaining the osmotic equilibria between the fluids and cells of the body, without which the latter cannot function normally, the necessity of a supply of calcium and phosphorus for the formation of bone, and of iodine for the production of thyroxine, and the part played by the sulphur-containing amino-acid, cystine, in growth, all indicate the importance of studies of the mineral metabolism.