Colloidal Minerals Health Benefits And Risks
June 06, 2022
Colloidal minerals are minerals extracted from shale or clay deposits formed through plants' decomposition over millions of years. Essentially, they are fossilized minerals that are highly bioavailable. However, there is some controversy over the reported claims and benefits of colloidal minerals. In this article, we will explore colloidal minerals in detail.
What Are Colloidal Minerals?
Colloidal minerals are minerals that are extracted from shale or clay deposits. Shale is defined as "a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite." While clay is defined as "a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals."
While shale and clay are similar, they are different types of rock. Shale is a very thin, laminated structure that easily crumbles. It contains some clay minerals but is also composed of quartz, calcite, and other minerals. Clay, on the other hand, is composed of small crystals of silica and alumina that is pliable when moist but very hard when dry.
Both shale and clay contain colloidal minerals that can be extracted for health benefits. Native American tribes often used clay as a medicine for its minerals. However, there are some safety concerns about colloidal minerals, especially if not properly extracted and formulated.
The minerals extracted from clay or shale must be properly washed and filtered after being extracted; this process helps remove heavy metals that could be harmful to health.
The trace minerals found in colloidal minerals are essential for health. However, these minerals are also found in numerous other forms besides colloidal mineral supplements. So, you do not have to take colloidal minerals to get the benefits that these minerals offer.
What Are Plant Derived Colloidal Minerals?
Suppliers of colloidal mineral supplements often say that their supplement is "100% plant-derived." This may not seem clear since colloidal minerals are derived from shale or clay. The explanation is that most colloidal minerals supplements today are taken from shale deposits in Utah.
In Utah, there are land areas composed of "humic shale." This unique shale type contains ancient plant deposits created 75 million years ago in the upper cretaceous period.
During that era, four major groups of plants dominated the land—ferns, cycads, conifers, and angiosperms. As these plants decomposed over many years, they eventually formed a substance known as humus. Humus is a byproduct of decomposition that resists further decomposition and is rich in beneficial substances known as humic acids and fulvic acids (link article).
Humic shale is a form of shale rich in humus. So it is considered "plant-derived" because the shale contains decomposed organic matter from prehistoric plants.
What Are the Health Benefits of Colloidal Minerals?
Minerals are essential for many functions in the body. So colloidal mineral benefits may be similar to the benefits offered by regular mineral supplements. However, colloidal trace minerals made from the humic shale deposits in Utah also contain humic and fulvic acids, which have many additional benefits to health and also help to enhance mineral absorption.
Some of the commonly reported colloidal minerals' health benefits and uses include:
- Preventing mineral deficiencies
- Supporting energy and vitality
- Enhancing athletic performance
- Supporting healthy inflammation levels
- Reducing muscle aches and pains
- Detoxifying the body of toxic heavy metals
- Reducing clumping of blood cells
- Enhancing overall well-being
These colloidal minerals benefits are attributed to the minerals found within colloidal mineral supplements and the humic and fulvic acids present in colloidal minerals. Colloidal trace mineral supplements contain an array of minerals in a bioavailable form that provides many benefits for health. Especially since much of the food nowadays lacks minerals that have been stripped from the soil.
What Are the Minerals Found in Colloidal Minerals?
The essential minerals found in colloidal minerals depend on the exact deposits from which they are extracted. Clay minerals are silica, magnesium, and alumina but may also contain iron, potassium, sodium, and calcium. Shale contains clay minerals as well as substantial amounts of calcite and quartz.
Many suppliers that sell colloidal minerals claim that they contain ancient or fossilized minerals no longer found in the soil today. Still, there is not enough evidence available to support these claims. What can be truthfully stated about colloidal mineral supplements is that, if they are extracted from the humic shale mines in Utah, they contain humic and fulvic acids derived from ancient plants. These compounds have many benefits on their own and help enhance the bioavailability of other minerals.
What Are the Best Colloidal Minerals Supplements?
The best colloidal minerals are the "plant-derived colloidal minerals" from the humic shale mines in Utah. Most colloidal mineral supplements do come from Utah. Still, some do not, and these are not likely to contain humic or fulvic acids that give colloidal minerals their unique benefits. It is also essential to ensure that the mineral supplements are lab tested for purity and are guaranteed not to contain any toxic heavy metals.
Are There Any Risks or Side Effects to Taking Colloidal Mineral Supplements?
Not all colloidal mineral supplements are manufactured the same, and unfortunately, some colloidal mineral supplements could pose various health risks. The actual mineral content of colloidal mineral supplements depends on the minerals' source. For example, clay often contains aluminum, which can be toxic in high doses. In addition, some sources of clay could contain other toxic metals like arsenic, nickel, titanium, barium, or even radioactive metals. In this case, these supplements could pose serious health risks that far outweigh any of their potential benefits.
Are There Safer Alternatives to Colloidal Mineral Supplements?
Yes, there are certainly safer mineral supplement options available. For example, suppose a colloidal mineral supplement is pure and lab-tested for metals. In that case, it could still be a beneficial supplement. If not, however, there is the risk that it could contain toxic metals that are harmful to health.
There are many mineral supplements available today, and their quality varies tremendously. The safest mineral supplements available will always be those that have been third-party lab tested for purity. However, the best mineral supplements have been third-party lab tested and also contained fulvic acid.
Fulvic acid trace mineral supplements are superior because of the unique properties that fulvic acid provides when combined with minerals. To better understand this, it is worth discussing the role of fulvic acid in the soil.
As mentioned, fulvic acid is a significant component of humus. Humus is organic matter that has been decomposed so many times that it resists further decomposition. It is essentially the final form of decomposed organic matter. Humus is vital to soil health because of its compounds—fulvic acid is one of them.
Fulvic acid plays the beneficial role of transporting nutrients from the soil into the roots of plants, allowing plants to take up essential minerals that they need to grow. However, it is also considered to be the most powerful chelating compound in nature—which is a compound that binds to metals. Fulvic acid protects plants from heavy metals by binding to them and preventing them from being absorbed by plants.
These unique properties of fulvic acid carry over into the human domain too. Fulvic acid has a small molecular size that allows it to penetrate through the cell membrane easily. When combined with minerals, it enhances the bioavailability of minerals and transports them directly into our cells.
Furthermore, fulvic acid binds to toxic heavy metals in our body and effectively removes them from the body. In addition to these incredible benefits, fulvic acid enhances immunity, cognitive health, and circulatory health.
So, a mineral supplement that contains fulvic acid provides the many benefits that the minerals offer and enhances the bioavailability of minerals, and provides the unique benefits that fulvic acid offers.
For this reason, we formulated our Fulvic Acid & Trace Ocean Minerals supplement, which is one of our top recommended supplements. This formula combines fulvic acid with over 70+ trace minerals derived from deep ocean soil. Our extraction method also ensures that our formula is extremely pure as we use no synthetic solvents or harsh chemicals.
We extract our fulvic acid from humic ore, a form of plant matter rich in naturally occurring minerals. We then age this plant matter for up to a full year until the humic ore is porous. Finally, we extract the water-soluble fulvic minerals and acids using natural spring water from the same land to obtain the humic ore. This extraction process is entirely chemical solvent-free and creates a pure and potent fulvic mineral complex unlike any other.
We formulate all of our supplements in our facility and have them third-party lab tested for purity to guarantee that they contain no toxic chemicals. In a market oversaturated with poor quality products, we are proud to provide a fulvic mineral supplement that is truly pure and free of toxic metals.
Summary
Colloidal minerals are minerals extracted from shale or clay deposits. Usually, they are removed from humic shale mines in Utah that formed through the decomposition of plants over millions of years. In addition to containing many trace minerals, supplements extracted from humic shale also contain humic and fulvic acids (link article) that provide additional health benefits.
However, there is some controversy over colloidal minerals and some concern about their safety. Depending on where the colloidal minerals are sourced, they may contain harmful amounts of toxic metals like aluminum, titanium, barium, and others.
For this reason, it is recommended to only purchase colloidal minerals from suppliers that third-party lab test their products for safety and purity. Alternatively, one can receive the benefits of trace minerals and fulvic acid by supplementing with a fulvic mineral supplement like our Fulvic Acid & Trace Ocean Minerals formula.
Minerals are essential to health, and fulvic acid enhances the bioavailability of minerals and provides its unique benefits. Still, as with all supplements, it is essential to ensure that they come from a pure source and contain no harmful ingredients.
References:
https://www.britannica.com/science/shale
https://www.britannica.com/science/clay-geology
https://thesoulofahorse.com/take-charge-of-your-life/youngevitys-humic-shale-mine-in-utah/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34122481/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65449-4
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Fulvic-acid
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6151376/
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