Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>
> On Mon, 29 Jan 2001 12:12:27 -0600, william schnell
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >About the nitric acid, see
> >http://www.gfhnrc.ars.usda.gov/news/nws9903a.htm
>
> All usda.gov sites reply with "server not found"...??
> Have they quit the service?
>
> Try again...
WS
Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
http://www.gfhnrc.ars.usda.gov/news/nws9903a.htm
Just Say NO To Copper Deficiency!
Jack Saari
What do air pollution, the Nobel prize, Viagra and copper nutrition have
in common? The answer: Nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is
a deceptively simple molecule (chemical formula -- NO) that has complex
and far reaching effects on the body. It is not to be
confused with nitrous oxide (N2O), the anesthetic, which is otherwise
known as ‘laughing gas'.
Twenty-five years ago, the only known effect of nitric oxide on human
health was as an air pollutant emitted by automobile
exhausts. About that time nitric oxide was also found to be the active
component of nitroglycerin and other medications that
were used to alleviate pain in patients with coronary heart disease.
Over the next ten years, extensive study of blood vessel
function showed that nitric oxide is naturally produced in the body and
is responsible for regulating blood flow and blood
pressure. In the last decade research on nitric oxide has mushroomed and
shown that the compound plays a role not only in
blood vessel function but also in transmission of signals in the nervous
system, in heart contraction and in immune function.
So significant are the findings that a major scientific journal named
nitric oxide the ‘Molecule of the Year' in 1992. The
scientists that discovered the relationship between nitric oxide and
blood vessel function earned the 1998 Nobel Prize in
Physiology and Medicine. Because so many systems are affected by nitric
oxide, potential medical applications of this
research are boundless. They include treatments for high blood pressure,
septic shock, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the
arteries) and cancer. One such application is the development of Viagra,
a drug that exaggerates the effect of naturally
produced nitric oxide and thus aids men with erectile dysfunction.
What does nitric oxide have to do with copper nutrition? Recent studies
performed on rats at the Grand Forks Human
Nutrition Research Center, in conjunction with scientists at the
University of Louisville, Ky., have shown that restricting the
animals' intake of dietary copper impairs the action of nitric oxide on
their blood vessels. This suggests that copper deficiency
may contribute to reduced blood flow, and hence reduce oxygen delivery
to tissues and increase blood pressure.
We have also recently found that, in the heart, nitric oxide production
is elevated by reduced copper intake. Whereas nitric
acid production in blood vessels is desirable, excess production in the
heart can interfere with contractile function. Thus, by
two different processes, dietary copper deficiency alters the action of
nitric oxide, thereby interfering with functions of the
heart and circulation. And because nitric oxide acts in other systems,
such as the brain and immune system, it is likely that
further research will reveal that known defects caused by copper
deficiency in those systems relate to nitric oxide as well.
How do we prevent these undesirable effects of copper deficiency from
happening to us? Consume a balanced diet containing
foods high in copper -- liver, legumes, shellfish, meats, nuts, seeds
and whole grains -- to achieve a copper intake of 1.5 to
3.0 milligrams per day.
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Copyright Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
Last modified: November 30, 1999
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