Copper in Human Nutrition
18.1 Copper in Tissues and Fluids
18.3 Copper in Foetal and Post-Natal Development
18.4 Lipid Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease
18.5 Diseases of Copper Metabolism
Copper like most other micronutrients is essential for both plant and animal life. Whilst this means that man's daily diet inevitably contains copper the basic question for many developed countries today is whether the diet contains sufficient copper.
Already it has been appreciated that copper is important in foetal and neonatal development and baby feeds and formulae are often fortified with copper.
The following review of the current situation indicates that copper may be of considerable significance in several adult diseases.
The earliest copper balance study, reported by Tompsett in 1936, showed that adults normally excrete 2.0 - 2.5 mg copper daily in faeces, urine, skin, saliva and menses. Since then there have been several estimates of the minimal copper intake required to maintain balance which have indicated the need for 1.6-2.0 mg copper per day by adults. This range is roughly in Iine with the currently accepted recommended dietary allowances namely 2.0-3.0 mg copper per day of the WHO and the National Research Council (USA) [1] as most estimates did not take into account copper lost in sweat which can amount to 0.8 mg copper per day. During pregnancy the requirement is believed to be in the range 3-4 mg/day [2].
It has been found that several diseases in man are associated with elevated serum copper levels which clearly indicates the involvement and likely importance of copper in human health [3]; diseases in this category include Addison's disease, Aplastic anaemia, Banti's syndrome, certain carcinomas, central nervous system disorders, collagen diseases, diabetes, Hodgkin's disease, iron deficiency anaemia, hyperthyroidism, leukaemia, malaria, pernicious anaemia, sickle cell anaemia, schizophrenia and thalassaemia; the mechanisms involved in the elevation of serum copper are not known.