Deficient or Excess Manganese – What’s the Fuss?

Manganese is a very important, alkaline-forming, regulatory mineral.  Healthful forms of manganese are found in many natural foods.  It is a very essential mineral, needed for dozens of enzyme reactions in the body. This can be remedied by following a complete mineral nutritional balancing program.

Deficiencies.  Most people are deficient in vital manganese compounds because:

1) They are born low in manganese due to deficiencies in their mothers

2) They eat refined or chemicalized foods that contain little manganese

3) They eat too much raw food such as salads.  Human beings cannot extract enough manganese from these foods because we cannot break down the tough vegetable fibers.

Valence.  Manganese has a valence of  +2 or +3 (similar to iron and copper, to which it is related).

A female mineral.  Dr. Eck classified manganese as an older ‘female’ element in the body.  He called it the maternal mineral because animals fed diets low in manganese exhibit less maternal behavior toward their young, and may abandon them completely.

Toxic manganese.  A highly toxic form of manganese is found in gasoline.  This means that anyone living in a city, or living near a highway, is exposed every day to a toxic form of manganese that can replace the good forms of manganese in the body, to some degree.

Welders are often exposed to another toxic form of manganese, as well.  Toxic forms may have a valence of +4 or +6.  This may explain why welders sometimes exhibit bizarre and violent behavior.  A number of the school shooting rampages in the United States and other nations have been committed by welders.  This is explained later in this article.

SOURCES OF HEALTHFUL, BIOAVAILABLE MANGANESE

• Vegetables - corn, corn germ, parsley, legumes
• Meats - snails, egg yolk
• Nuts/seeds - sunflower, coconuts, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, brazils
• Fruits - blueberries, olives, avocados
• Grains - wheat, wheat germ and bran, rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, rye
• Miscellaneous - kelp, cloves, tea.  Gasoline fumes contain manganese, as can some water supplies, especially in the Northeast USA.

ROLES IN THE BODY

• Essential for energy production
• Involved in glucose tolerance
• Helps maintain the integrity of tendons and ligaments
• Essential for bone development and arterial integrity

FUNCTIONS OF MANGANESE

• Nervous system - synthesis of neurotransmitters
• Reproductive system - fertility
• Endocrine system - required for normal adrenal and thyroid gland activity
• Skeletal - tendons, ligaments, connective tissue
• Metabolic - energy production, glucose tolerance, utilization of fats and carbohydrates
• Detoxification - involved in superoxide dismutase

ENZYMES THAT REQUIRE MANGANESE

• Pyruvate carboxylase - carbohydrate metabolism
• Superoxide dismutase - destruction of free radicals
• Glycosyl transferase - glucose utilization
• Various hydrolases, kinases, transferases, peptidases, arginase, phosphatases, and DNA polymerase - degradative and biosynthetic enzymes

MANGANESE DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS

• Allergies
• hypoglycemia
• diabetes
• myasthenia gravis
• dizziness
• ringing in the ears
• fatigue
• weakness, muscular
• fractures or osteoporosis
• weak ligaments and tendons

MANGANESE TOXICITY SYMPTOMS

• Anorexia
• Anger
• neurological symptoms
• ataxia
• schizophrenia (often unemotional behavior, however, unlike a copper-based schizophrenia)
• Extreme criminal behavior (psychopathology)
• Iron deficiency
• Parkinson’s disease, or symptoms similar to it.  Manganese often accumulates in the pons and cerebellar region of the brain
• Manganese madness (seen in manganese miners)
• Hearing loss.  Manganese can accumulate in the area of the ears.
• Headaches
• Mental dullness
• (Toxic manganese has an affinity for the head and for the ears)

SYNERGETIC NUTRIENTS

• zinc
• choline
• vitamin K

ANTAGONISTIC NUTRIENTS

• Absorption - calcium, phosphorus, iron, soy protein, iron, many other minerals
• Metabolic - copper, magnesium, iron, vanadium

HAIR ANALYSIS NOTES

• Normal or low hair manganese is not a reliable indicator of manganese status.
• Most slow oxidizers have excessive and usually biounavailable manganese.  Toxic accumulation of a biounavailable form of manganese to some degree is very common.  To assess this, look for elevated aluminum or iron.  Manganese, aluminum and iron are called on this website “the amigos” because they are often found together inside the body.  If any one of these three are elevated on a hair mineral analysis, usually all are excessive inside the body.
• Manganese-deficient animals show reduced maternal caring for their young.
• A hair manganese level less than about 0.02 mg% or 0.2 ppm is a poor eliminator patternfor manganese.   A hair manganese level less than about 0.008 is a very poor eliminator pattern for manganese.  These mean that the body cannot eliminate toxic forms of manganese, such as MnO6.  The excess manganese is hidden, but it is building up inside the body.  This is a very important indicator for detecting hidden manganese and other toxic metals.

Reasons for high hair tissue manganese:

• Drinking water.  This is common in Massachusetts, USA and in a few other areas of the USA and other nations.  It may be due to natural rock formations through which ground water flows.  It may also be due to contaminated soil and wells due to older factories.  NOTE: The US and state Environmental Protection Agencies are not required to report manganese levels in drinking water.
• Gasoline.  When lead was removed from gasoline in the 1970s, it was replaced with a toxic form of manganese.  Those who live in cities with heavy traffic may absorb more of it.  Also, a cruel practice is forcing women, in most cases, to remove their clothes and pouring gasoline over them.  This results in manganese toxicity.
• Welders and other metal workers.  Manganese is used in many steel alloys, for example, so welders are often exposed.
• Adrenal support.  When the adrenal glands are weak, most people accumulate some toxic oxide form of manganese, which has a stimulatory effect upon the adrenals and the sympathetic nervous system.

Low hair tissue manganese:

• Not a reliable indicator of manganese status.  It is often hidden and biounavailable.
• A hair manganese level less than 0.02 is an indicator of poor elimination of manganese.

REASONS FOR MANGANESE SUPPLEMENTATION

Dr. Paul Eck often gave his patients a manganese supplement.

I do not find it necessary today to give additional manganese supplements.  This is most likely due to the diets today that are very high in cooked vegetables, and the use of sea salt and other mineral sources such as kelp.

• To raise low sodium levels.
• To lower excessive iron, copper or other toxic metal levels.
• To help correct a low sodium/potassium ratio,
• To assist thyroid and adrenal gland activity.
• Supplementary manganese is found in the Endomet Megapan and Limcomin supplements.

REMOVING EXCESS TOXIC MANGANESE FROM THE BODY

Removing the toxic, oxide form of manganese and some other toxic forms of manganese from the body is not too easy.  However, a properly designed nutritional balancing program will achieve this.

One may need to remain on a deep healing program for ten years or more for manganese elimination to occur if the body is in a weakened state, as most of them are today.

In particular, near infrared lamp sauna therapy is very helpful, and perhaps needed, at times, to remove toxic manganese from the body.  Perhaps this is because this therapy drastically increases circulation, or for other reasons.

References

1. Barney, P. Doctor’s Guide To Natural Medicine, Woodland Publishing, Inc., Utah, 2014.
2. Casdorph, HR and Walker, M., Toxic Metal Syndrome, Avery Publishing Group, NY, 1995.
3. Diem, K. and Lentner, C, Scientific Tables, seventh edition, Ciba-Geigy, New York, 1973.
4. Droesti, I.E. and Smith, R.M., editors, Neurobiology Of The Trace Elements, Humana Press, New Jersey, 1983.
5. Dunne, L.J., Nutrition Almanac, fifth edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002.
6. Guyton, A., Textbook Of Medical Physiology, sixth edition, W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1981.
7. Kasper, D. and Fauci, A., Harrison’s Principles Of Internal Medicine, Elsevier Medical, 2015.
8. Jensen, B., The Chemistry Of Man, Bernard Jensen Publishing, California, 1983.
9. Kutsky, R., Handbook Of Vitamins, Minerals & Hormones,  2^ndedition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981.
10. Pfeiffer, C. C., Mental And Elemental Nutrients, Keats Publishing, Connecticut, 1975.
11. Schroeder, H., The Trace Elements And Man, The Devin-Adair Company, 1973.
12. Segala, M., editor, Disease Prevention And Treatment, expanded fourth edition, Life Extension Media, Florida 2003.
13. Stryer, L., Biochemistry, second  edition, W.H.Freeman And Company, New York, 1981.
14. Wilson, L., Nutritional Balancing And Hair Mineral Analysis, 2010, 2014, 2016.