Reflections of a Scientist About Contributions to Knowledge Assessing the Nutritional Importance of 15 Trace Elements

Research findings are presented on the nutritional importance of aluminum, arsenic, boron, chromium, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel, selenium, silicon, tin, vanadium, and zinc. This include findings from animal studies revealing beneficial effects of nutritional or ultra trace amounts of dietary arsenic, nickel, and silicon; showing the importance of zinc for bone health; initiating the study of boron as a possible essential nutrient; the likelihood that chromium and vanadium are beneficial in only pharmacological or supra nutritional amounts, and refuting the claims of essentiality for aluminum, lead and tin. Also, findings from human depletion/repletion experiments are presented showing the induction of boron deprivation signs that are alleviated by nutritional amounts of boron; providing evidence that a low boron status is prevalent in individuals consuming a Western diet; indicating a possible mechanism for the beneficial effects of boron; showing that zinc deficiency increases the need for copper; confirming that high dietary zinc exacerbates signs of copper deficiency; showing magnesium is prevalent in older individuals consuming a Western diet; presenting balance data to give an evidence based reason for updating the magnesium dietary reference intakes; evaluating various methods for magnesium status assessment; providing evidence that magnesium deficiency contributes to the risk of cardiovascular disease; and providing impetus for magnesium being declared an element of nutritional concern.