|| Nutrition Basics Home ||
Deficiency Diseases and Good Nutrition
Manganese
H4MnO4
or
H2MnO3
Manganese activates many enzymes and vitamins in your body. It also helps to neutralize poisons in your blood. It helps in the production of such vital hormones as insulin. Manganese also works as an antioxidant to keep your cellular membranes healthy.

Vitamin C cannot work correctly without manganese. Enzymes are needed to direct vitamin C to detoxify the body, fight infection, build collagen, or perform one of its many other functions. Manganese encourages the production of these enzymes, without which vitamin C could not function. In fact, a study done on animals given no manganese showed that when given hydralazine (poison), they died. When manganese was supplemented in the diet and the animals were administered hydralazine, they lived. It is believed to be due to the detoxifying effect of vitamin C, that can only be put to use when there is adequate manganese to activate it.

Manganese activates arginase, which also has a detoxifying function in the body. Ammonia is a substance naturally produced by your body. The only problem is 1/1000 of a milligram of the stuff in a quart of your blood will kill you! Arginase helps to bind ammonia and carbon dioxide to make urea, which is harmless. The urea is filtered out of your blood by the kidneys and excreted as urine.

The specialized beta cells in your pancreas need manganese to manufacture insulin. No manganese, no insulin. Insulin is what moves sugar from your bloodstream to your cells. If you don't get enough manganese, you could get a blood sugar disorder, like diabetes. An observation done on 122 diabetics and an identical control group showed diabetics to be twice as low in manganese than those without the disease.

Manganese activates choline, a phospholipid produced in the liver. Activated choline and ATP form acetyl choline. This compound functions as a neurotransmitter and works in the energy producing Krebs cycle. It also stimulates adrenaline and noradrenaline to be released from the adrenal glands. These hormones help you deal with stress.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and needs manganese to be produced. Sufferers of Parkinson's disease have a decreased ability to produce dopamine. Additional manganese may help decrease the effects of the disease.



ESADDI = Estimated 
Safe and Adequate 
Daily Dietary Intakes

Age        ESADDI
0.0-0.5   0.3-0.6 mg
0.5-1.0   0.6-1.0 mg
1-3       1.0-1.5 mg
4-6       1.5-2.0 mg
7-10      2.0-3.0 mg
11+       2.0-5.0 mg

Manganese is needed to produce insulin. When you eat a lot of simple carbohydrates (white flour, white rice, refined sugar) your pancreas has to work overtime to make enough insulin to get the sugar out of your blood and into your cells. Complex carbohydrates (whole wheat flour, brown rice, ect.), on the other hand, do not require so much insulin at one time. It can be secreted at a much slower, steady rate that does not overwork the pancreas. Manganese is not found in refined carbohydrates, and the body uses a lot of your manganese stores to metabolize the carbohydrates. Eating complex carbohydrates and other whole natural foods are best.

Manganese is found most richly in whole grains, legumes, nuts, tea, fruits and vegetables. The content in these foods varies greatly, but most people get enough without really trying. The Total Diet Study done in 1986 showed that on average, men ate 2.67 to 2.9 mg of manganese a day, and women ate 2.2 to 2.3 mg a day. Since there isn't a problem with manganese deficiency in our country, those amounts seem to be sufficient.

The only knowledge we have on manganese deficiency is confined to animals. Without manganese the animals suffer from reproductive troubles, and skeletal and muscular abnormalities.

The only documented toxicities have occurred in miners who breath in too much manganese. The excess collects in the liver, brain, and spinal cord, and can cause Parkinsonlike symptoms.

|| Walton Home Page || Walton Self Reliance Home || Nutrition Basics Home ||
Web Page Maintenance: Al Durtschi, E-mail: mark@waltonfeed.com

Note: Alisha is unable to answer your questions as she's at college.

Home Page: http://waltonfeed.com/ http://rainydayfoods.com

All contents copyright (C) 1999, Walton Feed Inc.  All rights reserved.

This information may be used by you freely for noncommercial use with this URL and my E-mail address attached.

Revised: 14 Sep 99