Page 24 - Fall2020

Excessive iron it is an unbound or “free” form of iron that is delivering electricity. In other words, iron is
31
within cells of particular concern. This form of free iron, structural, and copper is functional.
called cellular labile iron, pulls the trigger on the
It can also be helpful to think of the copper-
is a potent inflammatory cascade. Framed in terms of the iron relationship like a square dance; the copper
driving force cell danger response, free iron gets M1 “stuck” is the caller, and the iron (the dancer) has got to
for oxidative and chronically “on.” keep moving (getting recycled) all the time. If
there is just a little extra iron,
stress and THE ROLE OF COPPER that’s okay because we’ve got

inflammation. Copper and iron have a storage mechanism. We can
an intertwined relation- store a little bit in case we
ship. Copper is integral to need to grab some out of stor-
32
the metabolism of iron and age and make more red blood
facilitates iron absorption, cells. However, we need only
iron transportation, the re- to store a little, and mostly, we
lease of iron from storage need to be recycling it.
and the incorporation of After iron enters a cell
iron into the hemoglobin. and does what it needs to do,
Copper also assists with it needs to shuttle out and
blood coagulation, blood Ceruloplasmin carries copper be recycled. That shuttle is
pressure control, cross- in the blood and helps manage iron. dependent on an important
linking of connective tis- enzyme called ferroxidase,
sues, CNS myelination, energy transformation, which also governs iron storage. If ferroxidase
reproduction, hormone synthesis and more. isn’t working, and can’t shuttle the iron out to
33
Iron and copper are the only two metals recycle or store it, where is the iron going to go?
in the body that can deal with oxygen. While The answer is the “metabolic sink”—your mi-
iron delivers oxygen to the cells, it is copper (in tochondria—and it’s going to mix with oxygen.
the form of copper-based enzymes or copper- At that point, the oxidative free radical cascade
influenced enzymes) that activates the oxygen that we have been discussing is going to ensue.
in the mitochondria to make usable energy. Acting as a ferroxidase, an important
Think of iron as being like the steel beams in a metal-binding protein called ceruloplasmin is
building, while copper is like the copper wiring the major copper-carrying protein in the blood.
Each ceruloplasmin molecule contains eight
TABLE 1. AMOUNT OF IRON IN SELECTED IRON- atoms of bioavailable copper. One indicator of
FORTIFIED FOODS AND SUPPLEMENTS* ceruloplasmin’s importance is the fact that it
TYPE OF FOOD OR SUPPLEMENT AMOUNT OF contains one thousand forty-six amino acids; by
IRON (MG) way of comparison, insulin has fifty-one. With
Iron-only supplement (daily) 65 adequate bioavailable copper, ceruloplasmin
Fortified white flour (1 cup) 32 performs twenty-four known functions in the
body, most importantly the management of
Women’s multivitamin/multimineral supplement (daily) 18
iron. As discussed, this includes moving iron
Fortified cold breakfast cereal (1 cup) 17-18 in and out of the cells, storing iron and building
Enriched oatmeal (1 cup) 14 hemoglobin.
Remember my comments about the im-
Iron-fortified infant formula (3.4 ounces) 12
portance of getting rid of cellular “exhaust”?
Enriched cornmeal (1 cup) 7 Bioavailable copper is what activates the
Iron-fortified rice cereal for babies (14 grams) 6 ferroxidase enzymes that clear out your “ex-
haust.” When the copper is not available, the
White bread (1 slice) 1
ceruloplasmin can no longer function as a fer-
*The body is able to recycle twenty-four of the twenty-five milligrams of roxidase—and if it’s not doing the ferroxidase
daily iron that the red blood cells need. We need only about one milli-
gram per day in dietary intake to replace the minimal amount lost. job that it is supposed to do, you lose resiliency
22 Wise Traditions FALL 2020