Trace Mineral Optimization

Curious if there are any particular protocols or key insights as it pertains to essential trace minerals?

Some of the literature outlines the difficulty in acquiring minerals like Chromium and Copper in sufficient levels—with Chromium in particular being hard to not only consume in the diet but having a bioavailability of anywhere 0.4-2.5%.

Current supplement stack for additional context:

Upon waking (with a whey protein shake, without caffeine):

  • 4x Fish oil capsules (Sports Research Omega 3, 4 capsules daily, yields 2760mg EPA, 1040mg DHA)
  • 10,000 IU Vitamin D3
  • 120mcg Vitamin K2 MK-7
  • 500mcg Tri-Chromium (Chromium Picolinate, Chromium Nicotinate Glycinate (Albion®), Chromium Polynicotinate (ChromeMate®)
  • 15g Collagen Peptides (3132mg Glycine yield from Organika Enhanced Collagen)
  • 3g L-Taurine

Electrolytles Blend:

  • 6.3g Redmond Re-Lyte & 1.7g Redmond Real Salt, Custom Blend
  • 10g Redmond Real Salt (With Food)

Post-workout:

  • 10g Creatine Monohydrate (Creapure®)
  • 15g Collagen Peptides (3132mg yield from Organika Enhanced Collagen)
  • Before bed:
  • 800mg Magnesium Bisglycinate (Elemental yield)
  • 8g Glycine
  • 2 mg Copper Bisglycinate (Amino Acid Chelate)
1 Like

Hey man!

Looking good, just be careful of supplementing with Copper, since high amounts of copper can actually cause issues. Make sure you’re doing blood testing!

Thanks for the response!

Would you recommend cycling the copper supplement? Perhaps 3-5 days a week? Or only on days where sweating is profuse? I get almost none from diet whereas I’m getting good amounts of zinc from beef consumption.

I also workout 7 days a week (M-F resistance training, Zone 2 + Zone 5 cardio on weekends, with a hot-cold therapy session on Wednesdays) so I’m curious if the fluid loss is something that necessitates the copper consumption. Thank you again for your wisdom.

I’d say max 2 times a week to supplement copper :slight_smile:

Sounds good, implementing now! Any thoughts on things like selenium or any of the other trace minerals?

For minerals, I use Baja Gold Sea salt, dissolved in water to make a saturated solution, and take a bit of it mixed with water first thing in the morning. I use this salt because it claims to contain over 90+ minerals and elements, is tested and maintains high quality control. Here’s a webpage of information on it’s contents and comparisons to other salts…

You drink whey when you wake up? I would go for something cleaner if you are going to do it upon waking, like beef protein isolate. Equipfoods has a super clean one and so does Noble. Personally I drink EAA’s upon waking because it will immediately stop potential catabolism if thats what you are worried about.

Also I use baja gold sea salt as my electrolytes, not actually sure how that compares to redmonds but apparently it has all trace minerals in it

Also note on all the collagen action happening here, collagen has a shitty protein profile as far as amino acid amounts and splits compared to whey. Supplementing with Collagen protein or peptides over other forms of protein has basically proven no difference or worse outcomes. Layne Norton just did a video on that I think

This sounds interesting. I’d love to hear a dedicate post or summary of your findings if you find the time