Phosphorus

Phosphorus teams with calcium to give bones and teeth their rigidity. Skeletal tissue contains about eighty percent of the body's phosphorus. The rest resides in body fluids and in every cell in the body. Every metabolic process in the body requires phosphorus, including muscle energy production, carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism, blood chemistry, nervous tissue metabolism, fatty acid transport, and numerous enzyme systems. A phosphorus deficiency would cause demineralization of the bones or defective formation of the bones in children. Because vitamin D regulates the absorption of phosphorus, as it does calcium, a deficiency of vitamin D could cause a deficiency in phosphorus, too. Phosphorus deficiency is also possible in several disease states, including alcoholism, malabsorption, diabetic ketoacidosis, sepsis, renal defects, hyperthyroidism, osteoporosis of disuse, and hyperparathyroidism. Intravenous glucose therapy and antacids can also cause phosphorus depletion.

Natural sources of phosphorus include meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, nuts, and legumes. Phosphorus is sometimes found in multimineral or calcium supplements, primarily because it frequently occurs with calcium in natural sources used in supplements.

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