May be essential and functional in humans in very small amounts. It has been shown to be essential in rats and other animals, though it is found in higher concentrations in them than in humans.
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Although arsenic (As) is well-known for its toxic properties, it has been shown to be beneficial when fed to animals in small amounts. Numerous animals studies involving rats, hamsters, goats and chicks has provided circumstantial evidence that arsenic is essential. In goats, as deficiency resulted in decreased growth rates, impaired fertility and increased infant mortality.3 Based on animals studies then extrapolated to humans, the dietary intake of As is equal to 12.5-25 mcg/day.1 Human diets normally contain 12-50 mcg/day. Nutritionists advise a safe upper intake of arsenic could well be 140-250 mcg/day.4
Arsenic metabolism is affected by tissue and blood levels of zinc, selenium, arginine, choline, methoinine, taurine and guaniacetic acid, al of which affect methyl-group metabolism and polyamine synthesis which is the site of arsenic function in human physiology. Arsenic in combination with choline prevents 100 percent of perosis (slipped tendon) in chickens and poultry. Perosis in birds results in a "carpal tunnel," "TMJ" and "repetitive motion" type degeneration. A recent human study suggested that arsenic homeostasis is altered by hemodialysis, and that low serum arsenic is correlated with central nervous system disorders, vascular disease, and "possibly" cancer.
Technicals: Methylation of inorganic arsenic (InAs) in the body is a detoxification pathway. InAs and DNA are both methylated via one-carbon metabolism, a biochemical pathway which is dependent on folate for de novo generation of one-carbon groups, and also uses vitamins B12 and B6 as cofactors. Methylation of InAs requires pentavalent arsenic species first be reduced to trivalent species in a glutathione-dependent process. Regeneration of oxidized glutathione is then accomplished by glutathione reductase, an enzyme that is strongly inhibited by arsenic.
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