Human Chemistry

Biology Summaries

The following periodic chart summarizes the elements of the periodic table, in terms of human composition, and human toxicity. The lesser elements are often referred to as minerals, when referring to human nutrition and health.

Several minerals are required by the human body for proper nutrition. Food supplements may be required to ensure that you are receiving all the nutritional minerals that you need. The most common are calcium supplements, iron supplements, magnesium supplements and zinc supplements.

Yellow Box = Top 5 Elements present in the human body
Green Box = Second 5 Top Elements present in the human body
Blue Box   = Trace elements that are required by the human body
Violet Box = Elements that are deleterious to the human body.

Notes - Commentary

1
2
3
4
5

6
7
8
9
10

11
12
13
14
15

16
17
18
19
20

Oxygen
Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Calcium

Phosphorus
Potassium
Sulfur
Sodium
Chlorine

Magnesium
Iron
Fluorine
Zinc
Silicon

Rubidium
Strontium
Bromine
Lead
Copper


Alpha Order

Boron
Bromine
Cobalt
Selenium
Vanadium

65.0 %
18.5 %
  9.5 %
  3.3 %
  1.5 %

  1.0 %
  1.0 %
  0.3 %
  0.3 %
  0.2 %

   0.05 %
   0.01 %
< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %

< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %
< 0.01 %

Humans are composed primarily of the lighter elements in Rows 1-4. The human friendly elements seem to form a shallow capital-U pattern, with the notable exceptions of 4-Beryllium, 13-Aluminum, and 33-Arsenic.

Too much of any metal, such as 28-Nickel, 29-Copper or 30-Zinc, can be toxic to humans. The heaviest element that we actually need is 53-Iodine.

Directly below the "U-shape" bottom in Row 5 is 43-Technecium (always radioactive, no stable isotope), and 48-Cadmium (toxic metal).

Every element beyond 83-bismuth is radioactive (has no stable isotope), and is therefore toxic. Interestingly, bismuth has more isotopes than any other element (60).

What are the least important elements to humans, or the elements that least effect the body? My layman's guess is the noble gasses - Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon. They are, by definition, inert.

The blue and black elements on the left are frequently called minerals, when talking about their role in human health.

The most radioactive element in the human body is Potassium-40. This, plus Carbon-14, provide the vast majority of human body internal radiation events.

Disclaimer
I was wondering just what a periodic table would look like with the human-important elements highlighted, so I made this chart.

I am an editor and summary maker, not a biological chemist. Some of the above information may be incorrect. Use it as a reference point for your further research. With further reading you can decide for yourself just what elements are beneficial to you.