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Phosphorus

Minerals are important for your body to stay healthy. Your body uses minerals for many different jobs, including keeping your bones, muscles, heart, and brain working properly. Minerals are also important for making enzymes and hormones.

There are two kinds of minerals: macrominerals and trace minerals. You need larger amounts of macrominerals. They include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride and sulfur. You only need small amounts of trace minerals. They include iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, fluoride and selenium.

Most people get the amount of minerals they need by eating a wide variety of foods. In some cases, your doctor may recommend a mineral supplement. People who have certain health problems or take some medicines may need to get less of one of the minerals. For example, people with chronic kidney disease need to limit foods that are high in potassium.


WARNING: All medicines, drugs, plants, chemicals or medicial precedures below are for historical reference only. Many of these treatments are now known to be harmful and possibly fatal. Do not consume any plant, chemical, drug or otherwise without first consulting a licensed physician that practices medine in the appropriate field.

Physician's Materia Medica on Phosphorus

COPPER SULPHATE
   Antiseptic, astringent; in minute doses, tonic; in large doses, emetic. Prescribed in chronic diarrhea, and as an antidotal emetic in phosphorus poisoning. Dose, 0.008 to 0.06 Grm. (% to 1 gr.); as an emetic, 0.3 Grm. (5 grs.) repeated in 15 minutes if necessary.1

HYPOPHOSPHITES
   Phosphorus enters into the composition of all nerve structures as well as of the bones. It constitutes therefore an essential element of the food. It is generally believed by physicians that the hypophosphites produce their beneficial effects by supplying phosphorus in a readily assimilable form. They are therefore largely prescribed in many conditions of depressed vitality, especially in nervous prostation and in tubercular diseases. a. Calcium Hypophosphite. A food for bone as well as nerve. 1

PHOSPHORUS
   A powerful irritant poison. In minute doses it acts as a restora tive in nervous exhaustion. It diminishes tissue waste, and serves as a direct food for brain and bone. It is reputed aphrodisiac, and is used frequently with reference to this property, as well as in neural gia, mania, mental depression and in some cutaneous affections. It promotes the growth of bone and so is indicated in rachitis and osteomalacia. Dose, 0.0006 to 0.003 Grm. (1-100 to 1-20 gr.).1

ZINC PHOSPHIDE
   This compound is readily decomposed, yielding its phosphorus in a form suited for immediate absorption. Its therapeutic action is therefore practically the same as that of phosphorus, q. v. Dose, 0.003 Grm. (1-20 gr.), cautiously increased.1


References

1) Nelson, Baker & Co., 1904, Physician's Handy Book of Materia Medica and Therapeustics, Detroit, Michigan.