It is proposed that amphibian predators, especially dragonflies, caused a flow of phosphorus toward the ocean in mid Permian and enabled the large phosphorite deposits and anoxic ocean bottom.
EXPANDED ABSTRACT
It is the theme of this writing that much of the thrust of vertebrate evolution is a function of the flow of phosphorus between terrestrial and river or swamp ecosystems. Specifically it is suggested that efficient amphibious predators, especially dragonflies, in the mid Permian caused a flow of phosphorus toward streams and swamps, and from there to the ocean. This could explain the heavy vertebrate bony structure and ocean phosphorites during the Permian. Also the decline in ammonoid mollusks during the first three quarters of the Permian was probably due to this [Paul] because of the advantage this gave to fish in competing with mollusk predators. An increase in Phosphorus in marine and possibly also flood plains of late Jurassic and early Cretaceous is suggested as caused by a change in sheet erosion associated with the rise of the termite Amitermitinae subfamily, particularly their runways. Increases and decreases in phosphorus availability permit increases and decreases in bone, armor, and teeth of vertebrates, as well as their size. Excess phosphorous can also create anoxic conditions and high productivity in lakes and oceans.
INTRODUCTION
Phosphorus is the key macro element of terrestrial soil fertility. It is often a main limiting factor in soil and water fertility, especially in the tropics. About 0.1% of the crust is phosphorus [Newman (1995)], but it is very variable. Potassium tends to be ubiquitous in igneous source materials, and most soils bind it fairly well. Nitrogen is theoretically unlimited in aerated soils because of the ability of microorganisms to synthesize nitrogen compounds. Calcium and magnesium tend to be determined to a considerable extent by the nature of the source as well as amount of rain. Generation of acids by vegetation causes vertical movement of those divalent cations, but I suspect that there is little horizontal movement caused by living organisms, at least not on the scale I am about to propose for phosphorus. Ultimately it is the continents that are the source of virtually all marine phosphorus and thus determines marine productivity [Follimi (1996), p55]. The marine phosphorus at any point in time is a function of the rate of terrestrial weathering [Follimi (1996), p55] because the residence time of phosphorus in the ocean is less than 50,000 years [Follimi 1996, p61] or possibly 80,000 years [Froelich et al. (1982), p504] or more than 95,000 years when the turnover rate is low [van Cappellen 1984 p684].
The Carboniferous was a time of tremendous advance in terrestrial organisms. By its close most of the fundamental circumstances of physiology and morphology that exist today were present then. There were some ingenious and dramatic utilizations still to come. Wings were to develop in vertebrates, for instance, but the underpinning limbs were already there. Fur, down, and mammary secretions may not have existed yet. However, even for these, it is quite probable that the keratin and some kind of gland (such as perspiration) were already there. I suggest that in the Permian some ingenious structural adaptations of existing systems were to materialize that were to have some dramatic effects on the ecology. I propose that most fundamental to the theme of this writing was the interplay between animals which could reproduce on dry land versus those which must lay their eggs in water, that is, amphibians. The theme is that amphibious organisms transferred phosphorus from the land to the streams and from there to the oceans very greatly in the Permian. From the Cretaceous to the Eocene the phosphorus is proposed to have primarily moved via sheet erosion of termite runways.
DRAGONFLIES
Insects were the only animals with wings in the Carboniferous [Matsuda (1970)]. An indication of the importance of wings is that most of the insect orders sported wings and made good use of them for reproduction, predation, traveling to food, and/or escape. The order of fliers which I suspect had the most effect on phosphorus transfer was the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), all predators. True Odonata appeared in Permian [Grizimek (1975), p88] [Reik 1968] [Reik, et al 1990]. Their prototypes are the oldest winged fossils [Wakeling p599], go back to the Devonian and are different from other wings in every way [Matsuda (1970)]. [See this site for a discussion of their biology and phylogeny]. Even today they rank with the finest fliers in the world and prototypes may have had the beginnings of many modern attributes even by late Carboniferous [Reik 1984]. If they had had hemoglobin for oxygen transport, without a doubt there would have been no birds or Pterosaurs and maybe no bats. They can hover, then rapidly accelerate. They are as fast as all but the fastest birds in level flight at speeds up to 60 miles per hour or more in spite of the greater relative resistance of air to their forward motion. They can even move sideways, dive upward like a rocket, or ascend like a helicopter. They can beat each pair of wings together or separately. They can vary the angle of attack, the amplitude and frequency of each wing separately. The rear wings can be out of phase with the front wings [Ruppell (1989)]. They have a slow wing beat. They can also beat at 50-90 beats per second [Linsenmeir (1972)]. They have the highest ratio of flight muscle to body weight of any animal [Wakeling 1997 p599]. Some can glide, which must be very conserving of energy. Indeed many stay airborne most of the daylight hours. Their eyes are the best of any in the insect world. They have large optic brain lobes and 80% of their mental processes are devoted to vision and they can detect color, ultraviolet light, and polarization [Miller, p24-26]. 10,000 to 20,000 facets give them a wide field of view. The field is further extended by complicated neck muscles which allow them to tilt their head sideways 180 degrees, back 70 degrees, and down 40 degrees. In addition, they have the ability to keep the head stationary even when the grass stem which they are on moves. Some can even see reasonably well at dusk. Some can dive into water after prey or pluck aphids off of a branch. Some nymphs even hunt on land [Grzimek (1975), p348], an aptitude which could easily have been more common in ancient times when terrestrial predators were clumsier. Giant dragonflies can glide 20 meters at 10 degrees and a velocity of 74 cm per second which is similar to some birds [Ruppell (1989)]. It is not likely that there were any animals which could challenge them in the air during early Permian with attributes like these, and most of those attributes probably existed then to some extent [Carpenter 1985 p307] for true Odonata appeared in the Permian [Grizmek p88]. Spider webs can snare small and medium sized dragonflies and there was silk in the Devonian [Zschokle] and there were web spinners by upper Carboniferous [Seldon (1996)]. An occasional small, agile vertebrate amphibian could probably catch a low flying insect. However it is likely that any aerial predator (other than dragonflies themselves [Ackerman] ) would be the prey rather than the predator. They capture their prey by clasping them in legs studded with spikes. Prey could not escape by diving away because dragonflies always attack from below. They were the largest flying insects of their time. It is possible that they even captured small vertebrates, for some species had a wing span of 71 cm [Riek & Kukalova (1984) ]. They are also exclusively amphibian today. That is, they lay their eggs in water. The dominance of their predation coupled with that last mentioned dependence must surely have caused a net flow of phosphorus toward streams, rivers, and swamps in so far as dragonflies were concerned as trillions of eggs and dead bodies entered the water. The flow must have been considerably enhanced by an adult life span of less than a year or at most 2 or 3 years [Larson], although they may have lived longer then because of their ancient dominance. I suspect that this flow was the major source of the phosphorus in the peak deposition of marine phosphorites in mid Permian [Sheldon (1980)][Cook (1984)]. They would have almost saturated the terrestrial environment because they tend to move away from water on emerging [Johnson 1969] and are excellent long distance fliers. Whatever effect they had must surely have been worldwide for some modern dragonflies can fly Thousands of kilometers [Ruppell (1989)], and flying insects are good at colonizing islands. There was an additional effect. Dragonfly nymphs are voracious predators. They could have a considerable effect in preventing a reversal of this flow by preying on herbivorous insect larvae which otherwise would fly out to a death on land. This last must be the cause of the outflow from northern bogs at present because poisoning insects reduced the emergent loss of phosphorus without affecting the inflow [Fairchild].
What caused dragonflies' decline if their decline was a major part of the deposition of phosphorus subsiding before the end of the Permian, I don't know. Other predatory aerial orders were becoming increasingly more competent. Diptera (flies) were present in upper Permian for instance [Riek (1968)][Gillott p269]. Diptera probably were not parasitic in late Permian, but they undoubtedly could compete for prey. It is possible that parasites are not practical against dragonflies since there is no telling where a dying dragonfly would drop to and in addition its flight ability would degrade rapidly. They do parasitize dragonfly eggs in the modern world. Mymaridae can even fly under water to reach the eggs and Thoronella ride on the back of dragonflies, presumably waiting for her to lay eggs [Dunkle p9]. The reason why flies were able to challenge dragonflies was that flies, wasps, thrips, beetles, and hemiptera all independently developed an ability to beat their wings faster than the nerve impulses arrived, called asynchronous or fibrillar, which enables them to develop much more power from a faster wing beat. House flies have a beat of 200 per second. Some insects can beat 1000 per second. Synchronous beat has an upper limit of 100 beats per second [Ellington (1985)]. In addition, asynchronous muscles are somewhat stiffer than synchronous, which permits more elastic energy storage [Ellington (1985)]. Flies can reach maximum velocity in one half second [Ruppell (1989)]. However I would not have suspected that dragonfly dominance could cease so quickly from this cause alone, since it was not until well into the Triassic or later that wasps and flies became well developed, wasps probably into the Jurassic. It is more likely that the cause of the phosphorus decline was loss of dominance of amphibious vertebrates to terrestrial reptiles and mammal like animals was sufficient to neutralize some of the effect of the dragonflies on phosphorus.
It may be that their loss of dominance as indicated by the decline of marine phosphate deposits may not have been as quick as it seemed. The oceans remained anoxic into lower Triassic [Kajiwara et al (1994)]. So there must have been at least enough phosphorus to maintain these anoxic conditions, even though primarily a result of warm weather preventing turnover. Also the sea level underwent a large drop during the last of the Permian [Crowley & North (1991), p213] [Algeo & Seslavinsky (1995), p811], which may have eliminated many of the shallow coastal waters that are essential to phosphate deposits. At the same time the level of anoxic water may have risen high enough for it to cover much of what shelf water was left [Wignall (1996)]. If so, phosphorus deposition would be inhibited because phosphate can not be adsorbed on ferrous iron in the sediments and organic phosphorus deposition is much reduced under anaerobic conditions [van Cappellen 1984 p685]. Thus there is a positive feedback for ocean water concentration. That is, the phosphorus increases productivity which produces anoxic conditions and the anoxic conditions prevent the phosphorus from being removed except as calcium phosphate. The shelves account for 80-90% of organic burial of phosphorus [van Cappellen (1994)]. However the productivity of the ocean appeared to be low into the Triassic because there was patchy organic rich marine deposits and sulfate reduction was low in early Triassic seas [Wignall (1993)]. Therefore it is probable that the phosphorus in the ocean declined significantly at this time, and anoxic conditions were due more to poor turnover from the warmer climate, which had resulted from the increase of carbon dioxide and the removal of vegetative cover from the soils.
AMPHIBIOUS VERTEBRATES
The vertebrate predation near water was dominated by amphibians in early Permian and therefore they must have also added considerably to the flow of phosphorus toward water in the Northern Hemisphere. That the bulk of the phosphorite deposition was in North America [Cook 1979 p316] lends circumstantial evidence that the contribution of amphibian vertebrates was a substantial part of it, since vertebrate amphibians were probably absent from below the equator [Cox], while dragonflies were undoubtedly ubiquitous. Amphibians were the largest predators. They were well armored with bone and had teeth. Eryops even had bony nodules on its skin [Colbert (1991) and heavy ribs for armor [Carroll 1988, p89], p90]. Any animals that wandered within range of the amphibians’ breeding water were probably in extreme danger. The Labyrinthodont Temnospondyls were the largest and the most numerous. Eryops seymouria played a similar role for smaller prey, and was probably an amphibian. There were few or no mammals with their mammary glands nor any dinosaurs with their excellent balance. All the animals spilled maintenance heat directly into the air and sprawled on the ground. So, while small primitive insectivore reptiles were present, the amphibians had no overwhelming competition. I doubt if even the small retiles made any where near the inroads into the terrestrial herbivorous insects that the dragonflies did. Indeed, terrestrial vertebrates were probably absent from the southern Gondwana province in early Permian. However, by the Triassic they were present and similar on all continents [Cox]. The earliest vertebrate with teeth designed for vegetation known was a late Permian Anomodont called Sumina getmanovi with large eyes from Russia [Rybczynski]. Herbivorous insects probably accounted for most of the herbivorous activity then because chewing teeth were rare as was evidence for chewing on fossil leaves [Shear]. However, there were some vertebrates that were herbivorous and were probably amphibious, such as Diadectes [Colbert & Morales (1991), p89]. Herbivorous amphibians would contribute to the stream ward flow of phosphorus also if they spent a lot of time in the water as modern hippopotamuses probably do contribute. Dragon flies probably even took prey which they could handle off the ground. Directly or indirectly amphibians no doubt contributed to the flow of phosphorus toward water. An indirect contribution would be keeping down the numbers of small vertebrate terrestrial predators capable of catching dragonflies. Also the dominance of amphibians no doubt had the effect of keeping down the numbers of the small water inhabiting vertebrates such as fish, and thus prevent them from making too large an inroad into the numbers of dragonfly nymphs [Knight]. Small fish eating amphibian vertebrates became extinct at the close of the Permian [Benton], so that as a result small fish must have put intense pressure on dragonfly nymphs. Fish would not move phosphorus upstream because small fish move down stream, not up [Hall (1972]. The excellence of amphibious bony structure and armor in the Permian is testimony to the fertility of these ancient swamps and flood plains with respect to phosphorus, the bony structure of herbivores being especially indicative, since they could get no phosphorus from the bones of prey. Present day freshwater phosphorus is meager [Richey (1983) p54] but quite a lot of the phosphorus must have ended up in the Permian ocean in mid Permian because the ocean sediments contained large amounts of apatite phosphorus [Piper (1993)] and marine vertebrates were large and well armored then also. Phosphorus was very enriched in the mid Permian coal of South Africa, spiking to as much as one per cent as Phosphorous pentoxide [Faure]. Even in the upper Carboniferous both the coal balls and the shale had 0.09 to 0.27 per cent as the phosphorus pentoxide in Nova Scotia [Zodrow]. This is when the bony fish, ray finned and lobe finned fish (Actinopterygians and Sarcopterygians) became very successful. Many had thick scales with an outer coating of ganoine, similar to enamel. A considerable advantage mollusks have over vertebrates is that they do not need phosphorus to form their shell. When phosphorus is plentiful they lose much of this advantage. Henderson found few fresh water mollusk fossils in the upper Carboniferous. In the Permian he managed to find only one [Henderson (1935), p22,23]. This is what one would expect in a fresh water environment rich in phosphorus. Lakes deficient in calcium are absent of mollusks [Hesse p37]. However it is unlikely that calcium was deficient in Permian rivers, so calcium lack is an unlikely cause of mollusk absence.
The trilobites declined in the upper Carboniferous [Webster] but continued into the Permian. This last was probably at least partly due to this surplus of ocean phosphorus, since they require phosphorus to form their shells. However there was complete extinction by the last of the Permian, probably partly due to the decline in ocean phosphorus.
During the last part of the Permian and the first part of the subsequent Triassic the rise of Synapsids (primitive Therapsid mammals) [Colbert & Morales (1991)] and Archosaurs (primitive Dinosaurs) must have reversed this trend somewhat. In mid Permian, Therapsids (progenitors of mammals) arose and were in full flush by its close, with Dicynodonts the most successful, judging by numbers, extent of distribution, and phylogenetic longevity [Colbert & Morales (1991), p89, 121]. Probably the development of milk glands in the Permian [Swan (1990)] was considerable of the reason why. They rose to great heights during the Triassic [Colbert (1991), p135], and were the only large vertebrate to increase in diversity across the Permian-Triassic extinctions [Knoll]. Therapsids seemed to be the most successful vertebrate. By upper Permian they were every where, including Gondwana (Southern Hemisphere). The invasion of the southern hemisphere by terrestrial vertebrates and especially mammals should in itself have had a significant effect on the ocean. Amphibians lost their armor and became much smaller by the succeeding Triassic. The frogs and the toads even had their teeth much reduced by the Jurassic, when their fossils first appeared.
PHOSPHATES in the EARLY PROTOZOIC
It is possible that a surge of marine phosphate sediments in the Ordovician [Sheldon (1980)] was related to a similar phenomenon to that in the Permian when amphibious scorpion and other predators formed species that successfully became partly terrestrial and presumably preyed on the worms and millipedes [Retallack (1987)] which they found in forests of bushes, which forests by this time were probably giving considerable protection to the soils, at least after the predators arrived.
A surge in early Cambrian [Alvaro] might conceivably had a similar cause when worms came ashore at night to eat the higher plants which first became terrestrial in the Cambrian [Axelrod (1969)], and then returned to water in order to escape daylight desiccation and ultraviolet light.
Experiments about the Permian would be very easy on an island or screen enclosed plot since representatives of all the insect orders mentioned are still with us today, and insects are easy to work with, at least compared to elephants or dinosaurs.
Continue to affect of termites and ants on soil phosphorus and bone and teeth evolution.
REFERENCES: may be seen at the article’s end.
LINKS:
----For a discussion of what the effects might have been of a possible evolution of the wood roach ancestors of termites on Permian soil organic content and Triassic coal, see the wood roach article
---- and a list of dragonfly links. and you may see the Odonata (dragonfly) site ring with links to information and the IORI organization information here.
----Affect of termites on soil phosphorus
---- Affect of termites on the Paleocene and modern
tropics
----Climate warming as caused by denudation of soil.----
Are laterites and oxisols created by the alkaline guts of humus eating termites?.
----For an electronic journal on paleontology see Palaeontologia Electronica at Paleonet
---- See this site about insects
----For a geological time scale.
---- It has been proposed that the Decca traps were caused by violent movement of the crust in the antipode (opposite side of a sphere) opposite to a Cretaceous meteorite or comet impact. If this and other lava flow sites prove to be formed this way, it will be strong evidence against continental drift.
----For a hypothesis that explains the large volcanoes of Mars and the bulges associated with them as the disruption from the antipode (opposite side of a sphere) of a huge meteorite or comet impact, see this site.
----For a hypothesis that explains the gullies and canyons of Mars as erosion by rivers of silicone dust, click here.
----For a site that proposes a thin plate hypothesis to explain the plates in the crust of the earth, see this site. It has a link that explains the formation of ocean trenches.
----All you need to know about physical constants.
SOME BIOLOGICAL HYPOTHESES
----Glaze Ice Cause of Deciduous Forests Evolution of forests as effected by glaze ice..
----Origin of Angiosperm Vegetation.
Angiosperms are proposed to have arisen on the Ontong-Java Plateau.in before the Cretaceous.
----The Eve Controversy: A proposal as to why the human species seems to be derived from a single couple.
HEALTH ARTICLES
The health of people in the USA is abysmal (numerous statistics), and a major part of it is poor nutrition. As the 12th century physician, trying to cure by diet before he administers drugs, said; “No illness that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means" or as Hippocrates expressed it in 460 - 377BC; "If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." It would seem that a healthy life style has been known for a long time. It is my belief that an unprocessed, unfrozen, not canned, high in vegetables diet would keep a large majority of people reasonably healthy and without the need for I would suggest that a partial solution to the problem of poor potassium nutrition would be to place a tax on all food that has had potassium removed by food processors and completely fund all Medicare and workman’s compensation for injuries and disease that relate to rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and high blood pressure. This would also take the onerous tax burden now incurred for them and place it on the shoulders of those who cause the problem
The author, Charles Weber, has a degree in chemistry and a masters degree in
soil science. He has researched potassium for 50 years, primarily a
library research. He has cured his own early onset arthritis (33 years old). He has published articles on allied subjects in; The Journal of Theoretical Biology (1970, 1983), The Journal of Applied Nutrition (1974), Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology (1983), and Medical Hypotheses (1984, 1999, 2007, 2008). All printed rights to this article are reserved. Electronic rights are waived. Email to; isoptera at att.net or 828 692 5816 (USA)
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Electrolyte regulation (sodium and potassium) --
Purpose of cortisol --
Copper Nutrition and Physiology --
-- Strategies for Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia Fluoride in city water will cause fluorosis discoloration of teeth, weakened bones, damage to the kidneys and immune system, bone cancer, and, worst of all, damage to the nerves resembling Alzheimer’s disease.
There is a site that contains reviews of natural remedies for many diseases .
For a procedure that discusses tetrathiomolybdate for removing copper and thus preventing further solid cancer growth and Hodgkin’s, see this site. This might buy some time for this and other possibly other cancers until you can persuade a doctor to try tumor necrosis factor or interferon or an opioid antagonist drug called Naltrexone (Naltrexone in the large 50mg size, originally manufactured by DuPont under the brand name ReVia, is now sold by Mallinckrodt as Depade and by Barr Laboratories under the generic name naltrexone) that blocks some endorphin receptors. Said blockage is thought to cause the body to temporarily secrete more endorphins, especially after midnight at night. These endorphins are thought to stimulate the immune system, and in particular to stimulate the TH-1 or type 1 antiviral response by decreased interleukin-4 and with increased gamma interferon and interleukin-2 and a simultaneous decrease of type 2 anti bacterial response [Sacerdote].
It appears to be especially effective for minimizing symptoms and retarding progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) (also see these sites hereand here and .
and CFIDS, and even to some extent in cancer. Low doses of Naltrexone (LDN), 1.5 to 4.5 milligrams, at bedtime is used (timing is important, and it is important not to buy slow release forms). It is said to have no known bad side effects at those doses other than insomnia the first week or two in some. There is also reports from an extensive survey in this site.
I think some clinical studies on Naltrexone are in order, and it should not be a prescription drug. Though side effects appear unlikely, it is not proven over longer periods. If you try it (it is a prescription medicine in the USA), it seems likely that you should discontinue if you get a bacterial infection in view of its inhibition of antibacterial response. Naltrexone is currently being used by Dr. Enlander, a New York City doctor, but with limited success for chronic fatigue syndrome using 3 to 4.5 milligram doses for CFIDS.
Olive leaf extract has shown clinical evidence of effectiveness against a wide range of viruses, including AIDS [Bihari], herpes, and cold viruses. It sometimes produces a Herxheimer or pathogen die off symptoms (from effectiveness against bacteria?). There is evidence that it is synergistic (reinforce each other) with Naltrexone. There have been a few case histories of improvement in what were probably arthritis patients and CFIDS patients. The active ingredient is said to be oleuropein or enolate. There has been very little follow up research done on it.
. Also it has been found that curcumin in turmeric or curry powder will inhibit several forms of cancer, including melanoma. People who live in India where these spices are eaten, have one tenth the cancer elsewhere.
Here is an article with anecdotal evidence for pressurized oxygen, zinc, vitamin B6, and vitamin C after head injuries. They also claim a fair percentage of prison inmates from psychiatric disorders after head injuries.
There is strong evidence that taurine could have beneficial affects on type I diabetes, and could reduce organ peroxidation and plasma lipids. The retina, lens, and nerves respond better to taurine than other organs [Franconi]. Taurine has been used
for high blood pressure [Fujita], migraine headache (I suspect that less than 1000 milligrams can remove the headache caused by allergy to peanuts and other nuts), high cholesterol, epilepsy, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, liver disorders, alcoholism, and cystic fibrosis, and depression. Keep in mind that some people may have a genetic defect that limits the amount of taurine tolerated and that adequate molybdenum may desirable. Taurine may make a copper deficiency worse, based on a single case history [Brien Quirk, private communication]. This may be because taurine may be mobilizing copper and zinc into the plasma [Li]. So if you should decide to take taurine, make sure your copper intake is more than adequate, as well as your zinc. Taurine may be obtaind from health food stores as capsules.
A site is available which shows. foods which are high in one nutrient and low in another (including calories). This last site should be especially useful for a quick list of foods to consider first, or for those who must restrict another nutrient because of a genetic difficulty with absorption or utilization
If you use medication, you may see technical evaluations and cautions of drugs at the bottom of this site. The very extensive USDA Handbook #8 may be seen here. To access the information you must press "enter" to search, and then divide Kcal into milligrams of potassium. This last table is very comprehensive, is used in search mode, and even lists the amino acids. There are also links in it to PDF types of printouts from the table for individual nutrients available here Just click on the “A” or “W” button for the nutrient you desire. A table that has already done the potassium calculation is here in descending concentration or in alphabetical order. SOME INFORMATION FOR YOUR COMPUTER
There is a free browser called
Firefox, which is said to be less susceptible to viruses or crashes, has many interesting features, imports information from Iexplore while leaving Iexplore intact. You can also install their emailer. A feature that lists all the URLs on a viewed site can be useful when working on your own site. There is a tool bar by Google that enables you to search the internet from the page viewed, mark desired words, search the site, give page rank, etc. Its scholar program searces for journal articles.
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There is information here about how to obtain a very comprehensive book called “POTASSIUM NUTRITION” and thus cure or prevent rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, gout, and high blood pressure and ameliorate diabetes and high blood potassium. It discusses requirements, amounts in foods, cooking losses, supplements, and physiology of potassium.
See this site for evidence of a correlation between magnesium deficiency and cancer.
See this site for evidence of a correlation between magnesium deficiency and cancer. The taurate has been proposed as the best magnesium supplement. Since taurine is physiologically active, this may prove to not be the case long term. Taurine or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid is an amino acid sulfonated rather than carboxylated found in high abundance in the tissues of many animals (metazoa), especially sea animals. Taurine is also found in plants, fungi, and some bacterial species, but in far less abundance. It is an amine with a sulfonic acid functional group, but it is not an amino acid in the biological sense, not being one of the twenty protein-forming compounds encoded by the universal genetic code. Small polypeptides have been identified as containing taurine, but to date there has been no report of a transfer RNA that is specifically charged with taurine [from Wikipedia]. It is essential to babies and is the most abundant brain amino acid at birth. With maturation babies start to synthesize taurine and glutamate becomes the most abundant in the brain of adults. It is essential to adult cats.
It has been found that supplements of the amino acid, taurine, will restore the abnormal electrocardiogram present during a potassium deficiency by an unknown mechanism. This information has been used in several case histories by George Eby to control a long standing type of cardiac arrhythmia called pre atrial contractions (PACs), a benign but irritating and nerve racking heart problem, with 2.5 grams of taurine with each meal.
Taurine is said to be low in the diets of vegetarians. The 2.5 grams recommended by the American Heart Association causes diarrhea in some people and should probably be reduced in those people.
This site updated Aug. 2010
