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Out of curiosity, the exact elemental composition of a male human who was perfectly healthy with a mass of 90,000 grams would be what exacty? As well, what would the mass of the chemicals, and what chemicals, be for the chemical composition? This question also is asked for the material and tissue composition. 207.69.137.6 (talk) 23:10, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It is not very sensible to deconstruct the human body into its elements. If you sold all of those at the best market prices it would still be worth less than one kidney. Deconstructing into the various proteins and other molecules would be more interesting than knowing that there is enough iron to make one nail. SpinningSpark 11:20, 18 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"Enough iron to make one nail." Cool! One-ply (talk) 18:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like OP wants to sell body parts on the black market. How about, no?
-G — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.159.21.121 (talk) 15:45, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It has been (anonymously) proposed to merge this with Chemical makeup of the human body. If anything, that one should be merged into this one, because this one is more general, in that it discusses the composition from other points of view besides chemical. Eric Kvaalen (talk) 18:32, 10 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see the point of the bar charts. Oxygen dominates and the others are invisible anyway on a bar chart basis. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a pie chart showing fractions of the total graphically, instead of hard-to-compare unscaled bars? --Wtshymanski (talk) 00:47, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And more importantly, it would be nice if the two tables agreed, and if the useless counts of atoms were removed. --Wtshymanski (talk) 00:47, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Gosh that admin bit is handy. You can lock down any version you like as your preferred edition and never have to worry about anyone else changing it. --Wtshymanski (talk) 03:19, 28 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Is this protection really necessary? Evercat (talk) 19:15, 3 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The two tables don't agree. --Wtshymanski (talk) 21:46, 14 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Lastly, airline seating is exactly where you see that none of this does you any good. You cannot design seats for everybody, but can only go up to 90% or something and will end up requiring a few superwides to buy two tickets. That's a real-life problem which the airlines have solved by doing exactly that. I'll leave the question of why it's not such a problem for life jackets, as exercise for the student. SBHarris 00:33, 15 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Political Correctness: "lower organisms"? I suspect zoologists have found a more accurate term we could substitute. - One-ply (talk) 18:10, 16 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Because the number of atoms column uses powers of ten very heavily, the filter to order them from greatest to least fails as it only orders by the first term, and disregards the magnitude. Is there any way to fix this? 192.5.109.34 (talk) 05:29, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Are the values in the columns 'Atomic percent' and 'Atoms' from a source, or are they calculated based on the masses given in various sources? If we calculated the # of atoms ourselves then someone was either sloppy in their calculations, or the masses have been updated afterwards and the number of atoms not changed to match.
Would someone be willing to go through and make sure that our values for numbers of atoms match the mass values we've cited? --58.7.255.81 (talk) 09:26, 20 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Some of the "atomic percents" currently shown in the table are substantially wrong. The biggest offenders are N and P. Assuming these were calculated from the Pct of Mass numbers, the most important corrections are:
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Neuron1 (talk • contribs) 02:06, 5 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I just made the above correction to the atomic # percentages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Neuron1 (talk • contribs) 02:12, 5 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I see "Yes/No (topically hardens teeth; toxic in higher amounts)" in regards to fluorine. The "No" part in my opinion, is unnecessary. ALL of these elements can be harmful in higher amounts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.244.158.42 (talk) 20:37, 11 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
In this article Phosphorus has an atomic percentage of 0.14, calcium has 0.24. At the same time the given mass percentages are 1.1 for phosphorus and 1.4 for calcium while the molar mass of calcium is 1.3 times of that of phosphorus. Based on the given atomic percentages the difference in mass percentages should be much higher than 1.1 to 1.4, rather 1.1 to 2.44. So at least one of those values has to be wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.6.226.183 (talk) 16:52, 12 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If we can't get cremains data for this the bone ash data is the best we can do. They are't quite the same as 99% of your Ca is in bone but only 85 to 90% of P. Thus, cremains figures are true but bone ash Ca/P ratios must be multiplied by about 0.88 to correct for non-bone phosphorus in the body. SBHarris 19:27, 12 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think this column needs to be fixed up. Currently, different editors are trying to use it to say things other than the answer to the question "does this element play a positive health role in mammals". e.g. "No(?)/Yes (suspected bone growth factor)" for Strontium. If you mean "possible" then say "possible", not "No/Yes". Same for fluorine: currently says "Yes/No". Fluorine should say "Yes". The fact that there could also be a negative effect in excess doesn't change the answer to the question about the positive role. Perhaps there should be two columns: one concerning the positive role, one concerning negative effects of excess.Ordinary Person (talk) 02:38, 3 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to add some more elements to the list. Unfortunately, I can't find any figures for amounts relative to the entire human body. For five noble gases (all but radon), numbers are available for whole blood, blood serum, and red blood cells. The numbers for whole blood (in parts per billion are) He 37, Ne 138, Ar 230000, Kr 550, and Xe 9.7. Determination of Natural In Vivo Noble-Gas Concentrations in Human Blood
Blood and urine figures are available for platinum (0.01 and 0.005 µg/L respectively) from 'Recommendation from the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits for Platinum and Platinum compounds SCOEL/SUM/150 September 2011', Section 2.1.3. Biological Monitoring (page 11)
Of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements we currently have 60, which leaves 32. From my reading, it looks as if many of the remaining 32 may be present. For this reason, I was thinking of adding a new section below the section 'Elemental composition list'. This new section would have information on any elements for which some data is available, e.g., occurrence in specific tissue or organs. Then we could include a mention of elements where some inconclusive data is available, Finaly, we could round out the list by indicating which of the remaining 92 elements data are still missing.
Right now I'm looking into erbium (in the bones, very strong candidate) and possibly the entire lanthanide series (15 elements, of which we already have 2). Zyxwv99 (talk) 00:13, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I'm pretty sure fluorine is not essential to human health. It's a prophylactic, like quinine to ward off malaria, or a vaccine. Or to put it another way, it's a drug. Zyxwv99 (talk) 00:17, 19 June 2016 (UTC) Update: I went ahead and changed it. That's because I've begun adding references to all the yes and no items. I found a reliable source that says no. If someone has a more recent reliable source that says yes, then we can always change it. Zyxwv99 (talk) 02:33, 19 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The reference you site says that fluorine IS essential for the human body to process calcium -- just the opposite of what you claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.167.143.81 (talk) 14:56, 21 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Our element tables have a column entitled Positive health role in mammals. Two problems: 1) this article is about the human body, not mammals in general, and 2) a wide range of substances are used medicinally, even when they are non-essential and toxic. That's because medicine is about doing more good than harm. The worse the disease, the more harm the medicine can inflict and still do more good than harm.
I propose changing it to "essential to human health." That doesn't mean it needs to be an all-or-nothing proposition. For example, we currently have such items as:
Yes (not confirmed)
Yes (probable)
Yes in rats, hamsters, goats. Probably humans.
Possible (suspected bone growth factor)
No (probable)
No, probably
My proposal is just to change the heading. Zyxwv99 (talk) 18:57, 19 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
In the US, two agencies decide which nutrients are officially designated as essential, the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture. They both rely on the National Research Council (United States) and the National Academy of Medicine for their advice. The UK has something similar, as does the EU and the WHO. These people all seem to agree that arsenic, silicon, boron, nickel, and vanadium are possibly essential nutrients, in some cases even "probably." None of them are taking bromine, lithium, or strontium seriously. I'm going to change these three to a no. Zyxwv99 (talk) 03:56, 24 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Update: We could probably use some material above the table to explain what criteria are used to define "essential." It should probably include what I just said above, about the agencies and scientific bodies that decide these things. We could also mention that many substances have been proposed as essential, often to the detriment of public health, which is why those agencies have been given their authority.
Also, I'm wondering if we should really be using the word "No" or if we should switch to some sort of very long dash to indicate "blank." That's because elements are constantly being investigated. Unfortunately, health quacks tend to promote elements for which evidence is very weak. I don't think we should be in the business of vetting those claims. Instead, we should leave it to the scientific advisory bodies to decide which ones merit serious consideration (because of notability and undue weight). For other elements, we should just remain silent because we are not qualified to say "No." Zyxwv99 (talk) 14:17, 24 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
For bromine and the paper [2] published in <ref>McCall AS, Cummings CF, Bhave G, Vanacore R, Page-McCaw A, Hudson BG. Bromine is an essential trace element for assembly of collagen IV scaffolds in tissue development and architecture. Cell. 2014 Jun 5;157(6):1380-92. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.009. PMID:24906154<ref>, it was established that the crosslinks between collagen IV chains necessary to form basement membranes (the membranes around internal organs in all metazoa) are sulfilimine bonds between methionine and lysine residues produced by the action of the enzyme peroxidasin making hypobromite from bromide.『Br-deficient Drosophila display altered BM [basement membrane] and tissue morphology, aberrant embryogenesis, larval mid-gut defects, and lethality, whereas Br repletion restored normal development. Mechanistically, the assembly of crosslinked collagen IV scaffolds requires Br.』It was established that animals in which a dietary deficiency of bromine was produced had developmental symptoms that were the same as those in animals with defective peroxidasin. The bromine essentially acts catalytically since it is not consumed in these reactions and consequently only small amounts are required in the diet.john.garavelli 22:09, 13 September 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by John.garavelli (talk • contribs)
The image in the header section lists %'s that differ from the list in the elemental composition section. Why? Should the image / table be removed or adjusted? --74.88.34.126 (talk) 18:28, 16 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The table gives K abundance as .004% which is 280g vs 70kg. The tabulation gives K abundance as .025% which is 175g vs 70kg, even though the same line specifies 140g, which is the value Spiers gives, corresponding to an abundance of .002%, and agrees as well with Ref. 11. This is unfortunate because the source of the table is a very high value resource so it would be a Bad Thing were no reference thereto present. Lewis Goudy (talk) 01:44, 15 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The "Fraction of Mass" column sorts correctly, including the scientific notation data. The "Mass" and "Atomic Percent" columns do not, they get confused with scientific notation.
The "Fraction of Mass" column is inconsistent with the "Mass" column; the two should sort in the same order since fraction of mass = mass / total human body mass. Example: Rubidium and strontium have the same fraction of mass (4.6x10^-6) but rubidium is listed as 0.00068 kg and strontium 0.00032kg.
Arghman (talk) 14:18, 29 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Chromium is the worst offender - the value in the mass column is 8.3 times higher than that in the fraction of mass column — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.37.194.122 (talk) 22:28, 25 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The fraction of body water in males is 58% and in women it is 48%, in reference 6. These are sample means. The "mean of means" or grand mean is then the average of these two numbers (the mean of means) which is the same as the mean of all the samples IF ONLY THE NUMBER OF MEN AND WOMEN IS EQUAL. Which is close enough to the truth to say that the mean of the population of 51% women and 49% men will indeed be quite close to (58+48)/2 =53%. That's just WP:CALC and if you want a reference, see grand mean but this is very elementary statistics. I had put in ~53% but some editor took that out and said that if it was based on reference 6, it was "terrible math." On the contrary, it was perfectly legitimate math, and I challenge anybody to refute me. I'm gunna post this on the talk page of the editor who put in the [failed verification] note. SBHarris 07:34, 25 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The article is inconsistent on that point.
In the table, see this edit or the subsequent revert. That column of the table is sourced to [3] which does not seem to deal with aluminium (looking at the table of contents only, the text is not searchable and I did not read it fully).
The current text of the article says two contradictory things:
The possible utility and toxicity of a few elements at levels normally found in the body (aluminium) is debated.with no source (the paragraph ends with a source about arsenic).
Aluminium (...) serves no function in living cells, but is harmful in large amounts.sourced to the deadlink "Aluminum toxicity"; I have not tracked down the source but I suspect it is about aluminium toxicity in large doses, and does not say whether small amounts are necessary.
Maybe it would be best to scrap those mentions? TigraanClick here to contact me 14:33, 20 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
In the table it is written that arsenic is not essential for humans, however in the periodic table diagram it is coloured as if it was essential. Which of these is right? 2.53.35.20 (talk) 10:10, 15 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I’m using this for a self project and need to use this to find the mole conversation so I can figure out how much total there is of xyz. But I noticed that something was wrong so I assumed it was my math and started over again, but using the given percentages I found that when added together is actually greater than it should be. Without even adding in the less than 1% all the percentages added together totals out to 100.4 and while I know isn’t much is still something worth noting. 45.73.131.90 (talk) 00:45, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I am trying to create a periodic table, but only with the elements that there are in a Human body, so that people working within Human biology or with medical chemistry have an easy overview of the low level buildings blocks that there is to a human. When i am done I thought I might add it to some of the other overview infograpics in the start of this article, any input is very welcomed
Claes Lindhardt (talk) 22:14, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Woulden't it make sense to add a column to the sortable table with all the elements with thier number of isotopes based on: https://applets.kcvs.ca/IPTEI/IPTEI.html so that it becomes clear that there is multiple variants of the same atom? Claes Lindhardt (talk) 16:19, 9 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
This seems like a shortcoming and I do not see any reason for why this has gone unfixed for so long 91.230.13.164 (talk) 08:20, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]