Copper is an essential trace mineral. Enzymes that need copper help make energy, handle iron, build connective tissue, make brain chemicals and pigment, and protect cells from damage. The body holds only about 50 to 120 mg, and deficiency is uncommon.
Also known as: copper gluconate, copper bisglycinate, cupric oxide.
ODS lists a Recommended Dietary Allowance of 900 mcg a day for adults 19 and older (1,000 mcg in pregnancy, 1,300 mcg while breastfeeding) and an adult Tolerable Upper Intake Level of 10,000 mcg (10 mg) a day. ODS says copper comes alone, in combinations and in multivitamins, as cupric oxide, cupric sulfate, copper amino acid chelates and copper gluconate, at a few mcg up to 15 mg.
Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling. ODS says typical US diets meet or exceed the RDA. Rich food sources are shellfish, seeds and nuts, organ meats, wheat-bran cereals, whole grains and chocolate. Groups more likely to run low are people with celiac disease or Menkes disease and people taking a lot of zinc.
What studies show: the body adjusts how much copper it absorbs. In a 90-day study in 11 young men, they absorbed about 56% of copper on a low-copper diet (0.79 mg a day), 36% on an adequate diet (1.68 mg) and 12% on a high-copper diet (7.53 mg), and most kept a balance on 0.8 mg a day (Turnlund 1989). ODS says high zinc blocks copper absorption: a marker of copper status fell with zinc intakes of about 60 mg a day for up to 10 weeks, and too much zinc from supplements or zinc-containing denture creams can cause copper deficiency. See zinc.
Safety, per ODS: copper toxicity is rare in healthy people. Long-term high exposure can damage the liver and cause belly pain, cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, and it has occurred from drinking water high in copper from pipes. People with Wilson's disease, an inherited disorder that blocks copper removal, are at high risk of copper toxicity. ODS says copper has no known clinically relevant drug interactions.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for copper that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. ODS says copper is absorbed mainly in the upper small intestine, ceruloplasmin carries more than 95% of copper in blood, and extra copper leaves mainly in bile.
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