Minerals latu sensu and Human Health: Benefits, Toxicity and Pathologies

This volume provides a comprehensive academic review of both positive and negative effects of minerals on human health and quality of life. The book adopts the concept of mineral latu sensu (mineral l.s.), which encompasses a broad spectrum of natural, inorganic, solid, and crystalline, of natural and inorganic chemical elements (metals and metalloids), of modified natural minerals, of biominerals, and of syntetic minerals, all products that branch across the disciplines of earth, soil, environmental, materials, nutrition, and health sciences. Using this broad framework, the authors are able to provide a multidisciplinary assessment on many types of minerals which can be essential, beneficial and hazardous to human health, covering applications in medical geology, medical hydrology or balneotherapy, pharmacology, chemistry, nutrition, and biophysics. The book performs historical analyses of the uses of minerals for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes to better understand current trends and developments in mineral research and human health. The book will be of interest to students, public health officials, environmental agencies and researchers from various disciplines, as well as scientific societies and organizations focusing on medical geology, health resort medicine (crenotherapy, hydrotherapy and climatotherapy), and on pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomedical applications. From the Back Cover This volume provides a comprehensive academic review of both positive and negative effects of minerals on human health and quality of life. The book adopts the concept of mineral latu sensu (mineral l.s.), which encompasses a broad spectrum of natural, inorganic, solid, and crystalline, of natural and inorganic chemical elements (metals and metalloids), of modified natural minerals, of biominerals, and of syntetic minerals, all products that branch across the disciplines of earth, soil, environmental, materials, nutrition, and health sciences. Using this broad framework, the authors are able to provide a multidisciplinary assessment on many types of minerals which can be essential, beneficial and hazardous to human health, covering applications in medical geology, medical hydrology or balneotherapy, pharmacology, chemistry, nutrition, and biophysics. The book performs historical analyses of the uses of minerals for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes to better understand current trends and developments in mineral research and human health. The book will be of interest to students, public health officials, environmental agencies and researchers from various disciplines, as well as scientific societies and organizations focusing on medical geology, health resort medicine (crenotherapy, hydrotherapy and climatotherapy), and on pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomedical applications. About the Author Dr. Celso de Sousa Figueiredo Gomes (retired) is a former Professor Cathedratico at University d’Aveiro, Portugal. He was Assistant Professor (1961 - 1967) at the Mineralogical and Geological Museum of the University of Coimbra, teaching Crystallography, Mineralogy, Petrology, and Geology, and he was Chief-Geologist of the Geological Survey of Angola and Assistant Professor at the University of Luanda, Angola (1968 - 1974). In 1964 he began his study of Soil and Clay Sciences at the Instituto de Edafologia e Agrobiologia Vegetal of the Consejo Superior de Investigacion Científica (Madrid), and continued in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research. In 1979 he received a PhD in Materials Science from the Leeds University, United Kingdom. He is the author and co-author of over 500 scientific papers, and the author and co-author of 21 books and 5 chapters of scientific books. He has organized various National and International Conferences. Since his retirement (2003) Dr. Gomes is a researcher of the Research Centre “GeoBioTec” financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and T