What Are Trace Minerals? The 87 Minerals Your Body Needs (and Probably Isn't Getting)

You know the big four: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium. They appear on every nutrition label and in every sports drink commercial. Your doctor has mentioned at least one of them.

But your body runs on far more than four minerals. It requires dozens of trace minerals, elements needed in small amounts that control everything from thyroid function to DNA repair. If you eat a modern diet and drink filtered water, you're falling short on most of them.

Trace Minerals vs. Macro Minerals

Macro minerals are the ones you need in larger quantities: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur. Your body uses these in gram or near-gram amounts per day.

Trace minerals, also called micro minerals, are needed in milligram or microgram quantities. The word "trace" is misleading. Without adequate levels, critical biological processes slow down or stop.

Five of the most important trace minerals, and what they do in your body:

Zinc

Supports immune function, wound healing, and protein synthesis. Your body has no zinc storage mechanism, so you need consistent daily intake. Deficiency impairs taste and smell, slows wound healing, and weakens immune response.

Selenium

An antioxidant cofactor that protects cells from oxidative damage and drives thyroid hormone metabolism. Deficiency increases vulnerability to viral infections and thyroid disorders.

Manganese

Required for bone formation, blood clotting, and amino acid metabolism. Manganese also activates superoxide dismutase (SOD), one of your body's primary defenses against free radical damage.

Boron

Supports bone health, brain function, and the metabolism of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Research suggests boron may also support healthy testosterone and estrogen levels.

Silica (Silicon)

Builds connective tissue: skin elasticity, hair strength, nail quality, joint integrity. Silica is also involved in bone mineralization alongside calcium and vitamin D.

These five represent a fraction of the 87 trace minerals in Salties Hydration Drops. The full spectrum includes chromium (blood sugar regulation), molybdenum (toxin metabolism), lithium, vanadium, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, strontium, and dozens more, each with specific biological roles.

Why Modern Diets Fall Short

A century ago, trace mineral deficiency was rare. Soil was rich. Water came from wells and springs that contained dissolved minerals. Food wasn't processed past the point of nutritional value.

Three forces now work against your trace mineral intake:

1. Depleted agricultural soil. Decades of intensive farming have stripped topsoil of minerals that plants once absorbed and passed to us. A study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that mineral content of 43 common crops declined between 1950 and 1999. That trend has accelerated since.

2. Water filtration. Reverse osmosis, distillation, and activated carbon filters remove contaminants well. They also remove beneficial minerals. The water you drink is cleaner than ever and more mineral-depleted than ever.

3. Processed food. Refining wheat into white flour removes 75 to 80% of its trace mineral content. The same holds for refined sugar, white rice, and most packaged foods.

Even if you eat well, your food and water do not deliver the trace mineral spectrum your biology expects.

Salties Hydration Drops add 87 trace minerals to any drink for about $0.10 per serving. Zero sugar, zero flavor — you won't taste a thing.

The Great Salt Lake: Nature's Mineral Reservoir

Utah's Great Salt Lake is one of the most mineral-dense bodies of water on Earth. Over thousands of years, snowmelt from the Wasatch Mountains has carried dissolved minerals into the lake basin. Because the Great Salt Lake has no outlet, water leaves only through evaporation, and minerals concentrate over geological time.

The result: a natural brine containing 87 ionic trace minerals in ratios that closely match what the human body needs.

Salties sources its minerals directly from this brine. The process is low-tech by design:

1. Solar evaporation ponds concentrate the brine using sunlight. No chemical processing, no heat extraction.
2. Natural crystallization removes most of the sodium. This is why Salties contains 15mg sodium per serving instead of the massive sodium load of raw lake brine.
3. The remaining concentrate is bottled in liquid ionic form, the same form your body encounters minerals in natural spring water.

Per 5-drop serving: magnesium (5mg), sodium (15mg), potassium (15mg), chloride (39.8mg), plus 83 additional trace minerals.

Ionic vs. Chelated: Why Mineral Form Matters

Not all mineral supplements absorb the same way. The form determines how much reaches your bloodstream.

Ionic minerals carry an electrical charge, making them water-soluble and absorbable through the gut wall without breakdown. They arrive in the form your body uses. This is how minerals exist in natural spring water, and it's the form Salties delivers.

Chelated minerals bond to amino acids or organic acids. Most tablet and capsule supplements use this form. Better than raw mineral salts, but your digestive system still needs to separate the mineral from its chelating agent. Absorption rates vary.

Mineral salts (oxides, carbonates, sulfates) are the cheapest form and the worst absorbed. Magnesium oxide, for example, has a bioavailability of about 4%.

Liquid ionic minerals skip these absorption bottlenecks. Already dissolved, already charged, ready for intestinal transport. Liquid minerals show about 3x better absorption than tablets or capsules.

What You'll Notice

Trace mineral supplementation produces no dramatic rush. No caffeine spike, no pre-workout buzz. The effects are subtler and more structural:

• Fewer muscle cramps, especially at night and during exercise
• Steadier energy through the day, with fewer unexplained dips
• Better sleep, supported by magnesium and trace minerals that regulate neurotransmitters
• Improved skin, hair, and nails over weeks, driven by silica and zinc
• Less brain fog, as proper mineral balance supports neurotransmitter function and cerebral blood flow

These are the predictable results of giving your body raw materials it needs and has not been getting.

87 Trace Minerals in 5 Drops

Add Salties to water, coffee, juice, smoothies, tea, or anything else you drink. No taste, no sugar, no calories, no disruption to your routine.

A University of Montana clinical study confirmed that Salties hydrates 64% better than water alone. That improvement comes from the full mineral matrix working together to improve cellular fluid uptake, not from any single electrolyte in isolation. Read more about the research behind Salties.