Oligotherapy

Oligotherapy could be understood as therapy with trace elements, although as will be explained later, some nuances should be put to this statement. Trace elements are chemical elements found in all living things. Their concentrations are small, on the order of 1mg per Kg of body weight, but they are absolutely necessary for life and the proper functioning of living beings.

• Trace elements: chemical elements present in living beings in very small but very necessary concentrations.
• They have a very important role in the biochemical and metabolic reactions of our body.
• Trace therapy provides the body with trace elements it needs. Some: magnesium, fluorine, copper, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, etc.

Its role within our metabolism

Trace elements have a very important role in metabolism and that is that they act as cofactors: A cofactor is a substance that acts as an essential collaborator of enzymes. Enzymes are responsible for facilitating the performance of different biochemical reactions in the body, so that if these are not present, biochemical or metabolic reactions can occur, but with such a slow speed and such great energy expenditure, that they can become incompatible with life.

For this reason, when the trace elements do not work in the correct way, neither do the enzymes and this results in a series of alterations in metabolism, which in the patient can be expressed simply as a dysfunction (slight alteration of the function of an organ) or in more advanced stages such as a specific disease.

When to administer oligotherapy

Oligotherapy, which aims once this situation is detected, is to administer to the patient the corresponding trace element or elements that are failing in that organism, so that the processes that are not taking place in the correct way return to normal again.

Under normal conditions, these trace elements are being acquired through food and in general, food contains enough to cover daily needs. However, the fact that the trace element to be able to act as a cofactor, must be found inside the cells, makes it a complicated journey: the trace elements are taken with food, they must pass through the digestive tract, there they are absorbed , pass to the blood and from there to the interior of the cell to play its role. On this journey, trace elements may encounter some difficulties, the most difficult step is the last one: entry into the cell. Since trace elements in food are not found in isolation, it is common for there to be interferences between themselves and with other heavy metals, which alters this last and final step. Furthermore, they are not always ingested in the form most available to the cell.

Oligotherapy makes these trace elements available to us either isolated or in combinations compatible with the metabolism, in a way that facilitates their entry into the cell and therefore to its place of action.

Oligotherapy can therefore be said to be a regulatory therapy, since it simply provides the body with what it needs in the amount it needs, so that it is able to continue its normal functioning. It can be used in many different diseases: infectious diseases, functional digestive diseases, endocrinological disorders, minor psychic pathologies such as or, anti-aging medicine, etc.

The main advantage of Oligotherapy is that, by using substances typical of all living beings and in physiological concentrations (normal for the functioning of that organism), they completely lack toxicity or contraindications. For this reason, they can be used to treat different pathologies in childhood (very useful in repetitive respiratory infections, for example), or in pregnant women. Likewise, it has a very high efficiency in the treatment of certain injuries or adverse situations in the athlete (from a common cold to a muscular contracture through sprains or joint alterations), taking into account that professional athletes can take trace elements without have no doping problem, because, as has already been said, they are substances of the body and in physiological doses.

To ensure that the trace elements reach their site of action, the cell, care must be taken with the way they are administered: they are usually taken sublingually, that is, keeping the liquid (this is how they are presented) for a few minutes under the tongue and then ingesting it, preferably outside of meals.

Obviously each trace element has different functions in the body and therefore a different action when administered in oligo therapy. Furthermore, as already explained above, either individual trace elements or in association can be used, depending on which function you want to stabilize.

In a quick and summarized way, these are the situations in which each of the trace elements that are most commonly used in Oligotherapy can be used:

• Bismuth: in infectious pathologies, especially in tonsillitis and pharyngitis.
• Copper: also in infectious pathology and also in inflammatory processes.
• Cobalt: regulates the function of the smooth muscle of the digestive tract and blood vessels.
• Copper-gold-silver: it is a general stimulator of all functions: physical, mental or at the immune level.
• Fluorine: improves the functionality of the ligaments.
• lithium: relaxant of the nervous system.
• Magnesium: improves nerve conduction function.
• Manganese: in all allergic processes and in general in any pathology in which there is an excess function.
• Manganese-cobalt: in symptoms derived from menopause and in anxiety processes.
• Manganese-copper: it is used above all as a preventive of recurrent respiratory infections.
• Manganese-copper-cobalt: quickly improves symptoms in anemic patients.
• Nickel-cobalt: in digestive disorders.
• Phosphorus: to improve muscle contractures.
• Potassium: in cases of water retention.
• Sulfur: improves the quality of the tissues of the joints, the skin and the respiratory system.
• Zinc: in all dermatological pathologies.
• Zinc-copper: as a hormonal regulator.
• Zinc-nickel-cobalt: also acts as a hormonal regulator.
• Selenium: one of the most powerful antioxidants.

«Informative note: the contents included in this section offer information related to existing therapies explained by specialists with experience in the field with an informative objective. MAPFRE does not intend under any circumstances to position itself on its suitability or expressly promote its use. "