Phosphorus also plays a key role in metabolism the conversion of calories and oxygen to energy , muscle contraction, heart rhythm, and the transmission of nerve signals. Phosphorus is also considered a macromineral alongside calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, chloride, and sulfur in that you need more of it than trace minerals like iron and zinc.
A deficiency of phosphorus is usually accompanied by hypophosphatemia, or low blood phosphate levels, which can affect every organ system of the body and may lead to muscle weakness, bone pain, fractures, seizures, and respiratory failure. Unlike certain micronutrients, the body cannot produce phosphorus on its own. You need to obtain it from food and, if needed, a dietary supplement phosphate is the drug form of phosphorus.
The best food sources for phosphorus are meat, dairy, oily fish, and seeds. A phosphate supplement is typically used to prevent a phosphorus deficiency, a condition considered rare in the United States outside of certain high-risk groups. According to a study from Harvard Medical School, phosphorus deficiency is most commonly seen in:. Low phosphorus can also affect people with certain diseases or medical conditions, including Cushing's disease , hypothyroidism , parathyroid disease , vitamin D deficiency, and malnutrition.
Hypophosphatemia may also be caused by the overuse of diuretics water pills or phosphate-lowering drugs used during kidney dialysis. Beyond the prevention or treatment of phosphorus deficiency, a phosphate supplement may offer specific health benefits, particularly in older adults and people prone to urinary tract infections UTIs. It is also believed to enhance athletic performance and strength, although there is little clinical evidence to support this claim.
Around 85 percent of phosphorus in the human body is stored in bone. The rest is freely circulating in the bloodstream to facilitate other biological functions. Phosphorus works with calcium to help build healthy bone and teeth. These minerals are converted in the body into calcium phosphate salts that stiffen and strengthen bones. Phosphorus also regulates how much calcium is in the body and how much is excreted in urine. Doing so prevents excess calcium from being deposited in blood vessels, which can increase the risk of atherosclerosis hardening of the arteries.
In the past, there was a concern that consuming too much phosphate could throw off this fine-tuned balance, drawing calcium from bone and increasing the risk of osteoporosis bone mineral loss. A study published in the Nutrition Journal proved this wasn't the case. According to the current research, high doses of phosphate increase bone mass density BMD and bone mass content BMC while decreasing the risk of osteoporosis in adults with adequate calcium intake.
Moreover, increased phosphate intake was not associated with toxicity. Any excess phosphate in the blood is excreted either in urine or stool. Phosphate supplements are sometimes used to make the urine more acidic. It has long been presumed that doing so can help treat certain urinary tract infections or prevent the formation of kidney stones.
Recent studies, however, suggest that this may not be the case. However, UTIs are more common in women with hypercalcemia abnormally high calcium as the increased urinary calcium promoted bacterial growth. Phosphate supplements may help reverse this risk by binding with free-circulating calcium and clearing it in the stool. Similarly, kidney stones composed of calcium phosphate tend to develop when the urine pH is over 7. By lowering the pH and increasing the acidity , phosphate may able to prevent kidney stones in high-risk individuals.
Though this is not true with all stones. Kidney stones composed of calcium oxalate develop when the urine pH is less than 6.
Increasing the acidity with phosphate may only promote, rather than inhibit, their growth. Phosphate supplements are considered safe if taken as prescribed. High doses can lead to headaches, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, and vomiting.
Allergies to phosphate are rare, but it's still important to call your healthcare provider or seek emergency care if you experience rash, hives, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, or swelling of the face, throat, or tongue after taking a phosphate supplement. These could be signs of potentially life-threatening, whole-body reaction known as anaphylaxis. The excessive intake of phosphate may interfere with the body's ability to use iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc.
People with chronic kidney disease may need to avoid phosphate supplements. Since the kidneys are less able to clear phosphate from the body, the mineral may accumulate and lead to hyperphosphatemia excessively high phosphorus levels.
Symptoms may include rash, itching, muscle cramps, spasms, bone or joint pain, or numbness and tingling around the mouth. Shear modulus A measure of how difficult it is to deform a material. Bulk modulus A measure of how difficult it is to compress a substance. Vapour pressure A measure of the propensity of a substance to evaporate.
Pressure and temperature data — advanced. Listen to Phosphorus Podcast Transcript :. You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World , the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Hello - this week fertilisers, fire bombs, phossy jaw and food additives. What's the connection? Here's Nina Notman. Phosphorus is a non-metal that sits just below nitrogen in group 15 of the periodic table.
This element exists in several forms, of which white and red are the best known. White phosphorus is definitely the more exciting of the two. As it glows in the dark, is dangerously flammable in the air above 30 degrees, and is a deadly poison. Red phosphorus however has none of these fascinating properties.
So where did it all begin? Phosphorus was first made by Hennig Brandt in Hamburg in Germany in When he evaporated urine and heated the residue until it was red hot. Glowing phosphorus vapour came off and he condensed it under water.
And for more than years most phosphorus was made this way. This was until people realised that bone was a great source of phosphorus. Bone can be dissolved in sulfuric acid to form phosphoric acid, which is then heated with charcoal to form white phosphorus.
White phosphorus has found a range of rather nasty applications in warfare. It was used in the 20 th century in tracer bullets, fire bombs, and smoke grenades. The scattering of phosphorus fire bombs over cities in World War II caused widespread death and destruction.
In July , Hamburg was subject to several air raids in which 25, phosphorus bombs were dropped over vast areas of the city. This is rather ironically considering where phosphorus was first made.
Another group of warfare agents based on phosphorus are nerve gases such as sarin. Sarin is a fluorinated phosphonate that was used by Iraq against Iran in the early to mids. And was also released in a Tokyo subway in , killing 12 people and harming nearly a thousand others.
White phosphorus has also found a wide range of other uses. One of these was in phosphorus matches that were first sold in Stockton-on-Tees in the UK in This created a whole new industry of cheap lights - but at a terrible cost.
Breathing in phosphorus vapour led to the industrial disease phossy jaw, which slowly ate away the jaw bone. This condition particularly afflicted the girls who made phosphorus matches.
So these were eventually banned in the early s and were replaced by modern matches which use either phosphorus sulfide or red phosphorus. As well as in matches, today phosphorus has found other uses in lighting. Magnesium phosphide is the basis of self-igniting warning flares used at sea. When it reacts with water it forms the spontaneously flammable gas, diphosphine which triggers the lighting of the flare. Super pure phosphorus is also used to make light emitting diodes.
These LEDs contain metal phosphides such as those of gallium and indium. In the natural world the elemental form of phosphorus is never encountered.
It is only seen as phosphate, and phosphate is essential to life for numerous reasons. It is part of DNA, and also constitutes a huge proportion of teeth enamel and bones in the form of calcium phosphate.
Organophosphates are also important, such as the energy molecule ATP and the phospholipids of cell membranes. A normal diet provides our bodies with the phosphate it needs. With tuna, chicken, eggs and cheese having lots. And even cola provide us with some, in the form of phosphoric acid.
Today most of our phosphorus comes from phosphate rock that is mined around the world, and then converted to phosphoric acid. Fifty million tonnes are made every year and it has multiple uses. It is used to make fertilisers, animal feeds, rust removers, corrosion preventers, and even dishwasher tablets.
Some phosphate rock is also heated with coke and sand in an electric furnace to form white phosphorus which is then converted to phosphorus trichloride and phosphorous acid. And it is from these that flame retardants, insecticides, and weed-killers are made.
A little is also turned into phosphorus sulfides which are used as oil additives to reduce engine wear. Phosphate is also environmentally important. It naturally moves from soil, to rivers, to oceans, to bottom sediment. Here it accumulates until it is moved by geological uplift to dry land so the circle can start again.
During its journey, phosphate passes through many plants, microbes, and animals of various eco-systems. Too much phosphate however can be damaging to natural waters because it encourages unwanted species like algae to flourish.
These then crowd out other forms of desired life. There is now a legal requirement to remove phosphate from wastewaters in many parts of the world, and in the future this could be recycled as a sustainable resource so that one day the phosphate we flush down sinks and toilets might reappear in our homes in other guises such as in dishwasher tablets and maybe even in our food and colas.
Nina Notman with the tale of Phosphorus, the element extracted from the golden stream, otherwise known as urine. Next time Andrea Sella will be joining us with the explosive story of element number In a young French chemist, Bernard Courtois, working in Paris stumbled across a new element.
His family's firm produced the saltpetre needed to make gunpowder for Napoleon's wars. They used wood ash in their process and wartime shortages of wood forced them instead to burn seaweed.
Adding concentrated sulphuric acid to the ash, Courtois, obtained an astonishing purple vapour that crystallized onto the sides of the container. Astonished by this discovery he bottled up the greyish crystals and sent them to one of the foremost chemists of his day Joseph Guy-Lussac who confirmed that this was a new element and named it iode - iodine - after the Greek word for purple.
And you can hear more about how Iodine exploded onto the world's stage on next week's Chemistry in its Element, I hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye. Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.
There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld. Click here to view videos about Phosphorus. View videos about. Help Text. Learn Chemistry : Your single route to hundreds of free-to-access chemistry teaching resources.
We hope that you enjoy your visit to this Site. We welcome your feedback. Data W. Haynes, ed. Version 1. Coursey, D.
Schwab, J. Tsai, and R. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions version 4. Periodic Table of Videos , accessed December Podcasts Produced by The Naked Scientists. Download our free Periodic Table app for mobile phones and tablets. Explore all elements. D Dysprosium Dubnium Darmstadtium. E Europium Erbium Einsteinium. Disorders of magnesium and phosphorus.
Editorial team. Phosphorus in diet. The main function of phosphorus is in the formation of bones and teeth. Phosphorus works with the B vitamins. It also helps with the following: Kidney function Muscle contractions Normal heartbeat Nerve signaling. Fruits and vegetables contain only small amounts of phosphorus.
Phosphorus is so readily available in the food supply, so deficiency is rare. An RDA is an intake level based on scientific research evidence. It is set at a level that is thought to ensure enough nutrition.
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