Long Term Studies of Elemental Intake and Excretion of Three Adult Male Subjects

Abstract

Daily dietary, urinary, and fecal samples from three adult male subjects have been analyzed for 25 elements. The material was collected by the Kettering Laboratory of Cincinnati, Ohio, as part of the long term studies on lead carried out by Dr. Robert A. Kehoe and his co-workers. Aliquots were sent to the University of Tennessee Department of Physics for analysis. The major elements sodium and potassium were analyzed by flame photometry, phosphorus by colorimetry, magnesium, calcium, cadmium, and zinc by atomic absorption, and aluminum, barium, boron, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, strontium, tin, titanium, vanadium, and zirconium by dc arc emission spectrography. Although the details of the diets of the three subjects differed widely, the patterns of excretion after intake were remarkably similar. The correlation of peaks in the output of an element in urine with peaks in the dietary intake at times up to 21 days previously gives a clue to the length of time an element spends in the body, and the correlation of output in feces with intake provides a clue to the amount of an element which, after absorption into the body, is reexcreted into the gut.