Explain the Copper Toxicity in Human?

Acute copper toxicity in humans is rare and occurs due to inadvertent consumption of copper salts. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, haemolytic anaemia, renal and liver damage. Clinical symptoms of chronic copper toxicity appear when the capacity for protective copper binding in the liver is exceeded which include jaundice, liepatitis and liver cirrhosis.

Apart from an abnormally high or low intake, copper imbalance in various tissues may also develop as a consequence of genetic disturbances in the metabolism of copper. The most important one's being the Menke's and the Wilson's disease. We will learn about these diseases while studying about selenium in section 10.6. Now that you have realized the importance of copper in our diet, let us now move on to the understanding of various assessment parameters of copper status.