Ever heard of humic acid? No? Even those of you who have heard of it, did you know that humic acid benefits are not restricted to plants and botanical life forms alone? Confused? Confounded? Read ahead to rid yourself of ignorance!
Before we embark upon discussing the benefits, let’s first get acquainted with the humic acid itself. So, what is humic acid? Where is it found and what are its utilities? Well, humic acid is the byproduct of biodegradation of organic matter that is no longer living. This byproduct is acidic in nature and is found in abundance in organic residues of dead organic matter that is undergoing decay due to microbial action. Such decaying organic matters are known as humic substances, hence, the name. Contrary to what many people believe, humic acid is not a single acidic compound.
On the contrary, it is a mixture of several different acids belonging to carbolic acid and carboxylic acid groups. Humic acid is a chief constituent of humus – the organic material found in soil that encourages the growth of plants by providing organic nutrition that is taken in by the roots from the soil. Humic acid is also found in abundance in peat, oceans, humic lakes (common to taiga regions of Europe, Asia and North America), etc. That being said, how does humic acid qualify as being beneficial for human health? The following segment seeks to explain this phenomenon.
Benefits of Humic Acid for Humans
Before I divulge the details of humic acid health benefits, let us take a closer look at this dark-colored organic substance at the molecular level to understand exactly what effect it has on human health and wellness. The most peculiar thing about a humic acid molecule is that it can bind to positively as well as negatively charged ions as each humic acid molecule acts as both donor as well as receiver of electrons, depending upon the situation and balancing requirement.
To put it in other words, this molecular property makes humic acid an excellent antioxidant as it tends towards and devours free radicals, cleaning them out before they get an opportunity to run free in the body and stay long enough to cause degenerative diseases. Following are some other properties of humic acid that are believed to be beneficial and have the potential to open the doors of a number of medical breakthroughs!
Immune System Boosting Properties
Humic acid is composed of complex sugars that act as catalysts, encouraging the body to produce glycoproteins that bind to the two chief lymphocytes that perform immune functions – the Natural Killer Cells and T-Cells. This binding causes these immune system cells to remain balanced by establishing a communication pathway among them.
This function of humic acid enables the immune system to identify the body’s own dead cells from infected cells which is very important in cases of serious injuries from burns and radiation as an inability to differentiate between dead and infected cells causes the immune system to attack the body’s own dead cells. This can lead to serious infections post injury.
Anti Viral Properties
Laboratory experiments using soil samples containing humic acid and humates have shown strong anti viral properties when experimented upon certain strains of rhinovirus (the chief common cold and influenza pathogen), herpes simplex virus (HPV), coxsackie virus and even the much dreaded human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)! That could mean that the cure for herpes and HIV/AIDS could very well be available in the near future!
Blood Detoxifying Effects
Fulvic acid present in humates is a powerful natural chelate which, when it enters the bloodstream, has the effect of detoxifying the blood by removing traces of toxic heavy metals such as mercury and lead from the blood stream.
Apart from being potent anti viral agent, humates also have specific anti microbicidal properties. When added to soil, humates eliminate harmful microbes from the soil, but retain the good ones so that only beneficial microbes are passed on to organisms that feed on these plants. Also by adding humates to agricultural soil, absorption of toxic heavy metals by plants from soil is prevented.
Most of the time, these heavy metals are passed on to animals and humans when food crops are grown in fulvic acid deficient soil. Apart from filtering microbes (that is, keeping the good ones in and eliminating the vile ones) in plants, humates perform a similar action when they enter the bodies of grazing cattle. This keeps livestock reared on farms having humic acid rich soil healthier and relatively disease free.
Humic acid supplements are available in most medical stores these days and can be consumed as oral antioxidants. However, in order to yield maximum humic acid benefits, make sure you get one that is of very high quality, meaning the humate content has undergone extensive sterilization and the product qualifies the standards set for consumable medications manufactured from and containing microbial sources.
