Nine systems, sixty-six nutrients, forty-seven organs — and the map that puts them in the same room. The last lesson of the course, and the one that closes the claim the rest of it rests on.
~13 min read
A body is sustained by nutrition and directed by chemistry. The oils courses are the chemistry: molecules that reach a cell and change what it is doing. This course is the nutrition — the material the body is built out of, and rebuilt out of, daily.
The two halves were introduced together in Natural Solutions and then taught apart, because nobody learns what a terpene does to a membrane and what a mineral does inside an enzyme in the same afternoon. They were never separate in the body. The join is the body system: the Body Systems course teaches nine from the chemistry side, and the same nine are below, answering the other question — what is this system made of?
The two halves are not interchangeable
Nutrition is material: a calcium ion becomes part of a bone, an amino acid part of a protein that was not there yesterday. Chemistry is instruction — a molecule that arrives, is read, and leaves without becoming anything.
Each of the sixty-six nutrients is linked once, under the system it sits closest to, and named again wherever else it serves. Most serve two. The product range differs by market.
Diagram to come
A bipartite map read left to right. Left column: the nine body systems as stacked labelled bands in course order. Right column: the eight nutrient groups as stacked labelled bands. Curved lines run between them, one per system-to-group relationship present in the registry, with line weight showing how many nutrients that relationship carries. Five lines are drawn heavier and in a second colour — the five nutrients that serve three systems each — and those five are named on their own lines. The visual point is that almost nothing connects to only one band: the middle of the drawing should look woven, not parallel.
A tube running through you, and everything inside it is technically still outside your body. Its job is to reduce food to pieces small enough to cross a wall one cell thick — work done by smooth muscle, by secretions of acid, bile and enzymes, and by microbes that are not human tissue.
[Protease](/healer/learn/nutrients/protease)
Cuts the peptide bonds in a protein, down to absorbable amino acids.
[Amylase](/healer/learn/nutrients/amylase)
Cuts starch into short chains and single sugars, starting in the mouth.
[Lipase](/healer/learn/nutrients/lipase)
Cuts fat into fatty acids and glycerol, the step that makes a fat-soluble vitamin absorbable.
[Lactase](/healer/learn/nutrients/lactase)
Cuts lactose into glucose and galactose. Production naturally falls after childhood.
[Cellulase](/healer/learn/nutrients/cellulase)
Cuts plant cell-wall cellulose, which humans cannot.
[Lactobacillus](/healer/learn/nutrients/lactobacillus)
Ferments sugars to lactic acid through the small intestine.
[Bifidobacterium](/healer/learn/nutrients/bifidobacterium)
Dominates the large intestine, fermenting fibre the human side cannot touch.
[Prebiotic fibre](/healer/learn/nutrients/prebiotic-fibre)
Not a nutrient for you but for them: carbohydrate reaching the colon intact.
[Ginger root](/healer/learn/nutrients/ginger-root)
Gingerols, the compound class the oil also carries.
[Milk thistle](/healer/learn/nutrients/milk-thistle)
Silymarin, a flavonoid complex from the seed, tied to the liver.
[Dandelion](/healer/learn/nutrients/dandelion)
Root and leaf, bitter, long used around bile flow.
Molybdenum, turmeric root, curcumin, burdock root and [peppermint leaf](/healer/learn/nutrients/peppermint-leaf) also serve here, from DigestZen TerraZyme, PB Assist+, ZenGest Softgels and Zendocrine Detoxification Complex. See the digestive system lesson; most absorbing happens at the small intestine, most secreting at the pancreas.
The odd one on the list: not a set of organs but a process running in every cell you have. Fuel is taken apart in stages inside mitochondria, and almost every step needs a helper molecule that is not itself fuel.
[Riboflavin](/healer/learn/nutrients/riboflavin)
Vitamin B2. Becomes FAD and FMN, the carriers shuttling electrons through the reactions that release energy.
[Niacin](/healer/learn/nutrients/niacin)
Vitamin B3. Becomes NAD and NADP, the most used electron carriers.
[Manganese](/healer/learn/nutrients/manganese)
At the active site of the enzyme handling reactive oxygen in mitochondria.
[Molybdenum](/healer/learn/nutrients/molybdenum)
Needed in vanishingly small amounts, by enzymes finishing sulphur amino acids.
[L-carnitine](/healer/learn/nutrients/l-carnitine)
Carries long-chain fatty acids into the compartment where fat is burned.
[CoQ10](/healer/learn/nutrients/coq10)
Sits in the mitochondrial membrane, passing electrons along the chain that makes ATP.
[Alpha-lipoic acid](/healer/learn/nutrients/alpha-lipoic-acid)
A cofactor at two gateway steps into the citric acid cycle.
[Green tea extract](/healer/learn/nutrients/green-tea-extract)
Standardised for EGCG, a catechin.
Thiamin, vitamin B6, biotin, iron, iodine, chromium, phosphorus, the branched-chain amino acids, resveratrol, milk thistle and prebiotic fibre serve here too, from Microplex VMz, Alpha CRS+, Mito2Max and MetaPWR Assist. The metabolic system lesson covers the process; look inside it at cells and mitochondria.
Breathing moves about half a litre of air at rest, twelve to twenty times a minute, without a decision being made. At the end of the airway are roughly three hundred million alveoli, and the membrane between air and blood is thin enough that oxygen crosses by diffusion alone.
[Quercetin](/healer/learn/nutrients/quercetin)
A flavonol from onions and apples. An antioxidant in the strict sense — it gives up an electron to a reactive molecule without becoming reactive itself.
[Peppermint leaf](/healer/learn/nutrients/peppermint-leaf)
The whole leaf rather than the oil, so menthol arrives alongside the flavonoids distillation leaves behind.
Two entries is the thinnest list here, and the reason is worth sitting with. Respiratory tissue is not built from anything exotic — collagen, the same membranes, the same amino acids as everywhere else — so what matters most to it is already on other lists. The short section means a system with nothing unique to itself.
Alpha CRS+, DigestZen TerraZyme and ZenGest Softgels carry these two. See the respiratory system lesson, and the lungs.
Around eighty-six billion neurons, signalling electrically along their own length and chemically across the gap to the next. The brain is roughly sixty per cent fat by dry weight and the insulation that makes fast signalling possible is a fatty sheath — so this system depends unusually on fat quality, and on the B vitamins that build neurotransmitters.
[Thiamin](/healer/learn/nutrients/thiamin)
Vitamin B1, needed where glucose enters the energy cycle — and nerve tissue runs on glucose.
[Vitamin B6](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-b6)
Cofactor for the enzymes that build several neurotransmitters from amino acids.
[Vitamin B12](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-b12)
Needed for the normal formation of the myelin sheath. Built around a cobalt atom.
[DHA](/healer/learn/nutrients/dha)
The structural omega-3, built into neuronal membranes and concentrated in the brain.
[Lutein](/healer/learn/nutrients/lutein)
A carotenoid in the macula of the eye, where it absorbs short-wavelength light.
[Ginkgo biloba](/healer/learn/nutrients/ginkgo-biloba)
Leaf extract standardised for flavone glycosides and terpene lactones.
[Wolfberry](/healer/learn/nutrients/wolfberry)
Also called goji. Carries zeaxanthin, alongside lutein.
Folate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, alpha-lipoic acid and mushroom extracts also serve here, from Microplex VMz, xEO Mega, Alpha CRS+ and DDR Prime. The nervous system lesson covers signalling; its reach is easiest to see at the peripheral nerves.
Not a system in one place: cells made in marrow, matured in the thymus, stationed in lymph nodes and spleen. They are replaced constantly and multiply quickly when called on, which makes this the most protein-hungry system of the nine.
[Vitamin C](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-c)
Concentrated inside white blood cells at many times the plasma level. Also cofactor for collagen synthesis.
[Zinc](/healer/learn/nutrients/zinc)
Required by several hundred enzymes and by the zinc-finger proteins that read DNA.
[Baicalin](/healer/learn/nutrients/baicalin)
A flavone glycoside from Chinese skullcap root.
[Acerola cherry](/healer/learn/nutrients/acerola-cherry)
One of the densest natural sources of vitamin C known.
[Mushroom extracts](/healer/learn/nutrients/mushroom-extracts)
Fungal cell walls carry beta-glucans, which human digestion does not break down.
Vitamins A and D, selenium, EPA, the essential amino acids, quercetin, boswellia, wolfberry and both probiotic genera also reach here — a reminder that a large share of immune cells are stationed along the gut wall. The thymus and the bone marrow explain the odd anatomy of the immune system.
Chemical messaging at distance. A gland releases a hormone into the blood, which carries it past every cell, and only cells with the matching receptor respond — the slowest signalling system, and the one place a mineral is an ingredient rather than a helper.
[Iodine](/healer/learn/nutrients/iodine)
Built into thyroid hormone itself: three iodine atoms in one form, four in the other.
[Selenium](/healer/learn/nutrients/selenium)
Needed by the enzymes converting one thyroid hormone into the other. The thyroid holds more per gram than any other tissue.
[Chromium](/healer/learn/nutrients/chromium)
Involved in the normal action of insulin at the cell surface.
[Pantothenic acid](/healer/learn/nutrients/pantothenic-acid)
Vitamin B5. Becomes coenzyme A, needed to build steroid hormones — the chemistry the adrenal glands run on.
[Lycopene](/healer/learn/nutrients/lycopene)
The carotenoid that makes a tomato red.
Vitamin D, zinc, boron and GLA also serve here — vitamin D most interestingly, since it is not really a vitamin but the precursor to a hormone. The endocrine system lesson covers the glands as a set.
About five litres of blood, moved by a muscle contracting roughly a hundred thousand times a day, through a vessel network tens of thousands of kilometres long. Blood itself is a tissue, not a fluid.
[Iron](/healer/learn/nutrients/iron)
Sits at the centre of haem, the ring binding oxygen in haemoglobin.
[Folate](/healer/learn/nutrients/folate)
Vitamin B9. Needed for DNA synthesis, and so for the normal formation of red cells.
[Copper](/healer/learn/nutrients/copper)
Needed by the enzyme cross-linking elastin and collagen in vessel walls.
[Potassium](/healer/learn/nutrients/potassium)
The main positive ion inside cells, half of the gradient that makes a heartbeat.
[EPA](/healer/learn/nutrients/epa)
The omega-3 converted into short-lived signalling molecules. Contributes to normal heart function.
[ALA](/healer/learn/nutrients/ala)
The plant omega-3, converted onward to EPA at only a few per cent.
[Oleic acid](/healer/learn/nutrients/oleic-acid)
The monounsaturated fat making up most of olive oil.
[Resveratrol](/healer/learn/nutrients/resveratrol)
A stilbene from grape skin and Japanese knotweed.
[Pomegranate extract](/healer/learn/nutrients/pomegranate-extract)
Punicalagins, a tannin found in quantity almost nowhere else.
[Grape seed extract](/healer/learn/nutrients/grape-seed-extract)
Proanthocyanidins — chains of flavonoid units.
Thirteen further nutrients serve here, more than any other system draws from elsewhere: vitamins C, E and K, niacin, B12, magnesium, DHA, L-carnitine, CoQ10, lycopene, ginkgo biloba, dandelion and green tea extract, from Microplex VMz, xEO Mega, Alpha CRS+ and Yarrow | Pom. The cardiovascular system lesson covers the circuit; read blood first.
Two hundred and six bones, about six hundred muscles, and the tendons, ligaments and cartilage between them. Bone is living tissue — roughly sixty-five per cent mineral, thirty-five per cent organic — rebuilt continuously, which is why its nutrient list is the longest here.
[Calcium](/healer/learn/nutrients/calcium)
Ninety-nine per cent is in bones and teeth; the last per cent runs muscle contraction and nerve signalling.
[Phosphorus](/healer/learn/nutrients/phosphorus)
The other half of the hydroxyapatite crystal, and the P in ATP.
[Magnesium](/healer/learn/nutrients/magnesium)
About sixty per cent sits in bone; the rest is cofactor to hundreds of reactions.
[Vitamin D](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-d)
Regulates how much calcium is absorbed from the gut at all.
[Vitamin K](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-k)
Activates osteocalcin, the protein binding calcium into the matrix. Without it the calcium is present but unplaced.
[Boron](/healer/learn/nutrients/boron)
Involved in how the body handles calcium, magnesium and vitamin D.
[Essential amino acids](/healer/learn/nutrients/essential-amino-acids)
Nine of them, none of which the body can make. Muscle protein is rebuilt daily.
[Branched-chain amino acids](/healer/learn/nutrients/branched-chain-amino-acids)
Leucine, isoleucine and valine, metabolised in muscle rather than liver.
[Curcumin](/healer/learn/nutrients/curcumin)
The yellow diarylheptanoid in turmeric. Poorly absorbed alone.
[Turmeric root](/healer/learn/nutrients/turmeric-root)
The whole rhizome, carrying the curcuminoid set plus its turmerones.
[Boswellia](/healer/learn/nutrients/boswellia)
Frankincense resin standardised for boswellic acids — too heavy to survive distillation.
Diagram to come
A cutaway of a long bone opening into three progressively closer views, left to right. First: the whole bone with compact outer layer, spongy interior and marrow cavity marked. Second: the lattice of spongy bone. Third: the matrix at molecular scale — collagen fibres running lengthwise with hydroxyapatite crystals packed along them, and small callouts naming the nutrient supplying each component: calcium and phosphorus to the crystal, amino acids to the collagen fibre, vitamin K to the osteocalcin binding the two, vitamin D standing outside the bone at the gut wall where absorption is decided. A percentage bar under the third view shows sixty-five per cent mineral against thirty-five per cent organic.
Manganese, EPA, collagen peptides, astaxanthin and ginger root also serve here, from Bone Nutrient Complex, TerraMix Plant Protein, Turmeric Dual Chamber Capsules and Deep Blue Polyphenol Complex. The musculoskeletal system lesson covers movement; the joints are where the two halves of this list meet.
Skin, hair, nails, sweat and sebaceous glands — around one and a half to two square metres, and the heaviest single organ you have. The outer layer is replaced roughly every four weeks, and a fast-turning tissue is a hungry one.
[Vitamin A](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-a)
Regulates how keratinocytes mature as they move outward.
[Vitamin E](/healer/learn/nutrients/vitamin-e)
Fat-soluble, so it sits in membranes, giving up an electron to stop a chain running on.
[Biotin](/healer/learn/nutrients/biotin)
Cofactor for the enzymes building fatty acids, including the barrier lipids of the skin.
[GLA](/healer/learn/nutrients/gla)
An omega-6 from borage and evening primrose, built into the lipid layer that holds water in.
[Collagen peptides](/healer/learn/nutrients/collagen-peptides)
Collagen cut into short chains, because whole collagen is too large to absorb.
[Astaxanthin](/healer/learn/nutrients/astaxanthin)
The carotenoid that makes salmon pink. It spans a membrane end to end.
[Burdock root](/healer/learn/nutrients/burdock-root)
A bitter root used in European and Japanese herbal practice.
Vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, copper, ALA, oleic acid, baicalin, pomegranate extract, grape seed extract, lutein and acerola cherry also reach here, from Microplex VMz, xEO Mega, TerraGreens and Yarrow | Pom. The integumentary system lesson is the topical half; the sebaceous glands are most directly downstream of what is eaten.
Read the nine in a row and the same names keep coming back. Of the sixty-six nutrients in the library, five serve three systems each — vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and EPA. Three serve exactly one, and all three are digestive enzymes. The other fifty-eight serve two.
The five that reach furthest do so because of what kind of molecule each one is — four different reasons wearing the same word.
An enzyme is a protein folded into a shape with a pocket in it. The pocket holds the molecules being worked on in exactly the right orientation, close enough and long enough for a reaction that would otherwise almost never happen to happen millions of times a second. An enzyme does not supply force; it supplies position.
Many enzymes cannot do that with protein alone. The pocket needs something the twenty amino acids cannot provide — a charge, a shape, or an atom that will hold an electron for a moment and give it back. That is a cofactor. When it is a metal ion, three or four side chains reach in and grip it, which is why the ion is not optional: the pocket is built around it.
Magnesium — a charge shield
ATP carries three phosphate groups in a row, all negative, all repelling each other. A magnesium ion sits between two of them and cancels enough of that repulsion for an enzyme to grip the molecule and cut it cleanly. The cell does not really use ATP — it uses Mg-ATP. That is why one mineral appears in several hundred enzyme reactions.
Zinc — a shape and a polariser
Zinc does two unrelated jobs. In zinc-finger proteins it holds a loop in the shape that lets it grip DNA. In carbonic anhydrase it polarises a water molecule until that water will attack carbon dioxide, at around a million turnovers a second. Both need the same ion, which is why zinc turns up wherever cells divide fast.
Vitamin D — not a cofactor at all
Converted in two steps into a hormone. That hormone binds a receptor inside the cell nucleus, and the pair binds DNA and changes which genes are read. It reaches three systems not because three enzymes need it but because the receptor is in most tissue types.
EPA and DHA — material and message
Not cofactors either. They are built into membranes as structure, where their kinked shape keeps a membrane fluid, and converted into short-lived local signals. A nutrient that is both material and message will always be on more than one list.
Diagram to come
Centre: a single magnesium ion drawn small and plain. Radiating from it, five different enzyme pockets drawn as distinct folded shapes, each labelled with the system it belongs to and the reaction it runs — a phosphate transfer, a DNA synthesis step, a muscle ATPase, a step in the citric acid cycle, a nerve-signalling enzyme. The five pockets must look genuinely different from one another; the point of the drawing is that the same ion fits into shapes with nothing else in common. A small inset at the bottom shows the ion sitting between two phosphate groups of ATP with the negative charges marked.
The nine used here are a choice. Standard anatomy usually counts eleven, listing the urinary and reproductive systems separately and keeping the lymphatic apart from the immune. This curriculum folds the lymphatic in, and adds a metabolic system classical anatomy does not recognise at all — because metabolism is a process, not an organ group. Defensible, and still a choice.
The organ library makes the seams visible. The pancreas belongs to three systems; the liver, skin, bone marrow, blood and thyroid to two each. That is not untidy data. It is what happens when you draw lines on something that does not have any.
The same holds for the nutrients. A body does not keep separate supplies: there is one bloodstream, and magnesium absorbed at breakfast is not allocated to bone or to nerve. It enters a shared pool and is drawn on by whatever needs it, in an order the body decides and you do not. So the value of this map is not that it says what to take for what. It says where to look — and that half of what you find is working elsewhere at the same time.
What this map does not contain is an amount, a form, or a reason to take anything. Deciding what belongs on your own shelf is the work of building your stack, and it starts from food: a supplement adds to a varied diet and does not replace one. Nothing here replaces professional medical care — a healer at home and a practitioner do different jobs.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. A dietary supplement does not replace a varied diet. If you are pregnant, nursing, under medical care or taking medication, speak to your healthcare practitioner before using any supplement.
That is the course. It began with whether a supplement is worth taking at all, and ends with the body it is for.
Lesson 12 of 12 · Nutrition