There are many different ways in which minerals and trace elements can be obtained. Traditional fish and seaweed eating cultures such as the Japanese would get their supplies from their diet. Mountain dwellers obtain their minerals from water and food. Organic gardeners obtain theirs through using good organic manure such as seaweed manure, leaf mould, ground volcanic rock, etc. Mineral baths and spas, with highly mineralised water, were once widely used as mineral sources in Europe.
Many people today rely on supplements, in pills, powders or liquids.
Sources include ready made drinks, as in organic vegetable and fruit juice. Yet speculation continues concerning the bioavailabilty and absorption of some of the varied preparations now on the market. In liquid supplements, vitamins and minerals are already dissolved and thus immediately bioavailable. Solid vitamin-mineral preparations instead contain inert exipients and are usually buffered so as not to cause gastric discomfort on ingestion, although this may reduce mineral bioavailabilty. This may interest researchers of biomagnetic medicine, whose attention has been focused on treatments for cancer, in association with nutritional medicine.