What Are the Elements in the Human Body?
What Are the Elements in the Human Body?Answer: Most of the human body is made up of water, H2O, with cells consisting of 65-90% water by weight. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that most of a human body’s mass is oxygen. Carbon, the basic unit for organic molecules, comes in second. 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of just six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. • Oxygen (65%) • Carbon (18%) • Hydrogen (10%) • Nitrogen (3%) • Calcium (1.5%) • Phosphorus (1.0%) • Potassium (0.35%) • Sulfur (0.25%) • Sodium (0.15%) • Magnesium (0.05%) • Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron (0.70%) • Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Bromine (trace amounts) Reference: H. A. Harper, V. W. Rodwell, P. A. Mayes, Review of Physiological Chemistry, 16th ed., Lange Medical Publications, Los Altos, California 1977.