Hair copper in normal individuals: relationship with body mass and dietary habits

This study was performed in order to 1) determine values of hair copper content among normal population of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands; and 2) to analyze the relationships between hair copper and age, sex, body mass index (BMI), kind of diet consumed (meat, fish, vegetables), tobacco consumption, and living in urban or rural environments. This study was performed on 92 randomly selected hospital workers and students of the University of La Laguna. Median hair copper was 41.35 mg/kg (interquartile range 7.79 - 109.55 mg/kg). Hair copper was significantly, inversely related with overweight and obesity, so that it was higher among non-obese or non-overweight individuals. It was also inversely related with age. By multivariate analysis, only age and meat consumption were independently related to high hair copper content.