It the modern mineralogy an influence of minerals and the mineral world upon the human health is studied from two directions: by the environmental mineralogy and the medicinal one. Mineralogical factors of an environment have mainly some negative (irritating, toxic) effect on human health. Mineral-induced pathogeneses can be caused by a distant effect (radiation), a tactile one (contacting with easy soluble toxic minerals), through pneumonic (pneumoconiosises - silicosis, anthracosis, asbestosis, etc.) or food (toxic and traumatic exposure of mineral particles in the digestive tract) effects of minerals. The most natural reactions of a living organism on the interacting mineral individuals and aggregates are, commonly, destruction, rejection or conservation. Thus, under action are the barrier, protecting reactions of living organism on the mineral substance, and the knowledge on these reactions and their reinforcement, so as the organism protection from a direct effect of minerals define the essential targets of the environmental direction in mineralogy. The whole field of medical mineralogy includes preventive measures, mineralogical diagnostics of diseases, the mineralotherapy (psychotherapy and physiotherapy), mineralogical pharmacology, application of minerals in traumatology and as constituents of implan-tants, the mineral tooling and medicinal topomineralogy, so as prospecting deposits and resources of drug minerals.
展开▼
