I’ve often heard it said that humans have a certain amount of gold in them. That’s not surprising, because there are probably trace amounts of gold in lots of places. But do humans need gold, biologically, to survive?
Darn, I should’ve asked this around Valentine’s Day.
It’s extremely unreactive so it’s not going to be involved in body chemistry.
QED. Done.
Thanks. That was easy. 
Is there a list somewhere of what trace elements are necessary to human health? Other than the big four (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen), the ones I know of are sulfur (two amino acids), chlorine (salinity level of blood, stomach acid, etc.), phosphorus (ADP and ATP), iron (hemoglobin), iodine (thyroxine), and cobalt (cyanocobalamine). Anything else?
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
Anything else?
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According to Wikipedia, a few more, yes.
Potassium has to be there. And calcium, no?
…yyyesssss… precioussssss…
Gold is pretty unreactive with respect to the male human body.
It falls into the category of essential elements with respect of the female human body.
Suitable supplies improve many aspects of the female response. Some appropriate forms may even trigger interpersonal reactions with the supplier 
.
Of course YMMV (but I am buying gold for the SiWife this christmas).
Si
[QUOTE=Struan]
It’s extremely unreactive so it’s not going to be involved in body chemistry.
[/QUOTE]
This does not necessarily follow. Although elemental gold in macroscopic amounts is non-reactive, gold compounds as well as gold nanoparticles can be more reactive. Dissolved gold is in fact toxic to microorganisms.
This said, there aren’t any human enzymes or other biological compounds that contain or require gold.
See here for an article on the apparent ability of some bacteria to precipitate gold.
Not necessary, but useful.
My mother had gold injections as far back as the early 50s for her arthritis, so it has been around for decades.
[QUOTE=Colibri]
This does not necessarily follow. Although elemental gold in macroscopic amounts is non-reactive, gold compounds as well as gold nanoparticles can be more reactive.
[/quote]
Some are used in human medicines if wikipedia is correct.
That’ll be the aqua regia it’s dissolved in though, surely? 
Up until about a decade ago, gold was a leading treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. It’s since been replaced by treatments with fewer or milder side effects, such as COX-2 inhibitors and methotrexate.
Exactly how gold works against arthritis is still unknown, but it was fairly effective, if very slow-acting.
