Gold has fascinated humanity for millennia—sought after for its beauty, rarity, and value. But what many don’t realize is that gold is already inside us—not in treasure chests or jewelry, but within our bloodstream, cells, and bodily tissues.
Although it plays no significant biological role, the presence of trace amounts of gold in the human body is a fascinating quirk of human biology. And just as mysteriously as it resides within us, this gold is continuously excreted—a constant but invisible shedding of one of Earth’s most precious elements.
🔬 How Much Gold is in the Human Body?
🧍♂️ On average, a 150-pound (68 kg) human body contains about 0.2 milligrams of gold.
🔸 This amount is incredibly small—about one-tenth the weight of a grain of rice.
🔸 Most of this gold is found in the bloodstream, but tiny traces exist in cells, organs, and bones.
Can you see it? No—because gold in the body exists at an atomic level, making it impossible to detect with the naked eye.
🌡️ Where Does This Gold Come From?
Gold enters the body through natural sources:
✔ Food & Water – Tiny amounts of gold are found in the soil, meaning plants, fruits, and vegetables absorb it.
✔ Breathing Air – Gold nanoparticles can be present in dust and atmospheric particles, which we inhale.
✔ Mineral-Rich Environments – People living in gold-rich areas may absorb slightly more gold from their surroundings.
However, this gold has no known function in human biology—it simply exists as part of the body’s natural trace elements.
🩸 What Does Gold Do in the Body?
Unlike iron, calcium, or potassium, gold plays no essential role in biological functions. However, some interesting properties of gold in the body include:
🔬 Gold is non-toxic – Unlike heavy metals such as lead or mercury, gold is biologically inert, meaning the body does not react to it.
💊 Gold in Medicine – While our body’s natural gold has no function, medical science has harnessed gold compounds to treat certain diseases:
✔ Gold injections are used for rheumatoid arthritis to reduce inflammation.
✔ Gold nanoparticles are being studied for targeted drug delivery in cancer treatments.
While our natural gold does nothing for us, science has found ways to use gold to improve human health.
💨 How Does the Body Lose Gold?
The gold in your body doesn’t stay forever—it gradually exits through normal biological processes, including:
✔ Sweating – Tiny gold particles are excreted through perspiration.
✔ Shedding Skin – The human body sheds around 500 million skin cells daily, taking microscopic gold particles with them.
✔ Hair Growth & Loss – As hair grows, tiny traces of gold are incorporated into it, and when hair falls out, those traces are lost.
✔ Excretion – Some gold is naturally filtered out through waste.
This constant cycle of absorbing and excreting gold ensures that our body’s gold remains at trace levels, preventing any harmful accumulation.
💰 Could You Extract Gold from the Human Body?
Theoretically, yes—but practically, no.
🔸 The amount of gold in the body is far too small to be extracted or collected in any meaningful way.
🔸 Even if you extracted gold from 10,000 people, it would barely amount to a speck visible to the naked eye.
🔸 Unlike other elements in the body (like iron, which is essential for blood), gold is present in such minuscule amounts that it serves no real purpose in human metabolism.
While fictional mad scientists might dream of harvesting gold from humans, the reality is that our body’s gold is not valuable or recoverable.
🌍 Gold in the Cosmos: The Bigger Picture
What’s even more mind-blowing? The gold inside you is as old as the universe itself.
✨ All gold on Earth was created in the explosion of massive stars (supernovae) or neutron star collisions billions of years ago.
✨ That means the gold in your body is cosmic in origin, forged long before the Earth even existed.
So, while the gold in your bloodstream won’t make you rich, it connects you to the stars—quite literally.
🔍 Final Thoughts: A Precious Element in a Precious Body
Gold in the human body may not have a biological purpose, but it reminds us of:
✔ The interconnectedness of life and the cosmos—our bodies contain elements forged in stellar explosions.
✔ The strange and hidden chemistry within us—trace elements like gold exist in us without us even knowing.
✔ The mystery of our existence—why does gold, a non-essential element, naturally occur in us at all?
Though invisible and insignificant in value, the gold inside you is a quiet reminder that you are, in some way, made of stardust. ✨