Manganese is a trace mineral, meaning your body needs it in smaller amounts than vitamins and major minerals.
The body requires manganese for immune function, blood sugar regulation, digestion, reproduction, bone health, blood clotting, antioxidant defense, and many more bodily processes.
Manganese is found in many plant and animal foods, such as nuts, seeds, seafood, fruit, and beans. For this reason, manganese deficiency is rare, and most people can maintain healthy levels by following a well-rounded diet.
Manganese is a cofactor for many enzymes. Cofactors are substances, such as vitamins or minerals, that bind with specific proteins and are essential for their activity. For example, manganese is a cofactor for manganese superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant enzyme that protects cells from damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS).
As a cofactor for various enzymes, manganese is involved in many essential aspects of health.
Necessary for Cellular Protection
Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is the major detoxifying enzyme for your body’s cells. MnSOD is found in the mitochondria of the cell and helps prevent mitochondrial dysfunction and protect the cell by protecting against and mitigating damage caused by ROS.
Manganese is a required component of MnSOD, making it an integral part of your cellular antioxidant defense.
MnSOD protects against oxidative stress, an imbalance between antioxidants and harmful free radicals. It also helps maintain cellular balance, which protects against inflammatory, neurodegenerative, and vascular diseases.
Involved in Metabolism and Reproduction
Manganese helps activate enzymes that play critical roles in the metabolism of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This means that manganese helps your body create energy from the foods you eat.
Low manganese levels can negatively affect the body’s metabolism of nutrients, such as glucose, leading to health issues.
The body needs manganese for the function of pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). These enzymes play critical roles in gluconeogenesis—the creation of glucose from noncarbohydrate sources like fats and proteins. Gluconeogenesis allows your body to maintain healthy blood sugar levels in the absence of carbohydrates and throughout the fasting state.
Manganese is also a cofactor for enzymes necessary for cholesterol production. Cholesterol is a precursor for steroid hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, which are vital for female and male reproductive health.
Plays a Role in Bone and Cartilage Formation and Wound Healing
Manganese is needed to create proteoglycans, proteins that are essential components of your bone and cartilage.
Manganese is also involved in skeletal health by regulating the activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, specialized cells that build up and break down bone tissue, respectively.
Manganese is also required to produce collagen, a major component of bone tissue and your skin. Manganese activates an enzyme called prolidase, which provides proline, an amino acid vital for collagen synthesis.
Without manganese, your body couldn’t properly produce collagen, leading to slow wound healing and many other issues, such as poor skeletal health and compromised skin health.
Unlike many vitamins and minerals, manganese does not have a Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) because there’s not enough evidence to calculate a daily requirement.
When there’s not enough information to set an RDA or Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), an Adequate Intake (AI) is used as a daily nutrient intake goal that people should aim for.
Here are the current AIs for manganese based on age, sex, and pregnancy status:
| Age | Male | Female | During Pregnancy | During Lactation |
| Birth to 6 months | 0.003 milligrams (mg) | 0.003 mg | ||
| 7–12 months | 0.6 mg | 0.6 mg | ||
| 1–3 years | 1.2 mg | 1.2 mg | ||
| 4–8 years | 1.5 mg | 1.5 mg | ||
| 9–13 years | 1.9 mg | 1.6 mg | ||
| 14–18 years | 2.2 mg | 1.6 mg | 2.0 mg | 2.6 mg |
| 19–50 years | 2.3 mg | 1.8 mg | 2.0 mg | 2.6 mg |
| 51+ years | 2.3 mg | 1.8 mg |
Manganese is found in both plant and animal foods, which is why most people consume plenty of it daily.
Here are some of the best sources of manganese you can eat:
- Mussels, blue, cooked: 5.8 milligrams (mg) per 3 ounces, or 252% of your Daily Value (DV)
- Hazelnuts, dry roasted: 1.6 mg per 1 ounce, or 70% of the DV
- Pecans, dry roasted: 1.1 mg per 1 ounce, or 48% of the DV
- Brown rice, cooked: 1.1 mg per 1 ounce, or 48% of the DV
- Clams, cooked: 0.9 mg per 3 ounces, or 39% of the DV
- Chickpeas, cooked: 0.9 mg per ½ cup, or 39% of the DV
- Spinach, boiled: 0.8 mg per ½ cup, or 35% of the DV
- Pineapple, raw, chunks: 0.8 mg per ½ cup, or 35% of the DV
- Oatmeal, cooked: 0.7 mg per ½ cup, or 30% of the DV
- Potato, flesh, and skin, baked: 0.3 mg per 1 medium potato, or 13% of the DV
- Blueberries, raw: 0.3 mg per ½ cup, or 13% of the DV
Many other foods are concentrated in magnesium, such as nuts, seeds, seafood, fruits, beans, and vegetables.
Manganese is available in manganese-only supplements and in some multivitamins and mineral complexes.
Many forms of manganese are used in dietary supplements, including manganese bis-glycinate chelate, manganese aspartate, manganese gluconate, and manganese citrate. Multivitamin supplements containing manganese usually provide 1.0-4.5 milligrams of manganese per serving, while most manganese-only supplements contain 5-20 milligrams per serving.
Because manganese is found in many foods and a deficiency is so rare, most people don’t need to take extra manganese from supplements. If you do require supplemental manganese, your healthcare provider can help you choose the appropriate dose and form of manganese for your needs.
There is no evidence suggesting that consuming high amounts of manganese from food or supplements is dangerous to health.
However, manganese toxicity can develop through inhaling manganese dust, which is associated with some occupations, such as welding and mining. Drinking water contaminated with high levels of manganese can also cause toxicity.
Manganese toxicity primarily impacts the central nervous system and can cause symptoms such as tremors, hearing loss, muscle spasms, appetite loss, mania, and headaches.
Though no reports of manganese toxicity from dietary intake exist, the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) established a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for manganese, which is currently set at 11 milligrams per day for people 19 years and older. A UL is the maximum daily intake of a nutrient unlikely to cause harm.
Manganese deficiency is very rare. Due to manganese’s roles in bone health, reproduction, and metabolism, a deficiency in this nutrient may cause bone demineralization (weakening), skin rashes, poor growth, and altered metabolism.
In experimental models of manganese deficiency, manganese-deficient people developed skin rashes, decreased cholesterol levels, and increased markers of bone breakdown. There are currently no known groups of people who are more at risk for developing manganese deficiency than others.
Manganese is a trace mineral that plays important roles in immune function, blood sugar regulation, digestion, reproduction, bone health, blood coagulation, and antioxidant defense.
Manganese is found in several plant and animal foods, such as nuts, seeds, seafood, fruit, and beans. Manganese deficiency is exceptionally rare, as most people can maintain healthy levels by following a well-rounded diet.
