Eight Steps to Resolving Medical Concerns Through Nutrition
Most blogs and websites dedicated to helping people understand how nutritional supplements can improve their health seems intent on convincing readers they should be taking dozens of supplements. This is particularly true where the concern you are trying to address is a common complaint associated with many health issues (e.g., fatigue). Most people can and should consult their physician first. However, where the physician is unable to provide assistance, either a second opinion or self-help is the natural next step.
An analytical process in important in addressing nutritional issues because many nutrients in the body need to be in balance for proper functioning. Taking handfuls of supplements with no overall plan is highly likely to threaten this balance and therefore, result in a failure to achieve results while possibly creating other health concerns. So, how do you decide which supplements to try, what quantity and for how long? In this article, I share my process for your consideration.
Derrick Lonsdale, MD suggests that there are three keys to health: genetics, stress and fuel. Individuals have no control or influence over their genetics. Steps can be taken to reduce the impact of stress on their health but stress itself is an inexorable reality. Most of us have the ability to exercise a very significant degree of control over our own nutrition. Therefore, while nutrition is not solely responsible for health, it is the most varied and readily controllable of these three factors. Moreover, most people have substantial room from improvement in their diets.
When it comes to nutrition-related issues, there are three principal problems that may exist:
- Deficiency in one or more nutrients;
- Failure to absorb and properly utilize the nutrients ingested; and
- Unique biochemical or genetic characteristics that results in a need for an unusually high level of some nutrients.
The following eight step process takes into account all of these possibilities, noting that medical testing can be enormously helpful in the process of eliminating or identifying some potential issues.
1. Track Your Diet
2. Adjust Your Diet for Problematic Consumption, Nutrient Deficiencies and Imbalances
3. Research to Determine Which Nutrients May Be Beneficial
4. Request Testing
5. Eliminate Toxicities and Deficiencies Identified Through Testing
6. Organize and Complete the Research
7. Experiment with Supplements
8. Seek Assistance
This first article will expand upon the first two steps. The remaining steps will be the subject of two subsequent articles.
1. Track Your Diet
A food tracker that reports macro- and micro-nutrient intake will help determine whether or not a diet is deficient in one or more of the nutrients being tracked. If you are not already tracking your food intake, do so for at least a week before making any changes.
Do not change your normal diet during this week. When you start recording what you eat and watching the nutritional and caloric information, it may motivate you to make changes to your normal eating habits. That is laudable and ultimately preferable but for this specific purpose, it is the historical pattern of nutrient intake that is helpful. Data from one week of atypical eating will not be instructive, so postpone any changes for at least a week.
2. Adjust Your Diet for Problematic Consumption, Nutrient Deficiencies and Imbalances
Once you have adequate data, review the data to ensure you are eating sufficient protein and check all the nutrients the tracker reports for sufficiency. Figure out what changes you will make to your diet to address any nutrient deficiencies identified by the app.
During the period of experimenting with supplements, you should eliminate alcohol, caffeine and junk foods/beverages from your diet. All of these items can place higher than normal nutrient demands on your system and interfere with nutrient absorption. If you are a regular user of alcohol, recreational or prescription drugs, consult your doctor about addressing the numerous nutritional implications the substance in question may pose for you.
Remember to review the individual amino acids that comprise your protein intake to see if you are low in any of them and adjust your diet accordingly. This is particularly important for those whose diet is low in protein and those who do not eat complete protein foods. Below is a table of the estimated average requirements and the RDA for the essential amino acids. As all nine amino acids must be available to the body, where you are low in any one of these amino acids, your body will be unable to use a corresponding proportion of the other amino acids.
A food tracker also facilitates a review of your diet to determine if the intake of one nutrient is so high that the body will need this intake to be decreased or the intake of other nutrients to be increased to re-establish balance. This will require some understanding of required nutrient balances. If you do not have that understanding, take your food tracker data to a nutritionist and ask them to assess whether or not you have any clear imbalances in your diet.
Common nutritional advice provides that omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids should be in balance. What this really means is that for most people, consumption of omega-6s is too high and omega-3s are too low. By striving for balance, you will make the appropriate adjustments.
Each of these fatty acids is used by the body, in combination with enzymes, to synthesize prostaglandins. The omega-3s are used to synthesize anti-inflammatory prostaglandins while the omega-6s are used to synthesize pro-inflammatory prostaglandins. Inflammatory prostaglandins are instrumental in fighting foreign invaders of the body. Once the invader has been conquered, the anti-inflammatory prostaglandins are key to deactivating the inflammation. If the body lacks adequate omega-3s, it will be hampered in its efforts to shut down inflammation.
Oxidant nutrients and anti-oxidant nutrients are both highly relevant to cellular activity and health. In very basic terms, the mitochondrion within a cell combines oxygen and certain nutrients to generate energy to perform necessary processes. The B vitamins and other nutrients act as catalysts, or oxidants, in the energy generation process. In the course of generating energy, oxygen atoms, known as oxygen free radicals, are expelled by the mitochondrion. Once expelled, free radicals will cause damage to the cell unless countered by anti-oxidants such as vitamins A, C, and E. In total, there are approximately 40 nutrients involved in the processes of oxidation and anti-oxidation. In assessing nutrient deficiencies, it is worth noting on which side of the equation the nutrient deficiency lies. Have you failed to supply the body with the tools to generate energy, the tools to control it, or both? Has the cell been undersupplied and/or damaged as a consequence?
Research may not reveal nutrient imbalances as the cause of particular conditions but imbalances may in fact be an indirect cause. Imbalances may prevent the body from functioning optimally or so much of a particular nutrient may be required by the body to manage the imbalance that insufficient amounts of that nutrient are available for other, lower priority processes. For example, magnesium is used in up to 800 processes within the body. If your calcium intake is substantially higher than your magnesium intake, a disproportionate amount of the magnesium you absorb will be used to manage the high calcium levels. This may mean that magnesium is not available to enable certain of the more than 700 other processes to operate effectively, which will likely lead to health complaints associated with marginal or deficient magnesium levels. Achieving balance in your diet is the first step to remedying many health conditions.
If there are problems in cellular function or health, the cells may be unable to properly absorb and utilize the nutrients. Knowing you have achieved balance and sufficiency of nutrients allows you and whatever health expert you consult to move past these basic questions to investigate concerns about absorption and utilization.
If your diet is not replete with a variety of organic fruits and vegetables, at this point consider making an effort to super-charge your nutrition by dramatically increasing your intake of organic fruits and vegetables. It certainly will not hurt and, like in the example related to dry brittle hair, diet changes alone may provide all the nutritional boost you need. The complex combination of nutrients obtained directly from foods is superior to a weak diet augmented by supplements.
Dietary changes rarely create immediately detectable improvements in health concerns. Targeted supplementation may be useful in more rapidly addressing imbalances and deficiencies created by prior dietary oversights.
To be continued…
