Parasites Are More Common Causes of a Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Nobody wants to think that they have a creepy-crawly thing in their stomach or intestines, but it does happen, especially if you have visited a developing nation in the last year or if you have been in a particularly poor or undeveloped home or community. A parasite will swoop in and take up all of the nutrients you ingest. Thus, the B12 that should go to you will go to the parasite. This is a more common cause of vitamin B12 deficiency than you might think.

Prolonged Use Of Heartburn and Ulcer Medicine Can cause Causes of a Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Some people are more prone to ulcers and heartburn than others. If you are not getting away from your problem the consult a doctor for medicine to help you to deal with all problems. However, if you are on this medication for too long, you risk killing important cells in the body. These cells help the body absorb and use vitamin B12. Thus, prolonged use of ulcer and heartburn medicine can cause of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Crohn’s Disease and Other Digestive Diseases Are Also Causes of a Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Lastly, one of the most common and undiagnosed diseases a person can have is Crohn’s disease. Folks do not always know they have this or similar digestive diseases because their symptoms pop up on an inconsistent basis. Thus, folks may think that what they are experiencing is basic indigestion. However, digestive diseases are major causes of vitamin B12 deficiency. This is because the body’s stomach and intestine cells are destroyed or harmed by the disease. This makes it all the more harder for the body to use the vitamins a person ingests. With enough time, this causes of vitamin B12 deficiency. In fact, if you are identified with Crohn’s or a similar disease then lots of doctors will treat or test you for a vitamin deficiency.

What Are The Causes Of A Vitamin B12 Deficiency? is a post from: musclefitnessclub.com

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Lately, I’ve been collecting articles with a theme, mostly accidentally. I was glancing through my list of articles and noticed that I had come across several studies on vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That got me to thinking about why there are so many nutrient deficiencies today. What is it about our lifestyle that is causing this? I can’t imagine that evolution would have allowed our species to thrive as it has were this a regular occurrence over the past few million years, so I’m assuming it’s a fairly recent occurrence.

So why not look at them all together and try to draw some common threads?

Vitamin And Mineral Deficiency Prevalence

For starters, there are thirteen known vitamins and untold numbers of minerals. The vitamins are classified as either fat-soluble – vitamins A, D, E, and K – or water-soluble – the B vitamins and vitamin C. A few major minerals are calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper, iron, and iodine. There are far too many trace minerals to list, however.

Unfortunately, I can’t find solid evidence on most of the vitamins and minerals about how many people are deficient. Here are the ones I was able to come up with from this site: [I was hoping to find some stuff on PubMed, but it doesn't seem many studies have been done, which makes sense in an industrialized nation where people are presumed to be well-nourished.]

Vitamin/Mineral Deficiency Prevalence

How Did We Get Here?

Depleted soils. Processed foods. Indoor living. Fear of the sun. Pretty much a complete rejection of the evolutionary lifestyle that sustained us for a couple million years. It all adds up to pretty high levels of vitamin and mineral deficiencies across the population. While most people aren’t deficient enough to get the overt symptoms, such as rickets or bleeding disorders, lots of us have less than recommended levels, which does have an effect over the course of a lifetime. Just look at all of the studies showing that low vitamin D levels, though high enough to stave off rickets, being tied to cancer, cognitive impairment, heart disease, and any number of other diseases.

I think there’s also one other culprit – low-fat diets. Low-fat diets tend to promote processed foods that are fortified with selected vitamins. But there’s one problem. No matter how many IU of vitamins A & D you cram into that skim milk (because skim is what’s always recommended), the body can’t absorb them without fat.

A Toxic Environment

So check out some of the stuff I came across about what specific types of pharmaceuticals do to vitamin and mineral status:

These drugs/substances lead to these specific nutrient deficiencies:
* Antibiotics – Vitamin A, B-12, C, E, K, Biotin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium
* Chelators – Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Zinc
* Anticonvulsants – Vitamin B-2, B-12, C, F, K, Folic Acid, Calcium, Magnesium
* Antidiabetics (Oral) – Vitamin B-2, B-12, C, D, Folic Acid
* Antihistamines – Vitamin C
* Aspirin – Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron, Potassium, C, B Complex

How many people are reaching for the antibiotics at every little illness? Now let’s look at the effects of deficiency of a few of these vitamins and minerals.

Zinc Deficiency

Zinc Deficiences A Global Concern

Other vitamins and nutrients may get more headlines, but experts say as many as two billion people around the world have diets deficient in zinc – and studies at Oregon State University and elsewhere are raising concerns about the health implications this holds for infectious disease, immune function, DNA damage and cancer.
….
Zinc is naturally found associated with proteins in such meats as beef and poultry, and in even higher levels in shellfish such as oysters. It’s available in plants but poorly absorbed from them, raising additional concerns for vegetarians.

The article also points out that even mild zinc deficiency is associated with higher levels of DNA damage. And of course, zinc is incredibly important for testosterone production and for releasing enzymes that inhibit testosterone conversion to estrogen.

Magnesium Deficiency

The Importance of Staving Off a Magnesium Deficiency

The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium.
….
The National Academy of Sciences has determined that most Americans are magnesium deficient, with men obtaining only about 80 percent of their daily needs with women fairing even worse obtaining about 70 percent of their needs.

But magnesium is only a big deal if you care about having strong teeth and bones, not cramping during your workouts, how effectively your heart pumps, and your blood pressure. Y’know, just a few somewhat important things like that.

Vitamin K Deficiency

New vitamin K analysis supports the triage theory – Modest vitamin/mineral deficiencies increase age-related disease

An important analysis conducted by Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute scientists suggests the importance of ensuring optimal dietary intakes of vitamin K to prevent age-related conditions such as bone fragility, arterial and kidney calcification, cardiovascular disease, and possibly cancer….
Average intakes of vitamin K in the United States and the United Kingdom are less even than currently recommended intakes, which are primarily based on levels to ensure adequate coagulation.

Unfortunately, that article recommends the typical plant vitamin K sources like spinach and Swiss chard, completely ignoring even better sources, namely animal foods. I pointed out in this fat-soluble vitamins series, that vitamin K2 is at least as important as K1 and showed some great sources like egg yolks, butter, ground beef, and liver.

I won’t run through all of the various effects of vitamin K since I’ve already done so in here. If you didn’t read that series the first time, you might want to check it out to learn more about the oh-so-important fat-soluble vitamins.

Vitamin D Deficiency

I think vitamin D is so important that I can’t really touch on it enough. And I know that I’ve written about it quite a few times. So if you want to know what vitamin D does and how having adequate levels affects you, check out these two articles:
Get Your Vitamin D Checked: Why And How?
Just How Important Is Vitamin D?

Also, one of my readers sent me this article written by his girlfriend (or fiancee or perhaps even wife) which goes a bit more in-depth than I’ve ever gone: Vitamin D Sources, Supplementation and Toxicity. Unfortunately I can’t recall who sent it to me, but thanks!

Check this out…from Ms. Perciavalle’s page:

Vitamin D deficiency is now considered to be a pandemic. Approximately 1 billion people worldwide have deficient levels of Vitamin D.

So while the media is concerned with a supposed H1N1 pandemic, one-sixth of the people in the world are deficient in vitamin D (and I’m betting a huge number that aren’t “deficient” are sub-optimal). Go check out those links to see all of the various effects of being deficient in D.

How To Resolve Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, just a high-level view at a few of the vitamin deficiencies that people don’t notice, but which cause numerous effects that are typically chalked up to “aging”. I strongly believe that most of these issues can be resolved pretty simply. And I don’t mean loading up on supplements.

Eat Real Food

For starters, we need to just Eat Real Food. No matter how fortified or enriched your packaged, processed foods are, they will never compare to real, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, and meats. So eat your grass-fed meats, poultry, eggs, and wild seafood. Load your plate up with vegetables and fruits. Snack on nuts. And ditch everything that says “Now With Added X”.

Your body needs plenty of healthy fats. Get rid of the highly processed polyunsaturated fats and go with stable fats like coconut oil and palm oil and the fat from grass-fed animals. These the healthy fats that your body craves and that retain all of their vitamins.

Eat Organic And Grass-Fed

Some studies say organic food has more nutrients than non-organic food. Other studies say it doesn’t. Regardless, I think organic is a better bet, if for no other reason than that the pesticides and fertilizers left on the food represent a toxic load for your body to deal with. I’d also imagine, though I’m guessing, that dealing with these toxins requires some level of vitamins and minerals, perhaps exacerbating nutrient deficiencies. Certain produce items have been shown to have higher pesticide contamination levels and should be your first choice for going organic.

I also found some interesting information showing that low vitamin A diets lead to increased intramuscular fat storage (i.e., marbling) in cows (I bet it does the same in humans…). You can bet feedlot farms are using that to their advantage to increase the grading of their meat, while decreasing the vitamin content of the actual meat. There’s yet another reason to eat grass-fed meats.

Should You Take Supplements?

Finally, I do take a few supplements in small amounts (and one in big amounts). I take zinc and magnesium due to my workout load, along with a large daily dose of vitamin D after testing very low, and I take a whole foods-based multivitamin as a cheap insurance policy. Other than that, nothing. I think loading up on vitamin C or E or whatever probably causes more issues than it cures since vitamins need to exist in ratios in the body, not just in mass quantities.

If you do think you need to shore up a few nutrient deficiencies, Vitamin Shoppe carries a wide range of supplements, including zinc, magnesium, and vitamin D. Just remember to look to real food first, supplements second.

What other ways do you see to shore up nutrient deficiencies?

How Our Modern Lifestyle Causes Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies is a post from: musclefitnessclub.com

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• How Our Modern Lifestyle Causes Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies
• The Top 10 Superfoods for a Healthy Diet
• The Simplest and Quickest Way to Lose Weight
• The Rainbow Colors of Nutrition
• Quick Tips to Gather A Healthy Diet Plan That Works

Lately, I’ve been collecting articles with a theme, mostly accidentally. I was glancing through my list of articles and noticed that I had come across several studies on vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That got me to thinking about why there are so many nutrient deficiencies today. What is it about our lifestyle that is causing this? I can’t imagine that evolution would have allowed our species to thrive as it has were this a regular occurrence over the past few million years, so I’m assuming it’s a fairly recent occurrence.

So why not look at them all together and try to draw some common threads?

Vitamin And Mineral Deficiency Prevalence

For starters, there are thirteen known vitamins and untold numbers of minerals. The vitamins are classified as either fat-soluble – vitamins A, D, E, and K – or water-soluble – the B vitamins and vitamin C. A few major minerals are calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper, iron, and iodine. There are far too many trace minerals to list, however.

Unfortunately, I can’t find solid evidence on most of the vitamins and minerals about how many people are deficient. Here are the ones I was able to come up with from this site: [I was hoping to find some stuff on PubMed, but it doesn't seem many studies have been done, which makes sense in an industrialized nation where people are presumed to be well-nourished.]

Vitamin/Mineral Deficiency Prevalence

How Did We Get Here?

Depleted soils. Processed foods. Indoor living. Fear of the sun. Pretty much a complete rejection of the evolutionary lifestyle that sustained us for a couple million years. It all adds up to pretty high levels of vitamin and mineral deficiencies across the population. While most people aren’t deficient enough to get the overt symptoms, such as rickets or bleeding disorders, lots of us have less than recommended levels, which does have an effect over the course of a lifetime. Just look at all of the studies showing that low vitamin D levels, though high enough to stave off rickets, being tied to cancer, cognitive impairment, heart disease, and any number of other diseases.

I think there’s also one other culprit – low-fat diets. Low-fat diets tend to promote processed foods that are fortified with selected vitamins. But there’s one problem. No matter how many IU of vitamins A & D you cram into that skim milk (because skim is what’s always recommended), the body can’t absorb them without fat.

A Toxic Environment

So check out some of the stuff I came across about what specific types of pharmaceuticals do to vitamin and mineral status:

These drugs/substances lead to these specific nutrient deficiencies:
* Antibiotics – Vitamin A, B-12, C, E, K, Biotin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium
* Chelators – Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Zinc
* Anticonvulsants – Vitamin B-2, B-12, C, F, K, Folic Acid, Calcium, Magnesium
* Antidiabetics (Oral) – Vitamin B-2, B-12, C, D, Folic Acid
* Antihistamines – Vitamin C
* Aspirin – Calcium, Folic Acid, Iron, Potassium, C, B Complex

How many people are reaching for the antibiotics at every little illness? Now let’s look at the effects of deficiency of a few of these vitamins and minerals.

Zinc Deficiency

Zinc Deficiences A Global Concern

Other vitamins and nutrients may get more headlines, but experts say as many as two billion people around the world have diets deficient in zinc – and studies at Oregon State University and elsewhere are raising concerns about the health implications this holds for infectious disease, immune function, DNA damage and cancer.
….
Zinc is naturally found associated with proteins in such meats as beef and poultry, and in even higher levels in shellfish such as oysters. It’s available in plants but poorly absorbed from them, raising additional concerns for vegetarians.

The article also points out that even mild zinc deficiency is associated with higher levels of DNA damage. And of course, zinc is incredibly important for testosterone production and for releasing enzymes that inhibit testosterone conversion to estrogen.

Magnesium Deficiency

The Importance of Staving Off a Magnesium Deficiency

The latest government study shows a staggering 68% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium.
….
The National Academy of Sciences has determined that most Americans are magnesium deficient, with men obtaining only about 80 percent of their daily needs with women fairing even worse obtaining about 70 percent of their needs.

But magnesium is only a big deal if you care about having strong teeth and bones, not cramping during your workouts, how effectively your heart pumps, and your blood pressure. Y’know, just a few somewhat important things like that.

Vitamin K Deficiency

New vitamin K analysis supports the triage theory – Modest vitamin/mineral deficiencies increase age-related disease

An important analysis conducted by Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute scientists suggests the importance of ensuring optimal dietary intakes of vitamin K to prevent age-related conditions such as bone fragility, arterial and kidney calcification, cardiovascular disease, and possibly cancer….
Average intakes of vitamin K in the United States and the United Kingdom are less even than currently recommended intakes, which are primarily based on levels to ensure adequate coagulation.

Unfortunately, that article recommends the typical plant vitamin K sources like spinach and Swiss chard, completely ignoring even better sources, namely animal foods. I pointed out in this fat-soluble vitamins series, that vitamin K2 is at least as important as K1 and showed some great sources like egg yolks, butter, ground beef, and liver.

I won’t run through all of the various effects of vitamin K since I’ve already done so in here. If you didn’t read that series the first time, you might want to check it out to learn more about the oh-so-important fat-soluble vitamins.

Vitamin D Deficiency

I think vitamin D is so important that I can’t really touch on it enough. And I know that I’ve written about it quite a few times. So if you want to know what vitamin D does and how having adequate levels affects you, check out these two articles:
Get Your Vitamin D Checked: Why And How?
Just How Important Is Vitamin D?

Also, one of my readers sent me this article written by his girlfriend (or fiancee or perhaps even wife) which goes a bit more in-depth than I’ve ever gone: Vitamin D Sources, Supplementation and Toxicity. Unfortunately I can’t recall who sent it to me, but thanks!

Check this out…from Ms. Perciavalle’s page:

Vitamin D deficiency is now considered to be a pandemic. Approximately 1 billion people worldwide have deficient levels of Vitamin D.

So while the media is concerned with a supposed H1N1 pandemic, one-sixth of the people in the world are deficient in vitamin D (and I’m betting a huge number that aren’t “deficient” are sub-optimal). Go check out those links to see all of the various effects of being deficient in D.

How To Resolve Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, just a high-level view at a few of the vitamin deficiencies that people don’t notice, but which cause numerous effects that are typically chalked up to “aging”. I strongly believe that most of these issues can be resolved pretty simply. And I don’t mean loading up on supplements.

Eat Real Food

For starters, we need to just Eat Real Food. No matter how fortified or enriched your packaged, processed foods are, they will never compare to real, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, and meats. So eat your grass-fed meats, poultry, eggs, and wild seafood. Load your plate up with vegetables and fruits. Snack on nuts. And ditch everything that says “Now With Added X”.

Your body needs plenty of healthy fats. Get rid of the highly processed polyunsaturated fats and go with stable fats like coconut oil and palm oil and the fat from grass-fed animals. These the healthy fats that your body craves and that retain all of their vitamins.

Eat Organic And Grass-Fed

Some studies say organic food has more nutrients than non-organic food. Other studies say it doesn’t. Regardless, I think organic is a better bet, if for no other reason than that the pesticides and fertilizers left on the food represent a toxic load for your body to deal with. I’d also imagine, though I’m guessing, that dealing with these toxins requires some level of vitamins and minerals, perhaps exacerbating nutrient deficiencies. Certain produce items have been shown to have higher pesticide contamination levels and should be your first choice for going organic.

I also found some interesting information showing that low vitamin A diets lead to increased intramuscular fat storage (i.e., marbling) in cows (I bet it does the same in humans…). You can bet feedlot farms are using that to their advantage to increase the grading of their meat, while decreasing the vitamin content of the actual meat. There’s yet another reason to eat grass-fed meats.

Should You Take Supplements?

Finally, I do take a few supplements in small amounts (and one in big amounts). I take zinc and magnesium due to my workout load, along with a large daily dose of vitamin D after testing very low, and I take a whole foods-based multivitamin as a cheap insurance policy. Other than that, nothing. I think loading up on vitamin C or E or whatever probably causes more issues than it cures since vitamins need to exist in ratios in the body, not just in mass quantities.

If you do think you need to shore up a few nutrient deficiencies, Vitamin Shoppe carries a wide range of supplements, including zinc, magnesium, and vitamin D. Just remember to look to real food first, supplements second.

What other ways do you see to shore up nutrient deficiencies?

How Our Modern Lifestyle Causes Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies is a post from: musclefitnessclub.com

Related posts

• How Our Modern Lifestyle Causes Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies
• The Top 10 Superfoods for a Healthy Diet
• The Simplest and Quickest Way to Lose Weight
• The Rainbow Colors of Nutrition
• Quick Tips to Gather A Healthy Diet Plan That Works