Hey all!
Didja select grip of the tidings story non long agone almost the kid who subsisted alone on graham crackers too chocolate milk, too whose doctors ran a kazillion expensive too fancy-schmancy tests only to finally, finally figure out this wretched lilliputian guy had scurvy? SCURVY, for crissake. In the U.S. of A. of America of America, circa 2016. This didn’t gain on some British Royal Navy send 200 years ago, where all the sailors started having haemorrhage gums too a ship’s medico realized lemon too lime juice seemed to seat a quick & piece of cake terminate to that. It happened here. Now. (All I know is, every bit a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, the second I saw “bleeding gums” inward the headline, I said to myself, “scurvy.” I read the whole article only to confirm what I already knew.) I tin terminate only imagine if this boy’s diet was thence absolutely devoid of vitamin C to the dot that he landed inward the infirmary alongside freaking scurvy, that in that location are in all probability several other essential nutrients he’s deficient in. I would dear to write a scathing post service almost kid nutrition someday, but that volition have got to wait. (Plus, since I don’t really have whatever children, I sort of figure I’d live attacked similar crazy for daring to fifty-fifty suggest that I have got thoughts on the matter, thence I’ll concur off for now. [But really, what does that fifty-fifty matter, anyway? What makes someone an “expert?” There are lots of manly soul OB/GYNs. They don’t fifty-fifty have vaginas! But I digress…])
Since we’re on the topic of the most basic, obvious, key aspects of nutrition, let’s beak almost something I am an proficient on: ME!
Funny story:
I am a proud carrier of O-negative blood, which makes me a “universal donor.” This way that anyone alongside any other blood type tin terminate have my blood too live goodness to go. (Unfortunately, the contrary is non true: O-negatives tin terminate have only O- blood. Heaven forbid I were inward some sort of accident too needed blood, stat, if I got whatever form of A, B, or AB blood, I would rapidly confront some seriously fatal juju. As an O-, my blood is inward serious demand inward blood banks, hospitals, too vampire drive-thrus. (Also, mosquitos. Those things love me. My blood must gustation something FREAKING DELICIOUS to them, because if I’m exterior for to a greater extent than than iv seconds without being covered inward a protective coating of industrial-strength DEET, I volition have no less than 8 to 10 musquito bites. But I digress. Again.)
My point: I am a regular blood donor at the American Red Cross. As someone who is non routinely engaged inward heroic acts nor by too large doing anything positive whatsoever for mankind (unless ranting on my spider web log counts), donating blood is in all probability the unmarried most of import too satisfying thing I do. (Plus, every bit they say, “The life yous salve could live your own.”)
SO: I went to donate a blood several weeks agone too I got rejected because my hemoglobin was also low. (Not hemoglobin A1c, just regular hemoglobin.) This was the mo fourth dimension this has happened this year, too in all probability the tertiary or 4th fourth dimension overall. According to the Mayo Clinic, the “normal” gain for hemoglobin inward adult women is 12.0 to 15.5 g/dL. In fellowship to live eligible to donate blood, the American Red Cross requires that yous live at or higher upwards 12.5 g/dL. During this elbow grease to donate, the foremost reading was 12.0. They ran it a mo time, taking the blood from a dissimilar finger, because, well, the human trunk is just funny similar that sometimes. The mo reading was fifty-fifty lower: 11.5.
Seriously?
Seriously?
Me?
Low hemoglobin?
Um, it’s non similar I’m a vegan or anything. I swallow plenty of cherry-red meat. I don’t swallow a ton of it, but I surely don’t avoid it. So I was pretty stunned when I left the business office alongside all my blood soundless within me, too without my gratuitous cookies too juice. (KIDDING, of course. I unremarkably just accept H2O too thence leave. No demand to charge upwards on liquid glucose when you’re pretty good fat-adapted. [See here.]) As far every bit I knew, I had no signs or symptoms of depression hemoglobin, but considering it had happened a few times before, something had to live up, too I wanted to know what that something was.
Micronutrients
Naturally, I did what whatever intelligent soul would do when seeking data almost wellness too nutrition: I took to the interwebz! But instead of using it to consult Dr. Google, I asked some of the smartest people I know. People who really know what they’re talking almost when it comes to this stuff. One was Ted Naiman, MD, who is basically the best medico inward the Pacific Northwest too one of my favorite people on Twitter. (His Facebook page, Burn Fat, Not Sugar, is also excellent.) The other soul I asked was the RN who goes past times I introduced yous to here.
As always, Woo had quite the rational explanation. She basically reminded me that depression carb too ketogenic diets are to a greater extent than restrictive than nosotros sometimes realize. Even if we’re eating mostly whole, unprocessed foods, too fifty-fifty if nosotros swallow a goodness variety of foods, it’s non impossible that nosotros could soundless come upwards up curt on a few micronutrients. (This is fifty-fifty truthful of eating grassfed meats, pastured pork too poultry, too organic vegetables too fruits. Yes, we’ll in all probability acquire to a greater extent than vitamins too minerals from those foods than from their conventional counterparts, but alongside soil mineral depletion too all that jazz, it’s non out of the query that fifty-fifty the “best quality” foods [however nosotros mightiness define them] are non quite every bit micronutrient-dense every bit the same foods were a hundred years ago.)
Plus, a really sharp dot Woo brought upwards is that, inward intentionally avoiding the vast bulk of processed crap, some of us mightiness really live getting fewer nutrients than people who swallow whatever damn thing they please. Remember: all those breakfast cereals, fiber bars, toaster pastries, too materials similar that, are fortified alongside vitamins too minerals. Sure, they mightiness non live the most bioavailable or bioactive forms of those nutrients, but they’re amend than nothing. They’re non toxic; they just mightiness live a lilliputian less strong than the “activated” forms.
A tertiary number worth noting is that, due inward component subdivision to the increased satiety many of us experience on a depression carb diet (not everyone, but many of us), our total nutrient intake tends to live much lower than it was dorsum inward our SAD/higher carb days. I know mine is. Let me tell you, dorsum inward the day, I could pack some nutrient away, man! I soundless have got a pretty goodness appetite sometimes, but when I squall back almost how much I used to live able to seat away inward a sitting, I rarely come upwards closed to that anymore. Less nutrient way fewer nutrients, regardless of whether yous swallow crap or yous swallow the most pristine, anointed LCHF, keto, or Paleo diet.
So we’ve got several dissimilar ways inward which fifty-fifty a “well formulated” depression carb diet tin terminate acquire people into trouble, nutrient-wise. (And no, I do non at all believe that thing where people claim that whatever diet that requires supplementation is evidently a “bad” diet, or the “wrong” diet for you. Maybe there's a spider web log post service inward that someday.)
The depression hemoglobin thing was quite a surprise, because I had no signs or symptoms of it. (According to Mayo, “In many cases, a depression hemoglobin count is only slightly lower than normal too doesn't impact how yous feel.” People don’t typically experience problems unless or until hemoglobin gets really low.) I also have got none of the medical weather nor accept whatever of the medications that tin terminate the depression thyroid issue). The Mayo Clinic lists “frequent blood donation” every bit a cause, but I wouldn’t telephone band my donations “frequent.” (Maybe my body would, though. ;-) ) Another crusade listed is “heavy menstrual bleeding.” I don’t have got that. I do have got to confess, however, that the solar daytime I tried to donate blood too my hemoglobin was also low, I was at the tail terminate of my cycle. (Or I jurist I should say the beginning, since the foremost solar daytime of haemorrhage is “day 1,” right? So I was in all probability at almost solar daytime 4. So yeah, sure, this was in all probability a contributing factor, too it’s i I’m a lilliputian embarrassed to acknowledge I hadn’t considered until I was on my way dorsum home. [But I definitely don’t have got “heavy” bleeding.] Nevertheless, the depression hemoglobin still seemed similar something…well, similar something that just shouldn’t be, inward someone who eats the way I do.)
Iron
Not knowing what the exact crusade of the number was, I was a chip hesitant to start messing alongside things. That existence said, I figured it couldn’t wound to try some supplementation too just consider what happened. I’ve ever been hesitant to mess alongside Fe supplementation, because if yous don’t know what you’re doing, yous tin terminate acquire into problem supplementing alongside Fe – especially if your copper too zinc levels are a lilliputian off, too. These iii sort of modulate each other too demand to live inward the right ratios, form of similar calcium & magnesium, too sodium & potassium. But, never existence i to shy away from using my ain trunk every bit a chemical scientific discipline lab (case inward point: the funny-smelling chicken I ate lastly night, half-wondering if I’d terminate upwards alongside nutrient poisoning and/or salmonella [I’m fine, tyvm]), I started an Fe supplement. I am fortunate to piece of job for Designs for Health, where I have got access to some of the finest lineament too best-researched formulations on the market, too they have got an Fe supplement I felt goodness almost trying subsequently reading upwards on it.
Results: I FEEL BETTER!
Now, the thing is, I didn’t experience bad before. I surely wasn’t experiencing whatever fatigue that would have got been feature of iron-deficiency anemia. In fact, piece I had gone through a really terrible too prolonged bout of depression, I had no physical complaints, aside from some icky chronic constipation, which I mostly attributed to low-ish thyroid. But existence that I started to feel…I dunno, just a little to a greater extent than pep inward my mental & emotional step, I looked a lilliputian to a greater extent than into what Fe does. Much inward the way I had my heed blown almost the link betwixt insulin too Alzheimer’s disease, my heed has at nowadays been blown almost Fe too some of the “stuff” I have got experienced.
Now, the funny thing is, I learned these things after I had started the Fe supplement too was already feeling noticeably better. But I squall back this only hammered the points dwelling theater more.
There’s a fantastic (and expensive!) volume that is a huge wealth of information, too I honour myself going dorsum to it in i lawsuit to a greater extent than too again. It’s Nutritional Medicine, past times Alan Gaby, MD. In reading the Fe section, 2 things stood out to me directly – 2 things I had no idea were connected to iron:
- Among many other issues included inward a tabular array of weather for which Fe “may live useful for preventing and/or treating” in the instance of deficiency was: dysthymia. DYSTHYMIA!! HELLO??!! That is just what I had during the depression. This description from Psychology Today includes some of the symptoms I mentioned inward the depression post: depression self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, too it fifty-fifty says just what I said almost not feeling suicidal. On the other hand, it says anhedonia (loss of the powerfulness to experience pleasure)—which was the feeling that worried me most—is not typically associated alongside dysthymia, too is to a greater extent than feature of actual depression. (So mayhap I was somewhere inward betwixt the two. And thence again, that paragon of knowledge, Wikipedia, says dysthymia is a type of “chronic depression” – longer lasting, but less severe than major depression.) ToMAYto, ToMAHto … Either way, seeing that getting to a greater extent than Fe could assist dysthymia, too having already experienced that for myself, yous tin terminate imagine why my heed was blown a little. I mean, iron? For depression? Who knew? It’s so fascinating to me, especially because I didn’t have got the most classic sign of Fe deficiency, which would live fatigue/anemia.
- I’ve ever assumed that my style toward depression is related to depression thyroid. Well, here’s what the Gaby book has to say almost iron, thyroid, too mood inward general: “Iron is required for the synthesis of thyroid hormone too for the conversion of tyrosine to dopa too dopamine.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! You demand IRON to build THYROID HORMONE too DOPAMINE? And the slew of supplements I started taking several months agone that got me out of the depression hole include a few that are specifically designed to back upwards the pituitary too thyroid glands, AND DOPAMINE! (One of them is fifty-fifty called DopaBoost™, for crissake!) So I knew I was depression on this stuff; I just didn’t know why.
Tied alongside the Gaby volume for my number i favorite source for really reliable data on micronutrients is the Linus Pauling Institute’s Micronutrient Information Center (LPI-MIC) from Oregon State University. So subsequently having read almost Fe too thyroid—again, a connectedness I had never heard almost before—I went to consider if the folks at the LPI-MIC had anything to say on the matter.
WELL: indeed, they did:
“Severe iron-deficiency anemia tin terminate impair thyroid metabolism inward the next ways: (1) past times altering the thyroid-stimulating hormone answer of the pituitary gland; (2) past times reducing the activeness of thyroid peroxidase that catalyzes the iodination of thyroglobulin for the production of thyroid hormones; too (3) inward the liver past times limiting the conversion of T4 to T3, increasing T3 turnover, too decreasing T3 binding to nuclear receptors.”
WHAT?! Iron? And the thyroid?!
I mean, iodine, yes, of course. Selenium, yes, of course. But iron? Why has this been missing from every volume too every article I’ve ever read almost thyroid function?
All I tin terminate say is, I’m non kidding when I regularly tell yous on this spider web log that I larn novel things almost all this materials damn nigh every day. (And yes, it seems I unremarkably larn it the difficult way, piece trying to assist myself. But hey, if what I gain to discovery for the purpose of making myself experience amend ends upwards helping someone else out there, thence I’m all for it.)
UPDATE: I went to give blood in i lawsuit to a greater extent than almost 2 weeks ago, too my hemoglobin was 13.5 g/dL. (Yay!) Dr. Naiman said I should halt giving blood because I “need it for myself,” but what tin terminate I say? It really is the most selfless thing I pretty much ever do, too it makes me experience goodness knowing I mightiness literally salve someone’s life. And if I demand to popular an Fe pill in i lawsuit inward a piece or upwards my cherry-red meat intake to move along making that happen, well, I tin terminate squall back of worse predicaments to live in. (Such every bit expanse hospitals running out of O-negative blood during a volume trauma situation…) And every bit I am still a lilliputian iffy alongside taking Fe daily, I’ll in all probability cutting dorsum to every other day, or mayhap just on days when I don’t swallow whatever cherry-red meat or something similar that. Even piece experiencing the unexpected and awesome benefits of increased iron, I’m soundless a chip wary.
Now: earlier nosotros displace on, I’d just similar to dot out that naught ever suggested I had “severe iron-deficiency anemia.” I’ve never had a blood bear witness that indicated whatever problems there. (Except the depression hemoglobin, of course. But that wasn’t crazy low. More on this at the terminate of the post. We’ve got i to a greater extent than thing to cover.)
Potassium
The second fascinating thing I’ve come upwards across inward the past times few weeks regarding basic, key nutrition is potassium. Yes, kids, dull ol’ potassium.
I came across the potassium materials the way thence many cool things inward life happen: total serendipity. I flora it piece I was reading almost something completely unrelated. (Or thence I thought.) I had finally gotten around to reading Fiber Menace, a volume I’ve been important to acquire to for years. (Highly recommended, except alongside tons of caveats, such every bit the volume is quite repetitive too the writer bashes depression carb diets pretty hard. Except for that, it’s pretty great, especially for anyone living alongside IBS, IBD, colitis, Crohn’s, hemorrhoids, too whatever other colon/rectal/intestinal issue.)
The writer kept going on almost potassium. Potassium potassium potassium! Being that I have got dealt alongside chronic constipation for … well, longer than I attention to tell yous … I in i lawsuit to a greater extent than turned to the trusty Gaby volume too the LPI-MIC. (Just similar the depression, I had ever associated my constipation alongside the piece of cake thyroid, every bit constipation is a symptom of that, too as I explained here, constipation tin terminate build someone depressed, thence it’s all i nice horrible circle.)
The Gaby volume offered me really little. In fact, it said extra potassium tin terminate live helpful for treating/preventing HYPERthyroidism – pretty much the dead opposite of what I would want. But it also said that large doses of potassium tin terminate crusade diarrhea. I took that to hateful that to a greater extent than moderate doses mightiness “get things moving,” but non crusade me to demand an emergency modify of pants, if ya know what I mean...
I was fifty-fifty to a greater extent than hesitant to mess alongside potassium supplementation than I was almost iron, because wacky potassium levels tin terminate acquire yous into the form of problem (or thence it seems) that makes regular ol’ run-of-the-mill potassium supplements a maximum of 99 mg per pill. In minerals that are typically measured inward micrograms (for example, iodine too chromium), 99 mg would live a HUGE, insane dose. But for potassium? 99 mg is basically nothing. The “adequate intake,” which nosotros know tends to lowball things, is 4700 mg/day for adults. 4700 mg. Over 4 grams, too over-the-counter supplements are (by law, I think, inward the U.S.) allowed to become no higher than 99 milligrams? What-evs!
Now, the thing is, potassium supplementation can definitely crusade some serious stuff, such every bit pump arrhythmias too lots of other musculus too heart-related complications, largely due to potassium’s interest inward the sodium-potassium pumps that hold the electrochemical slope across prison theater cellphone membranes.
So I was really wary of taking potassium. But subsequently reading Fiber Menace, I evaluated my diet, too I realized that I was in all probability freakishly depression inward potassium. The foods conventional nutritionists most ofttimes cite every bit goodness sources of potassium are bananas too potatoes: 2 things I basically never eat. (I do have got dwelling theater fries or hash browns in i lawsuit inward a keen piece if I’m out for breakfast, but it’s a rare occurrence. And it surely wouldn’t live plenty to run into my ongoing/daily potassium needs.) The potassium-rich nutrient depression carbers typically dot to is avocado. Well, I seem to live the only soul on the world who can’t stand upwards avocado. Not fifty-fifty inward guacamole. Yuck. So I’m non just chowing downwards on a lot of potassium on a regular basis.
Most vegetables too fruits are goodness sources of potassium, but inward my dispassionate assessment of my diet, I realized that I was really non eating a whole lot of those. I swallow almost no fruit anyway, too for a while, I jurist I had been skimping on vegetables far to a greater extent than than I realized. It wasn’t that I was purposely avoiding them; I squall back I had just gotten out of the habit. (Or mayhap fifty-fifty I had fallen victim to feeling similar I could swallow every bit much fatty every bit I wanted too lose weight, too thence I didn’t demand to worry much almost vegetables. I was wrong. For me. I fully back upwards the people who feel their best on “zero carb” too who avoid foods from the flora kingdom every bit much every bit possible. I seem to do a lilliputian amend alongside lots of depression carb veg inward the mix. To each their own, yes?)
So: Bottom line: I figured I was in all probability depression on potassium. Not depression plenty for overt hypokalemia to live interfering alongside my lineament of life … OR WAS IT?
Now, according to the LPI-MIC, “Low dietary intakes of potassium do non by too large consequence inward hypokalemia.” But, also according to the LPI-MIC, symptoms of hypokalemia include “intestinal paralysis, which may Pb to bloating, constipation, too abdominal pain.” Well, I never had abdominal pain, but the bloating too constipation? HELLO!! And the “intestinal paralysis? Well, um, yes, if the muscles inward your intestines are “paralyzed” too non contracting too relaxing properly to displace digested nutrient through the GI tract, thence you volition live constipated. (And bloated.) And I often felt similar I had “intestinal paralysis.” I didn’t know the term at the time, but I felt similar the nutrient was just sort of sitting there, non moving along similar it was supposed to. For days at a time.
So, armed alongside that lilliputian tidbit (plus what I’d read inward Fiber Menace, and my ain assessment of my depression dietary potassium intake), I decided that it would live worth it to play around alongside supplementation. And cheers in i lawsuit to a greater extent than to Designs for Health, I had access to higher dose supplements than the ho-hum, probably-won’t-even-do-anything-for-me 99mg. Keeping inward heed that the adequate intake is 4.7 grams, I started alongside what I sentiment was a relatively high (but safe) dose. Because of the conduct chances for wacky stuff, I divided the dose too took it 2-3 times per day, alongside food.
WELL!
Again, I FEEL BETTER!
I soundless don’t squall back I’m “going” every bit often every bit I “should,” but I. AM. GOING. And that, my friends, is wonderful. Most nights at nowadays I don’t accept the combination of magnesium citrate too vitamin C that had been working for me before. I don’t seem to demand it. Maybe I was depression on potassium all along, too all the Mg + C did was mask the number past times at to the lowest degree soundless allowing me to “go” in i lawsuit inward a while. (I soundless accept Mg + C sometimes, unremarkably inward a homemade electrolyte drinkable I imbibe subsequently sweating profusely subsequently a workout or long walk inward the ninety aeroplane rut & humidity of a Virginia summer. But I don’t accept it every day, too I soundless seem to live “going” just fine. Better, even. I really have got the urge to become several times a week, rather than “having” to become only because I took a high dose of Mg citrate intentionally every bit a laxative. If yous have got never been chronically constipated, yous cannot appreciate what a huge bargain this is for me.)
At this point, it’s all wrapped upwards together: Maybe the Fe is helping my pituitary & thyroid. And if my pituitary & thyroid have got come upwards dorsum to life, thence the dysthymia/depression is mostly going away, too amend thyroid role also way less constipation, especially when coupled alongside the potassium supplementation. And since I know (at to the lowest degree for me) that chronic constipation exacerbates depression/dysthymia, thence having to a greater extent than regular BMs also makes me experience better. Honestly, I soundless have got a ways to become earlier I’ll experience the way I really desire to feel, but compared to how I was 6 months ago, I’m basically a dissimilar person. (People who know me “in existent life” have got confirmed every bit much. I'll say it again, because it has proven to have got that large an impact on my emotional wellbeing: If yous have got never been chronically constipated, yous cannot appreciate what a huge bargain this is for me.) :D
So: Fe too potassium. Of all the things, right? Of all the friggin’ things! All the fancy-schmancy programs too protocols, all the specialized lotions too potions, too it came downwards to iron, too potassium. (At least, for now. My trunk looooves to move along me on my toes!) We’re ever looking for “the side past times side large thing.” The thing alongside the long, fancy, science-y name. As I said on Twitter non long ago (including the replies), we overlook too ignore the basics to our detriment.
So, it all comes dorsum to the scurvy thing I began this post service with. With the exception of the depression hemoglobin when I went to give blood, I have got never had whatever blood tests that ever indicated whatever abnormalities alongside Fe or potassium levels. (It is debatable, of course, whether blood is the best way to assess sure nutrients, but alas. My hemoglobin has never been depression on a doctor-ordered test; only inward the American Red Cross’s office.) So I desire to dot out that we demand non live deficient inward a vitamin or mineral to the dot of an actual, overt “deficiency disease” inward fellowship to experience signs & symptoms of insufficiency or “sub-optimal” levels. You don’t have got to have got freaking beri-beri to live depression inward thiamin, or have got full-blown pellagra to have got sub-optimal levels of niacin, know what I mean? You don’t have got to live bow-legged too exhibiting signs of all-out rickets to live depression inward vitamin D, or have got a giant goiter to demand to a greater extent than iodine.
So if yous experience similar something just ain’t right, accept an honest assessment of your diet (and supplements, if applicable), too consider if there’s something really basic that mightiness live missing—and something that is really easily, simply, too inexpensively corrected. I am honestly starting to wonder how many of all our nagging lilliputian “issues” are really just basic micronutrient insufficiencies. (That could live a whole post service on its own, actually. Perhaps it volition be, someday.) For example, is it possible the semi-epidemic levels of hypothyroidism too depression nosotros consider these days are really just sub-clinical Fe deficiency? (Nah. I'm sure in that location are a bunch of other factors, but this Fe thing has been eye-opening.)
Sorry for this huge ramble. Like I said, mayhap this volition assist someone out there. (That’s kinda why I become to the problem of writing these really long posts. It seems like they’re all almost me, me me, but what they’re really about is sharing alongside yous the discoveries I build almost nutrition too health, too it just thence happens that some of these discoveries occur because I was trying to honour out why I wasn’t feeling my best.
And mayhap yous don’t demand Fe or potassium. But mayhap yous demand something, too it could live something every bit readily available every bit vitamin B6, or B12, or CoQ10, or DHA. (Or vitamin J.) If yous don’t experience your best, don’t give up!
P.S. Interesting lilliputian tidbit: Fe supplementation often results inward constipation. Not for me, haha! Designs for Health’s Fe is formulated to preclude this, but mayhap people who experience that alongside other brands just demand to a greater extent than potassium, hehheh. ;-)
Disclaimer: Amy Berger, MS, CNS, NTP, is non a physician too , LLC, is non a medical practice. The data contained on this site is non intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or preclude whatever medical status too is non to live used every bit a substitute for the attention too guidance of a physician. Links inward this post service too all others may straight yous to amazon.com, where I volition have a pocket-size amount of the purchase toll of whatever items yous purchase through my affiliate links.
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