Nutrient Thieves: Have You Been Robbed?
Through the years, I’ve written and spoken on seasonal dietary adjustments. The transition from Winter’s foods to Springtime foods is the most drastic of all seasonal shifts, in my opinion. Winter’s heavier, higher-in-fat and calorie foods do not serve our body’s physiological needs well in the Spring season.
Optimal wellness depends on our body’s ability to digest and absorb a food’s nutrients (vitamins and minerals). Making the seasonal transition from heavy foods to lighter-leaner-cleaner-fresher foods supports our body’s internal cycles. Spring is the season when the body does major internal cleansing and detoxing. The fresh foods of Spring support that process. You benefit from improved nutrient absorption when you support your body’s natural functions and rhythms.
Having an awareness of seasonal food function and its connection to vital nutrient absorption should be a wellness priority for all of us. Another area, equally as important, is the area of nutritional deficiencies caused by medications––prescription and over-the-counter.
Coming out of 2020 into this new year, the heightened concern about immune health and excess stress may have lead some of us to take more medications than we previously consumed. It’s not widely published how common medications deplete your body of nutrients essential to vibrant health. Let’s look at some of the ways we may have been robbed (nutritionally) from medications:
• Antibiotics: Beneficial micro-organisms (probiotics) in the gut are depleted and cannot absorb or produce because antibiotics are present in the gut. Other depleted nutrients include B-Vitamins, Iron, Calcium and Magnesium.
• Acid Blockers: Almost every nutrient is depleted because the stomach’s pH is altered with these drugs. Stomach acid is necessary for the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
• Anti-depressants (Psychotropic Meds): These medications deplete your natural melatonin production which may reduce quality sleep. Other depleted nutrients include B-Vitamins, CoQ10 and the mineral selenium.
• Anti-hypertensive (Blood Pressure Drugs): Used to prevent heart attacks, especially in high- risk people, these meds deplete Calcium and Magnesium, Sodium and Potassium, Zinc, and Vitamin D.
• Anti-anxiety: Much like Anti-depressant meds, these deplete melatonin.
• Anti-inflammatory: These medications range from prescription to over-the-counter (NSAIDs) strengths, and all formulas contribute to nutrient depletion with possible gut and liver damage. Loss of iron and Vitamin C and B-vitamins.
• Cholesterol Lowering Drugs: Widely prescribed statin drugs deplete the body of CoQ10, B- vitamins, Vitamin D and most minerals.
• Diabetes Medications (Oral Hypoglycemics): This is a long list of meds that greatly deplete the B-vitamins, especially B-12 and CoQ10. The depletion of B-12 and folic acid causes an increase in homocysteine levels, which contributes to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
• Hormone Replacement Medications: Vitamins C, B-6 and B-12, folic acid, magnesium, zinc and most minerals are depleted when hormone containing meds are taken. The gut also becomes depleted of healthy probiotics. These nutrients are necessary for a healthy heart and mood.
• Thyroid Medications: These deplete your stores of iron and calcium.
Many of the symptoms experienced may be from multiple-medication interactions or from nutritional deficiencies. This is an important conversation that we should all have with our health care providers or pharmacist––sooner rather than later. I learned several interesting tips when I was researching this article and I plan to visit with my health provider soon! Most of us are not aware how widespread a problem drug induced nutrient depletion has become.
It is a sad fact that nearly fifty-percent of all American adults take at least one prescription medication on a regular basis. Twenty-percent take more than three prescriptions. Americans already suffer from nutrient deficiencies, so knowing that their meds may be robbing them of additional nutrients gives them an opportunity to fill in the nutritional gaps before their health suffers further.