Are you Downplaying a Deficiency?
“I’ve had an issue with low Iron for as long as I can remember…”
“I probably should book in for that B12 injection I was due for 6 months ago…”
“My Vitamin D is always low, but I should be ok if I work outdoors most days… right!?”
These are all words I’ve from clients, friends and family over the past few months. Deficiencies of nutrients like Zinc, Iodine and Calcium also have a tendency to be downplayed, even by some medical professionals. The thing is, chronic and clear deficiency states generally don't spontaneously resolve themselves, and certainly shouldn't be placed at the bottom of the to-do list.
I'm not suggesting anyone should press the panic button or take every supplement under the sun, but brushing deficiencies off as being unimportant or unmeaningful is dangerous too. It’s one thing to have ‘suboptimal’ levels of vitamins and minerals, but quite another to be well and truly in the in the red (i.e. outside of the often very wide goal posts that serve as reference ranges!).
Chronicity and severity must be considered.
Whilst short term deficiencies can affect our quality of life and daily functioning (i.e., low Vitamin D = sore muscles, or low Iron = poor exercise tolerance/ low energy), long term/ chronic deficiency states can impact the body in much more profound ways.It can be difficult to reverse or halt disease processes that may have been unfolding for many years due to significant micronutrient deficiencies by simply taking a supplement for a few weeks. There are also instances where the damage is so great, the symptoms can be irreversible, as can be the case with severe and chronic B12 deficiency.
Is meeting the recommended daily intakes (RDIs) of key nutrients enough?
Recommended daily intakes (RDIs) will ensure that most of the population is nutritionally adequate to prevent widespread deficiencies, but they don’t ensure optimal levels of nutrients. RDIs are the absolute minimum requirement, and for prevention of chronic diseases often nutrients are required at much higher levels than the RDIs. This is what the ‘Suggested Dietary Targets’ (SDTs) are for, namely the prevention of chronic disease.The SDTs are generally 2-5 times higher than the RDIs. Take Vitamin C as an example... the RDI is 45mg/day, but the SDT is 220mg/day. Even then however, medication use, stress, alcohol use, genetics, age, environmental exposures and pre-existing medical exposures can all increase nutrient demand even more.So when you see those little nutrition panels that state X food = 25% of the RDI for Y nutrient, you know this is just speaking to the prevention of significant nutritional deficiencies that are known to cause conditions like scurvy, night blindness and anaemias (not prevention of chronic disease!).
And no, this doesn’t mean that there are no upper limits on nutrients (in fact, just about every single nutrient has an upper limit of intake for safety!), but it’s good to know what the RDI actually represents in regard to it being the line in the sand we don’t want to go under.
How are deficiencies diagnosed?
For many nutrients, via a blood test. For some, via urinary collection. For others, via clinical symptoms thorough case taking.Downplaying a deficiency serves no great purpose. It doesn’t help us ‘get through the day’, nor does it help in the long run. The sooner you can restore micronutrient balance, the better!
