Hi Z-Health community. It’s Doc. I hope you’re doing very very well.
Today I’m going to do something that I rarely do, which is talk about specific nutrients.
In our approach to diet, dietary decision-making, we tend to be very scientifically oriented and by that we mean no one actually has the answer. You have to figure out how to personalize and individualize the diet that works well for you considering your lifestyle, considering your needs.
However, there are some more global pictures that we’re seeing that are coming out. I want to mention a couple of them today and give you some advice going forward. The two elements I mention in talking to you today about are vitamin D and magnesium.
If you look at the research around this, in 2009 particularly and I think it’s improved since then but in 2009, what was reported was that roughly 75% of all adults in the United States were vitamin D deficient. A more recent study looking at magnesium said that probably less than 50% of people are getting an appropriate level of magnesium. Again, what’s appropriate? That’s also based on some very standard and maybe old guidelines.
One of the things that we know though is that if we actually look at what people eat in the real world, very often they can have these minor deficits or deficiencies in their diet, and there are big ramifications. Now of the reasons that I’m talking about this today is that vitamin D is becoming more and more clearly linked at some level, we can’t blame it completely on it, but it’s definitively linked to depression. I’m talking about major clinical depression and mild depression.
There was actually a research article that came out a couple months ago on this. It’s been discussed for a long period of time and in fact there are recommendations in some places that if someone goes to their primary care physician and they’re depressed, the first thing that they should be tested for is vitamin D deficiency because they can mirror one another.
Vitamin D, big deal with depression. Magnesium plays a role in literally hundreds if not thousands of enzymatic processes in the body which means it’s really important. It does all kinds of things and one of the things that we notice is that people who are magnesium deficient often have gut issues and they often have energy issues because magnesium’s so important in helping the body create energy.
That’s also linked to ongoing inflammation and inflammation’s also linked to depression. We’ve got, just from these two nutrients, right, out of the whole gamut of things that we need, just those two nutrients can be very big deals.
What are your next steps around this? Pretty simple. If you have a health care professional, I highly recommend that you go in and get the blood test done and go, “Can you test my vitamin D and can you test my magnesium?” It may be worth having a broader conversation with someone that’s really involved in monitoring nutritional needs and looking at your diet with you. At a bare minimum, these two, I think, can be life-changers for a lot of people. Like I said, I recommend it.
There actually are some now test-at-home kits and other things that are available for some of these things. Do some research, get online, go, what are the signs of vitamin D deficiency? See if that sounds like you. What are the signs of magnesium deficiency? See if that sounds like you.
If it does, then you definitively need to talk to someone about this. Even if it doesn’t, I recommend that you get these tested fairly regularly until you know that you’re doing exactly what your body needs.
Like I said, it’s been on my mind just because of this research that’s come out.
I hope you found this useful. If you have questions about it, you can let us know. Be happy to help.
Hope you guys have a fantastic week. Thanks.
Article References:
Vitamin D: http://www.scientificamerican.
Magnesium Deficiency: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
For Vit. D and Depression: http://www.medscape.com/
