▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
Nutrition is the material basis of life, and the metabolism, etiology and treatment of most diseases are directly or indirectly related to nutrition. When we are chronically deficient in certain nutrients, the body may also manifest itself with different symptoms.
So today I want to share with you how to judge which vitamins or minerals you lack through the common symptoms in daily life. Given the limited space, next time we will share how to eat to avoid these nutrient deficiencies.
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Of course, the nutritional value of food is related to many factors.
First, it is related to the type, quantity and proportion of energy and nutrients contained in food; second, it is related to the body's own digestion, absorption and utilization efficiency; and finally, it is related to the interaction between various nutrients contained in food, such as antagonism or synergy.
Therefore, the content shared today does not take into account individual differences, environmental factors and food processing factors, etc., and is for reference only.
Minerals
Minerals, unlike other nutrients, cannot be synthesized in the body, and a certain amount of minerals are excreted from the body every day with urine, feces, sweat, hair, nails, epithelial cell shedding, menstruation, breastfeeding and other processes. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of the human body, minerals must be constantly replenished from the diet.
Next share a few common symptoms or diseases that may arise after a deficiency or overdose of minerals.
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01
calcium
Calcium is the most abundant mineral element in the human body, accounting for 1.5% to 2% of the adult body weight, of which about 99% of calcium is concentrated in bones and teeth. Therefore, when we do not eat enough calcium in our daily diet, the following symptoms may occur.
Infants and children: long-term calcium deficiency and vitamin D deficiency can lead to growth retardation, osteomalacia, bone deformation, severe deficiency can lead to rickets, "O" or "X" shaped legs, rib beads, chicken breasts and other symptoms.
Adults: Inadequate calcium intake is prone to caries, which affects the quality of the teeth; excessive calcium intake may increase the relative risk of kidney stones.
Middle-aged and elderly people: with the increase of age, bones are gradually decalcified, and calcium loss is accelerated, which can easily cause osteoporosis (especially in postmenopausal women).
However, osteoporosis is a complex degenerative disease that is influenced by other factors in addition to being associated with calcium intake.
Analysis suggests that simply increasing calcium intake may have less effect on the prevention and control of osteoporosis and fractures in middle-aged and elderly people. There are also studies that show that after a large number of calcium supplements in menopausal women, the level of extracellular calcium will increase, and due to the decrease in estrogen levels, the protection of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases will decrease, thereby increasing the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in menopausal women.
Dairy products are one of the good sources of calcium, in addition to the dairy products themselves are rich in calcium, the lactose in milk will also produce acids under the fermentation of intestinal flora, thereby reducing the pH value in the intestine and enhancing the absorption of calcium.
However, it should be noted that the following factors may affect the absorption of calcium, and if left unnoticed, it is likely to be an important factor in calcium deficiency:
Eat too many cereals and vegetables: these plant foods contain more oxalic acid, phytic acid, phosphoric acid, and will form insoluble salts with calcium;
Drinking too much alcohol and coffee: Caffeine and alcohol intake can reduce calcium absorption to some extent.
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02
iron
Iron is an important essential trace element of the human body, is a component of living tissue, and iron deficiency is currently one of the main nutritional problems in the world.
Long-term iron deficiency can cause iron deficiency or lead to iron deficiency anemia, which is more common in infants, pregnant women and nursing mothers. But iron deficiency is a relatively long process that can be divided into three stages.
In the first and second stages, you may not feel any symptoms, and only on examination will you find a decrease in serum ferritin concentration, a decrease in serum iron, an increase in iron binding, and an increase in free protoporphyrin concentration.
In the third stage, patients may show discomfort, such as decreased appetite, irritability, and lack of interest in the surroundings.
If further hemoglobin depletion (severe case) occurs, the patient may present with symptoms such as pallor, pallor of the mucosa of the lips and conjunctiva, fatigue and fatigue, yellow hair, stomatitis, dizziness, palpitations, brittle nails, and anti-nail.
In addition, iron deficiency can lead to:
Children and adolescents: physical development is blocked, inactivity, and learning ability is reduced;
Adults: immune dysfunction, easy to suffer from otitis media, respiratory tract infections;
First trimester: Anemia can lead to premature birth, low birth weight infants, and fetal death.
On the contrary, if you eat too much iron, there are also many health damages. Like what:
Causes hepatic fibrosis and hepatocellular tumors;
Causes damage to mitochondrial DNA and induces mutations, which are related to tumors in liver, colon, rectum, lungs, esophagus, bladder and other organs;
Moreover, iron also has the effect of catalyzing free radical production and promoting lipid peroxidation, so when iron is excessive, it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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03
zinc
Zinc deficiency can affect the synthesis of nucleic acid proteins, the renewal of taste bud cells, mucosal hyperplasia, keratinization, and a decrease in phosphatase in saliva, resulting in symptoms such as loss of appetite, pica (such as liking to eat dirt, etc.), and growth arrest.
The common clinical symptoms of zinc deficiency in humans are slow growth, poor healing of skin wounds, taste disorders, increased incidence of gastrointestinal diseases, and decreased immune function. In addition, it may also appear that:
Children: Long-term zinc deficiency can lead to dwarfism.
Adults: Long-term zinc deficiency can lead to symptoms such as decreased sexual function, decreased sperm count, fetal malformations, rough skin, and decreased immunity.
vitamin
Vitamins are a class of trace low molecular organic compounds necessary to maintain the body's life activities.
There are many types of vitamins, although they are not the source of energy in the body, but they play an important role in the body's material and energy metabolism processes.
For most vitamins, they cannot be synthesized in the body, nor can they be stored in large quantities in the body tissues, and must be provided by food. There are a small number of vitamins, such as niacin and vitamin D can be synthesized by the human body, vitamin K and biotin can be synthesized by intestinal bacteria, but the amount of general synthesis can not fully meet the needs of the human body, so it is very important to take it from food.
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04
vitamin A
Vitamin A class refers to a large class of substances that contain retinol and have its biological activity, which includes the formed vitamin A and provitamin A and its metabolites. There are three active forms of vitamin A in the body: retinol, retinoaldehyde, and retinoic acid.
It does not contain the formed vitamin A in plants. Some yellow, orange, and red plants contain carotenoids, a small fraction of which can be converted into retinol and retinal carotenoids in the small intestine and liver cells, called provitamin A, such as carotene.
Some diseases, such as pneumonia, cholecystitis, pancreatitis, cirrhosis, bile duct obstruction, chronic diarrhea, etc., can affect the absorption and metabolism of vitamin A, so patients with these diseases are prone to vitamin A deficiency.
Early vitamin A deficiency can lead to unclear vision at night (decreased ability to adapt darkly), further develop into night blindness, and in severe cases can lead to eye dryness (also known as dry eye disease) and even blindness.
Children: The most important clinically diagnostic sign of vitamin A deficiency is "bioplakia" (commonly known as "Pitt's plaque"), which may also lead to hemoglobin anabolic disorders, immunocompromised function, and growth retardation in children.
Adults: it can cause dryness, hyperplasia and keratosis of different tissues of the human body, and even various symptoms, such as sebaceous glands and sweat gland keratosis, dry skin, excessive keratosis of hair follicles, decreased appetite, and susceptibility to infection.
Elderly: it is easy to cause respiratory inflammation, and in severe cases, it can lead to death.
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05
vitamin C
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, unlike most water-soluble vitamins, has a certain amount of vitamin C stored in the body, so there will be no symptoms of deficiency for a certain period of time.
When the amount of diet is reduced or the body's needs increase, and it is not replenished in time, the body's vitamin C storage can be reduced, causing deficiency. Symptoms may occur if the amount of vitamin C stored in the body is less than 300 mg.
In the early stage, within 4 to 7 months of vitamin C deficiency, patients will have symptoms such as general weakness, loss of appetite, swelling of the gums, and easy infection and inflammation. Infants and young children experience symptoms such as growth retardation, irritability, and indigestion.
For long-term deficiency, patients may often experience gingivitis, and symptoms such as bleeding and swelling of the gums may be visible. In addition, vitamin C deficiency can cause collagen synthesis disorders, which can lead to osteoporosis, and in severe cases, it may also bleed in subcutaneous tissues (punctate bleeding throughout the body), muscles, joints, and tendon sheaths, and even form hematomas or ecchymosis.
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