At Crescent Beach Care, we deliver a variety of unparalleled primary care services, including balancing out your health with nutritional supplements in St. Augustine. Whether it’s from age, poor diet, or a medical condition, our team can help you balance out your nutrition levels and get you feeling your best every day.
Here, we’ll explain the most common causes of nutrient deficiencies and what supplements can help you restore balance to your health and your life.
What Causes Nutrient Deficiencies?
There are many reasons that people can experience nutrient deficiencies. No matter the cause, our providers at Crescent Beach Care will take into account every aspect of your health before providing customized recommendations for nutritional supplements in St. Augustine. The following includes several common reasons patients experience a nutrient deficiency:
Health Conditions
Certain health conditions can cause your body to not absorb 100% of the nutrients you consume. Also, if you are healing from an injury, your body will need more nutrients than usual to have a complete recovery, making you more prone to a deficiency. Some common health conditions that cause malnutrition include:
- Mental health conditions like schizophrenia or depression, which can affect appetite
- Memory disorders like dementia that could cause people to forget about their self-care and well-being, including eating
- Long-term conditions that cause a loss of appetite, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, liver disease, cancer, and more
- Conditions that affect your body’s ability to digest food, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis
- Eating disorders like anorexia
Medications
Some medications can prevent your body from absorbing 100% of the nutrients you eat. This is typically caused by side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. This will also inhibit your appetite, impacting not only how many nutrients you absorb, but also how much you consume. While medications impact people differently, the most common medications that cause nausea are:
- Chemotherapy
- Antidepressants
- Opioids and other pain medications
- Antibiotics
- Type 2 diabetes medication
Physical & Social Factors
Whether it’s someone’s socio-economic status or physical features, several factors contribute to why some people are malnourished. When it comes to socio-economic status, patients may not have access to nutritious foods. Other factors that can cause malnutrition include:
- Teeth that are in poor condition or false teeth that do not fit right
- A physical disability or other impairment that prevents someone from moving around, cooking, or shopping for food
- Having limited knowledge about nutrition or cooking
- Low income or poverty
- Alcohol or drug dependency
How Common Is Malnutrition?
Malnutrition is very common—in fact, 1 in every 3 people suffers from some type of malnutrition. That means roughly 2 billion people do not consume the vitamins and minerals they need to maintain their ideal health. There are actually 4 different types of malnutrition you can experience:
Macronutrient Undernutrition
Macronutrients include proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, which are the building blocks of your diet. Your body requires these to produce energy and maintain basic function. Also known as protein-energy undernutrition, this deficiency is when you do not have enough proteins in your diet. Without them, your body begins to fall apart—you feel tired, weak, and faint. Your hair and skin start to become brittle and dry. You can have a loss of appetite, a higher risk of developing illness, and an apathetic or irritable mood.
Micronutrient Undernutrition
Where macronutrients are the proteins that are the foundation of your diet, micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that your body still needs, but in smaller amounts. This is the most common type of malnutrition, which we commonly treat with nutritional supplements in St. Augustine. Many people are mildly deficient in various types of vitamins and minerals, and while you may not notice it affecting you at first, it can cause anemia, loss of appetite, risk of illness, and more when it becomes severe.
Macronutrient Overnutrition
This type of malnutrition is when you have too much protein and fat in your diet. When your body has excess protein in the body, it stores it in adipose tissue, or the connective tissue between your muscles and organs. However, when your adipose tissue has no more room, your fat cells themselves have to grow, creating excess body fat. This can cause chronic inflammation, which can lead to medical concerns like coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke.
Micronutrient Overnutrition
Micronutrient overnutrition is when you overdose on certain vitamins and minerals. More research is needed as to how this occurs naturally, but it is not very common. Most of the time, this occurs when you take mega vitamins, or take too high of a dose of certain supplements, and it can cause toxic effects. It’s best to check with your provider before adding any supplements to your diet, and follow the dosage recommendations as directed.
At Crescent Beach Care, we can help you address whatever type of malnutrition you are experiencing, incorporating our nutritional supplements in St. Augustine as needed. Our providers address your individual needs, conducting examinations and blood work to truly understand your body and help you feel your best.
The Most Common Nutrient Deficiencies
We see a lot of different types of nutrient deficiencies at Crescent Beach Care. However, here are the most common ones we tend to address with our patients.
Iron Deficiency
Iron is one of the most common deficiencies in the world, affecting more than 25% of people worldwide. Iron is an essential mineral that is a major component in your red blood cells, binding together with hemoglobin to deliver oxygen to your body.
Pregnant women, preschool-aged children, vegans, and vegetarians are at an increased risk of developing iron deficiency. Most commonly, low iron levels can lead to anemia, which can cause symptoms like tiredness, weakness, impaired brain function, and a weakened immune system.
Iodine Deficiency
Iodine is an essential mineral that ensures healthy thyroid function, and iodine deficiency affects nearly one-third of the world’s population. The most notable sign of deficiency is an enlarged thyroid gland, but symptoms can also include increased heart rate, shortness of breath, and weight gain. While we include iodine in our selection of nutritional supplements in St. Augustine, good dietary sources of iodine include seaweed, fish, dairy, and eggs. Some countries even require the enrichment of table salt with iodine, which has helped cut down on the amount of people with iodine deficiency.
Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that flows through your bloodstream and into cells, working like a steroid hormone in your body (in fact, it is classified as both a vitamin and a prohormone). When exposed to sunlight, your skin cells convert cholesterol into vitamin D. Individuals who live far from the equator and those who do not get enough exposure to sunlight are more likely to develop a vitamin D deficiency. In the U.S., it’s estimated that 42% of people lack the amount of vitamin D that they need to maintain optimal functions. This number rises to 82% of people with darker skin, since their skin produces less vitamin D. The symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency are subtle and typically appear over time, but it can cause muscle weakness, bone loss, and an increased risk of bone fracture.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin that aids in blood formation, brain function, and nerve function. It is also an essential part of producing DNA—the basic building block of life. Your body does not produce B12 naturally, so you need to absorb it through your diet or through nutrient supplements in St. Augustine. B12 is a more complex vitamin than others, since it is assisted by a protein known as intrinsic factor. So those who are lacking this protein are at a risk of becoming B12 deficient. Vegans and vegetarians are also at risk of becoming B12 deficient, since B12 can only naturally be found in animal products, such as eggs, milk, and meat. Symptoms of B12 deficiency include impaired brain function, elevated homocysteine levels, and megaloblastic anemia.
Magnesium Deficiency
Magnesium is essential for your bone structure, affecting your bones and teeth. It is estimated that close to 70% of the US population under 71, and about 80% over 71 years old, consume less than the required amount of magnesium. There are many reasons for magnesium deficiency, but the most common are disease, drug use, or reduced digestive function. Symptoms typically include abnormal heart rhythm, muscle cramps, restless leg syndrome, fatigue, and migraines. While we can help with nutrient supplements in St. Augustine, you can also increase your magnesium intake by consuming more grains, nuts, dark chocolate, and dark, leafy vegetables.
It’s Time to Restore Balance to Your Health
Restoring balance to your nutrient levels means restoring balance to your health and reducing the risk of developing serious illnesses later down the line. Either use our treatment planning tool or schedule an appointment with one of our providers to explore your vitamin levels and supplement where you may be lacking.
