Video

Transcript

so I have a very interesting video today

on the most common mineral deficiency in

the world

but before I dive in I just wanted to

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out of the way what is the most common

mineral deficiency on the planet well

the answer is iron deficiency and this

is a very interesting topic because it’s

very common

um it’s a bit confusing I’m going to try

to simplify it and it’s extremely easy

to fix let me run down first the

symptoms if you’re a deficient in Iron

so number one you can have hair loss or

hair thinning you can get arrhythmias

your heart goes out of rhythm that could

be an iron deficiency you become fatigue

weakened you can get dark circles

underneath your eyes restless leg

syndrome okay I used to have that

difficulty sleeping in fact the

arrhythmias could keep you up as well

you’re on the cold side your tolerance

for coal old is very low your nails can

become split very easily your

concentration is terrible you can’t

focus and you may experience a

fibromyalgia or achiness in muscles or

joints these set of symptoms can also

mimic other problems like hypothyroidism

a B12 deficiency a vitamin D deficiency

low testosterone and even sleep apnea

now one of the challenges that people

run into when they’re trying to evaluate

if they have iron deficiency is they go

to the doctor and sometimes their values

their numbers are normal it shows normal

iron it shows normal hemoglobin and the

doctor might say well

you’re fine it could be something else

but uh it’s definitely not an iron

deficiency when it could be so the thing

you need to know about iron deficiency

is there’s another condition called

non-anemic iron deficiency so that could

be like a pre-anemia type state so you

might not have a severe deficiency of

iron just it could be down somewhat

so they call that subclinical now

there’s one thing that can actually help

diagnose an iron deficiency and that’s

ferritin okay so let me just explain

that what is ferritin ferritin is a

group of proteins okay a lot of

different proteins that help bind with

iron and store and release iron so

ferritin acts as a buffer if you have

too much iron which is very very

dangerous or you don’t have enough iron

so if your ferritin level is low that

can definitely be more of an indicator

that you’re iron deficient

however there’s other things that might

create this false sense of higher levels

of ferritin for example if you have an

infection okay or you have inflammation

in the body your ferritin levels will be

higher than they should be so that can

really complicate things and make things

very difficult to diagnose anytime

you’re looking at a deficiency we should

also talk about an excessive iron so I’m

going to touch on what to do if you have

too much iron in the problems that could

be associated with that as well as we go

through this now I want to run into this

next very interesting area which is why

you might be deficient in the first

place and there’s a lot of different

reasons but I just want to say that it’s

more common to have

non-anemic iron deficiency than to have

anemia so it’s very common that this

iron did not affect the blood yet but in

fact a lot of other parts of your body

and we need iron for other things than

just building hemoglobin iron is needed

to build thyroid hormones iron is needed

to make dopamine iron is also needed for

nerve impulses to work correctly that’s

why you would have arrhythmias if you

were deficient and so there’s many

different reasons why you need iron but

I will say though I’ve talked to quite a

few patients

who unfortunately did not find a doctor

that can evaluate deep enough especially

this iron problem and the worst thing a

doctor can do is tell you it’s all in

your head that is the wrong diagnosis

when people have these symptoms and

you’re told it’s all in your head wow

talk about something that can really

elevate your cortisol and piss you off

but I hear it all the time so you really

need to find a doctor that’s a good

evaluator that can dig deep and to help

assess different levels of this problem

but I want to give you a lot of

information to think with so you can

sometimes even help your doctor guide

them into a certain area especially the

reason why you’re deficient in the first

place so number one is that you’re not

consuming enough iron from your diet

that can occur if you’re a vegan or even

a vegetarian because the most available

form of iron is the heme iron okay and

that’s in animal products like red meat

liver seafood

Etc

the type of iron you get from plants is

non-heme and that is not easily absorbed

in fact you’re going to absorb 10 times

less iron from plants like spinach but

iron is also high in oxalates which can

block the absorption of iron so let me

go through the list so number one it

could come from not consuming enough

iron in your diet okay number two having

inflammation in the body inflammation in

any part of your digestive system

whether it’s in the stomach is gastritis

or in the intestines okay because if

there’s inflammation in those parts your

ability to absorb iron goes down

significantly all right the next one

would be stress The more stress you have

the more trauma that you have

surgeries for example which is a trauma

all these things can inhibit your

ability to absorb iron also a loss of

blood whether you’re bleeding or you

donate blood or you have an ulcer or

let’s say for example you have I don’t

know some type of polyp in your colon

that you’re bleeding from and you’re

experiencing a loss of blood another

common cause of low iron in your blood

especially if you’re aging is low

stomach acids okay if you don’t have

enough acid in your stomach you’re not

going to absorb iron and other minerals

which is very very common it’s called

either

hypochlorhydria or a or hydria and the

way that you would know that you have

low stomach acid is you have indigestion

gas or even gerd heartburn or acid

reflux or even menstruation another

reason why you might be deficient in

iron is you had a gastric bypass surgery

okay that can cause the deficiency

because you’re having less digestive

organs to absorb iron also athletes or

people who exercise a lot can be

deficient in Iron because some of the

iron that you have is stored in the

muscle and as you use your muscle you

use up the iron and that could be one

reason as well all right next one is

antacids any medication that suppresses

acids could cause an iron deficiency

because we need that hydrochloric acid

in the stomach to be able to absorb iron

fibroids okay if you have fibroids that

could be another reason why you’re

deficient in Iron also having a greater

need for iron like when you’re pregnant

or your breastfeeding or even a young

child in the development needs and

requires more iron also people with

eating disorders usually have an iron

deficiency another thing that’s very

very common as far as blocking iron is

phytic acid now that is in all the

grains the soils the bread the pasta the

cereal crackers biscuits waffles all of

these grain carbohydrates have phytic

acid especially the whole grains Okay so

if you consume those foods that could be

the reason why you’re a deficient in

Iron but phytic acid is also in lagoons

beans as well as like I said grains now

there’s another compound called tannins

in tea and coffee that can block iron as

well so if you’re drinking tea all day

long and a lot of coffee you could be

low in iron chocolate has certain

polyphenols which are phytonutrients

that can block iron and of course

polyphenols are also in a lot of other

things like turmeric for example so

turmeric can actually lower your iron

now I’m not saying not to consume coffee

or tea or turmeric okay or even

chocolate I’m just bringing up the

awareness that that could contribute to

a lessening amount of iron but if you’re

consuming enough iron at the same time

you’re going to be fine red wine okay

red wine has polyphenols and even

cannons that can block the absorption of

iron all right another thing

polymorphism what is that that’s

something wrong with your genes there’s

a mutation you can get a DNA test I got

it done I’m going to do a video on that

because it’s very fascinating it’s new

information that can help you find your

weaknesses within your genes so you can

then do things about it you know and

there’s all sorts of it’s called

epigenetic lifestyle things you can do

with the diet or taking more of a

certain nutrient so the reason I’m

bringing that up is that I tested

positive for this one called MTH fra

slightly different one which does affect

iron

um so I’m bringing it up because

um the genetic defect affecting this

Gene called

MTHFR it can cause you to have less iron

as well as a B12 deficiency

and a folate deficiency and as you may

or may not know if you’re low on B12 you

can also be anemic as well a different

type of anemia and folate is very very

important in building red blood cells

the point is there are genetic

weaknesses

that uh go beyond just that Gene that

can affect your ability to absorb iron

and if you’re trying to fix this problem

with working on all these other things

and you don’t know that there could be a

genetic uh weakness then you can go

round and round and round so the

solution if you have a mutation in your

genes is just to take more and see if

that doesn’t handle it and sometimes

people don’t just take enough or they

don’t take it long enough to see the

changes because sometimes it could take

months to fix a severe deficiency all

right another Factor would be taking too

much calcium or magnesium yeah or

drinking a lot of milk calcium as well

as magnesium can inhibit iron all right

so I just want to bring that up also

infections when you have infection your

body will shut down the amount of iron

available because

this iron is kind of a competition

between the pathogens and your microbes

so your microbes no the pathogens can

eat iron and your microbes also can eat

iron so they will kind of hog the iron

so the pathogen doesn’t get it and that

can leave you in a situation where you

have low iron so if you even have a

let’s say a subclinical infection

whether it’s Epstein-Barr virus or

whatever that could be why you’re low in

iron and I already mentioned oxalates

can block iron so oxalates are iron

spinach almonds asparagus okay so I gave

you a long list of all the reasons why

you might be deficient in iron and then

of course then you would correlate that

with your blood tests to be able to see

what’s going on and as far as correcting

an iron deficiency I know people will

take supplements and they’ll take um

Elemental iron they’ll take different

types forms of iron and I’m not saying

that won’t work okay but I always

recommend uh trying to get your iron

from food first so start consuming more

red meat liver

shellfish okay and also try to identify

why you’re deficient in the first place

if it’s low stomach acid start taking

apple cider vinegar or retain

hydrochloride to help the pH so you want

to get to the root cause and also if you

add vitamin C at the same time like in a

salad or sauerkraut you can increase the

absorption of iron now one thing you

could take as far as pills is take liver

pills or another product there’s

actually spleen pills you can get that

dehydrated spleen extract that seems to

work really good as an iron supplement

now realize if you’re very deficient it

could take weeks to um correct this all

right on the flip side let’s say you

have a condition called hereditary

hemochromatosis okay this is a situation

where your body is absorbing too much

iron so you have too much iron and this

is the problem okay it could be very

very toxic I can create problems with

your liver in your heart and your brain

So based on a blood test your doctor can

determine if you have this a problem and

now what you do about it well there’s a

couple things I would recommend start

consuming distilled water I would get a

machine to make your own and so it’s not

in a plastic jug but a glass jug coming

from stainless steel because distilled

water can start to actually suck out

some of the minerals so just realize

it’ll it’ll pull out other minerals too

but you can then put the minerals back

in that you want but not the iron one

okay turmeric turmeric can act as a

chelator or something that binds that

iron and can help pull it out of the

body start consuming turmeric cocoa bean

that can help because that has a lot of

polyphenols that can help bind iron and

definitely something like black tea

would also help because it’s higher in

tannins which can help bind the iron so

basically we want to take the things

that are inhibiting iron if you’re

deficient and start taking those because

you have too much now there’s another

thing you could take I mentioned phytic

acid right so you can actually take that

as a supplement to help chelate iron or

bind and remove iron from the body and

you can get that in a form called ip6

okay it’s called ip6 that’s basically

phytic acid and you start taking that to

help bind the iron and if it’s really a

problem and you want something stronger

you can take something called EDTA

that’s a very powerful chelator so just

realize you have to put back in those

minerals that your body really needs and

they’re non-toxic okay minus the iron

all right I gave you a lot of

information about iron I think the next

most important thing for you to learn

more about would be on how to improve

the digestive system simply because

there are so many things that can go

wrong in the digestive tract that can

affect not just iron but other nutrients

and I put that video up right here check

it out