Karolyn Gazella has been writing about integrative health since 1992. She is the founder of the Natural Medicine Journal. Every month, Karolyn keeps us informed about important integrative health stories.
Key Take-Aways
Medication-Induced Nutrient Deficiencies
The number of U.S. adults who report taking at least one prescription medication per day is now 70%, a 14 percentage-point increase from 2019 data. Additionally, the percentage of people taking four or more medications daily has increased by six percentage points, from 18% to 24%.
And then when you add in over-the-counter medications, this is a huge issue. These medications are now understood to cause significant nutrient deficiencies and oftentimes they cause more than one nutrient deficiency. Some more common medication-induced nutrient deficiencies are calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, vitamin D, the B vitamins, and Coenzyme Q10.
Many of these nutrients are absolutely critical to health. Magnesium alone is involved in over 300 different functions in the human body. Coenzyme Q10 is vital to heart health and yet statins cause a deficiency.
New Research on Fat and Weight Loss
Studies reveal that 50% of Americans are currently on a diet. The weight loss and weight management market size was worth around US$ 224.27 billion in 2021.
Weight loss is a serious issue for most Americans, yet many practitioners are unaware of the mechanism of action when it comes to storing and losing weight. Karolyn Gazella has partnered with Dr Tina Kaczor, ND FABNO, the editor of the Natural Medicine Journal to write a book about managing obesity in clinical practice.
In the scientific literature, fat tissue is referred to as an endocrine organ. So if we can make fat tissue more metabolically active, we can help people burn fat faster and keep it off. Integrative practitioners can excel at this.
When it comes to drugs, there are nine approved for weight loss. Eight work on suppressing appetite - including Ozempic. One of the drugs blocks fat absorption, which is problematic for fat-soluble vitamins.
However, with an integrative approach, we can make fat tissue more metabolically active, and we do that with diet, lifestyle and dietary supplements. People focus on what they eat in order to lower the caloric intake, but how you eat also has a huge impact on whether or not you store calories. For example, slowing down how you eat, chewing 30 times and not being distracted while you eat can all be beneficial.
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