Are You Absorbing Your Nutrients?

What is Nutrient Malabsorption?

Nutrients are absorbed in your small intestine, assimulated into your cells and sometimes even cross the blood-brain barrier. Nutrients are obtained from the food you consume and from supplements that you take. These nutrients can include macro/micro nutrients such as protein, fats, carbs, as well as vitamins, minerals, antio-oxidents and amino acids. There could be a number of reasons why your body may not be readily accepting these essential nutrients!

Some reasons include: inflammation, trauma, infection, surgery to the intestine, prolonged use of antibiotics, prolonged alcohol use, and other conditions such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, chronic pancreatitis, and cystic fibrosis.

How Do You Know If You Have Malabsorption?

Signs and symptoms vary based on the nutrient malabsorption as well as gender and age. But here are few common signs to look for:

Fats – may experience light-colored, foul-smelling stools that are soft and bulky. These stools often float to the top and stick to the sides of the toilet bowl.

Protein – may experience dry hair, hair loss, fluid retention, and brittle nails.

Carbs – may experience bloating, gas, or explosive diarrhea.

Various vitamins – may experience anemia, malnutrition, low blood pressure, weightloss, or muscle wasting.


Here’s What You Can Do

Seek out help! I specialize in high-quality nutraceuticals that have been proven to help my clients with not only improving their symptoms, put optimizing their health! Did you know that not all vitamins are created the same… High-quality nutraceuticals are much different from your centrum one-a-day off the shelf from the local drugstore. I have spent countless hours searching for the absolute best supplement company to recommend to my clients and Designs for Health is one company that checks off all the boxes!

Here is what I look for:
1. Maximum absorption and bio availability from the forms in which the vitamins are made from.

This can get complicated and that’s why I’m here to help! As an example, you want all of your minerals to be in a chelated form which are more highly absorbed and utilized by the body. You want your B vitamins to be in a methylated form, meeting your bodies demands without having to make certain transfers that some people are genetically may not be able to do. And you want helpful added bioflavonoids or other precursors to be included in the formulation to help with maximum utilization!

2. Look for supplements free from yucky added ingredients that will interfere with absorption of nutrients and negatively affect your heath. 

I’m blown away at some of the junk I find in the supplements off the shelf at local grocery stores and drugstores. Dyes, colors, sugars, yeast, corn starches, dairy, wheat, soy, talc...and the list goes on. You are honestly so much better off not taking any supplements at all then taking these poor quality supplements with terrible added ingredients. There should be maybe 3-5 added ingredients that verify what the capsule is made from or help with anti-caking or shelf stabilization. Centrum silver, for example, has 46 added ingredients!!! This should not be legal!

3. I pay close attention to quantity. You need to make sure you are getting a proper dosage of these nutrients for them to be effective.

You could be blown away when comparing a high-quality nutraceutical multivitamin versus a one-a-day from the grocery store. I mean, 15 mg of vitamin C is doing NOTHING for you compared to the 500 mg in a high-quality supplements. On the other hand an over abundance of, let’s say 1000mcg of vitamin A in the wrong form can actually be toxic to the body. Some manufacturers will go on to say that their supplement includes a beneficial nutrients, let’s say Biotin, however, it’s not even on the nutrition label as an active ingredient, rather it’s found in the added ingredients because is only found in trace amounts.

Hint: You should always feel a difference when taking vitamins, don’t waste your time or money otherwise!


Toxins Could Be Affecting Your Nutrient Intake

Did you know the toxins poorly affect your absorption of critical nutrients? You’ve heard me talk about toxins, they’re hitting you from every direction, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the skin and beauty care products, cleaning products, you name it! This toxic overload is being stored in our cells, they are taking up room and interfering with our body’s natural biological function. This is aggravating, because in spite of some of your intentional efforts to provide your body with nutrients from eating healthy and taking supplements, you may not be gaining the full benefit.

I see this all the time when I run SpectraCell Micronutrient Testing; intentionally healthy people are coming up short with multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This is most likely due to a toxic overload in the cells, so the body is unable to utilize these nutrients. This is when a detox program is needed!

Think of a clogged sink, when you detoxify your body, it’s like turning on the disposal, clearing out waste so that everything can function the way it was intended to.

If we can push the toxins out of the cells, we are clearing out the junk to make room for the good stuff! This will not only make you feel so much better, but you will also be gaining maximum benefits from your efforts, including weight loss!

Here are some ways that you can take action to ensure that you are properly absorbing your nutrients to maximize your health:

• If you are curious as to which vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and amino acids you may be deficient in, consider ordering a SpectraCell micronutrient test here!
• If you haven’t done a good detox in a while (or ever!), I encourage you to consider a highly effective detox program such as my THRIVE Detox to hit that reset button!
• I’m also available for 1:1 nutrition counseling or vitamin consultations, you can check out these options here.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me and my team at info@alternativewellnesssolutions.com, we’re happy to answer any questions you may have!

References:

Kerr, M., Cafasso, J. (2017). Malabsorption syndrome [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/malabsorption

Ruiz, A. R. (2018). Overview of malabsorption [Webpage]. Retrieved from https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gastrointestinal-disorders/malabsorption-syndromes/overview-of-malabsorption