Table of Contents
What is a nutrient excess?
Simply put, a nutrient excess means you have to much (an excess) of a particular nutrient than is required for proper metabolic functioning.
A nutrient excess can include any essential nutrient (e.g., amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, or minerals), conditionally essential nutrient, or nonessential nutrient.
Are nutrient excesses unhealthy?
Yes.
Any nutrient excess can be just as detrimental toward your health as a nutrient deficiency. As you know, you are constantly inundated with information concerning the lack of a specific nutrient (nutrient deficiency) and the potential health risk. Unfortunately, you are not equally informed of the potential health risks of any nutrient excesses.
Every nutrient has a complex nutrient interrelationship with numerous other nutrients (amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids, and minerals). As such, all nutrients must remain in a dynamic balance to work together (synergistically) to fulfill any metabolic pathway. If any nutrient becomes excessive, it works against (antagonistic) many of the nutrients it actually needs to work properly. This results in numerous nutrient excesses and deficiencies that may affect your health.
As you may surmise, the resulting nutrient deficiencies may easily manifest myriad different symptoms than that of the nutrient excess. However, the nutrient excesses may also manifest myriad symptoms as well. Nutrient excesses are burdensome to the mind and body. If the nutrient becomes even more excessive, at some point it has the potential to become toxic to the mind and/or the body.
Let’s look at a few examples of essential nutrient excesses and just a few of the commonly associated symptoms.
- Amino Acid (Arginine) – hypertension, confusion, weakness, nausea
- Omega 3 (EPA) – diarrhea, oily skin and hair, potential increased risk of bleeding and infections
- Mineral (Copper) – anemia, renal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation
- Vitamin (Vitamin D) – hyperparathyroidism, arterial and other soft tissue calcification
Keep in mind, you can choose any nutrient and find a list of potential symptoms associated with an excess of that particular nutrient. Also keep in mind, the list of potential symptoms can be much greater when you factor in the potential nutrient deficiencies created by the nutrient in excess.
Let’s look at an extremely simplified example using calcium.
Too much calcium may increase your potential for bone problems just as easily as too little. Too much calcium becomes metabolically compromised (not properly utilized in its intended metabolic functions) as an integral component for bone health.
This is, to some extent, due to its antagonistic effect on the myriad other nutrients absolutely required for bone health. The body will attempt to excrete the excess calcium and it can become deposited (bioaccumulation) in other areas of the mind and body (e.g., deposits in the skin – premature aging, deposits in the arteries – coronary calcification, deposits in the kidneys/gallbladder – stones, and so on).
In addition, due to the nutrient interrelationships, excesses and deficiencies may easily interfere with the nutrient transport systems. Nutrient transport is essential to reestablish a dynamic balance in all nutrients.
How does a nutrient excess happen?
Myriad factors contribute toward nutrient excesses. Today, the more common factors include:
- Improper Diet
- Improper Supplementation
- Neuroendocrine Function (nervous systems and associated glands)
- Toxins
- Drugs
- Nutritional Myths
Let’s investigate these a bit further.
Improper Diet:
An improper diet does not necessarily refer to a diet with an excessive amount of junk foods. Albeit a junk food diet does reap havoc on your nutritional status, let’s concentrate on healthy foods. Yes, your organic diet could easily create nutrient excesses!
As seen in healthy foods, every “healthy food” or “healthy herb” could contribute toward a nutrient excess or a nutrient deficiency depending on your current nutrient levels (biochemistry). As such, your diet should include healthy foods and a proper balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats specific to your unique nutrient needs.
Improper Dietary Supplementation:
Today, dietary supplementation is unscientific, haphazard, and often symptom-based. Most people consume a variety of dietary supplements without knowing they actually need an increase of the particular nutrients in the supplements they consume. In addition, most supplements are consumed without realizing that every nutrient requires many other nutrients to actually work metabolically. We refer to these “other nutrients” as cofactors. As such, consuming any nutrient without its required cofactors could also easily result in a nutrient excess as well as a deficiency.
Neuroendocrine Function:
Your neuroendocrine systems (sympathetic and parasympathetic neuroendocrine systems) are an integral part of your metabolism. Your nervous system and endocrine glands produce a tremendous influence on your nutritional status. Of course, your nutritional status influences these systems as well. However, as seen in Improve my Energy, your endocrine glands help maintain proper nutrient levels for each of these systems.
For example, your adrenals (cortex – mineralocorticoids), through various mechanisms, can increase (or decrease) sodium and potassium to excessive levels. Excess is normally the result of stress. Your thyroid/parathyroid could increase or decrease calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous to excessive (or deficient) levels.
In the same manner that all nutrients must remain in a dynamic balance, your neuroendocrine systems must maintain a dynamic balance as well. As such, your neuroendocrine systems must be considered in nutrient excesses and deficiencies.
Toxins:
All toxins (heavy metals, chemical toxins, or metabolic toxins) may easily contribute toward nutrient excesses as well as nutrient deficiencies.
Drugs (pharmaceutical, over-the-counter, and illicit):
Many drugs, by various mechanisms, are known to disrupt your nutritional status (drug nutrient interactions) and many also contain a variety of toxic elements. Keep in mind, anytime you consume any drug it is your responsibility to investigate the potential nutrient disruptions and toxic element exposures.
Nutritional Myths (Misinformation):
We would be amiss if we did not include nutritional myths (misinformation) because they are extremely powerful. Nutritional myths are continually propagated by family, friends, television doctors, news, internet, and other means and are tremendous sources for nutritional misinformation.
One of the most important myths you may not realize is that every nutrient you consume has myriad potentials. You may believe you can consume as much of a particular nutrient (e.g., vitamin C) you want and that the body will use what it needs and excrete the rest without ramifications.
This is a horrible myth. The fact is that every nutrient works with myriad other nutrients throughout a plethora of metabolic pathways. As revealed in nutrient interrelationships, no nutrient works by itself! In order for this working relationship to work, every nutrient involved must remain in a dynamic balance.
As such, if you overconsume ANY nutrient and it becomes excessive, the result is that it now becomes antagonistic toward many of the other nutrients (15 to 20 or even more) it actually needs to be metabolically functional. In turn, this not only creates a nutrient excess of the overconsumed nutrient but also contributes towards a deficiency of the other nutrients it needs to function properly.
Let’s quickly look at the ramifications of excess vitamin C. Albeit vitamin C is a required cofactor for iron absorption, excess vitamin C (and fructose from fruits) becomes antagonistic to copper and may easily result in a copper deficiency. Copper is absolutely essential for iron to form heme in the blood and as a result of the harmless vitamin C, you may have given yourself anemia! Vitamin C will have far more ramifications than this quick example.
How do I know if I have any nutrient excesses?
The only means too actually KNOW if you have any nutrient excess or deficiency is through a laboratory screening. There are numerous laboratory nutritional screenings available that include amino acids, fatty acids, organic acids, vitamins, minerals and others as well.
A laboratory analysis simply removes the guesswork of nutrient excesses and deficiencies. One of the best and most cost efficient lab analyses to begin is with a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis.
Order your Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis today.
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