Hello and welcome to another episode of “WTF Happened to My Body?” I'm Natalie Garay, your hostess with the mostest, and this is Part 2 to the previous episode of a second season. I’m going back to my experience with the functional medicine doctor. Now again, if you didn't hear the last episode, I was talking about how after my mom passed from symptoms of dementia, I decided to go ‘vulva to the wall’ and get everything checked out with my body, my brain, and see how I could prevent if not prolong— or should I say prolong, if not prevent— that from happening to myself and learn as much as I can not for only for myself, but for my girls as well. And so, I went to the functional medicine doctor, I had standard labs done. I had my hormones checked, which were included in standard labs.
What's not typically included in your labs unless you specifically ask for it from your physician is a micronutrient panel, a food sensitivity panel, and then I also had some brain scans done. A QEEG is what it's called. But what I wanted to share with you on this short Part 2 of this is what I was deficient in and what I supplemented for.
What I found, what was really intriguing about taking these micronutrient blood tests was it told you specifically what I was deficient in. And so that just showed me exactly which supplements to take. And I always find it fascinating that, you know, we see on social media or we see everywhere that we should be taking X, Y, and Z supplement, but how do we know?
A lot of us, maybe we all know, a lot of people, the majority of people are deficient in vitamin D. But what if you weren't? You know, what if we're taking supplements that we don't necessarily need to take? So I just thought like, this is a no-brainer. Why not get a blood test to know which supplements we’re actually deficient in?
So for me, there were a few. Vitamin K was one. And what I thought was interesting about vitamin K, because not only does it tell me what I'm deficient in, it tells you what symptoms could be related to being deficient in these vitamins. So let me share that with you. It says inadequate levels of both vitamin K1 and vitamin K2 will radically increase risk for heart disease and stroke. Chronically low vitamin K levels can lead to uncontrolled bleeding. Chronic marginally low vitamin K levels are correlated with some studies with osteoporosis.
Intriguing, right? Vitamin levels of K2 are inversely related to cardiovascular disease and coronary calcification. Because vitamin K also assists in calcium homeostasis, low or deficient levels of vitamin K can lead to unregulated calcium release from bone tissue in the presence of vitamin D3 supplementation.
So usually, what I found with the functional medicine doctor was that they wanted D3 and K2 to be together. And there's actually, I think there was a supplement that I took. It was in droplet form that included both of those, K2 and D3. Supplementation of vitamin D does not tend to lead to this. However, it is recommended that vitamin K2 be supplemented when vitamin D3 is supplemented.
So, I thought that was so fascinating and then it goes on to share food sources and supplement options and dosages to take with it. It also says how it gets depleted. So, dietary deficiency of vitamin K1 is extremely rare unless there has been significant damage to the intestinal lining, such as an inflammatory bowel disorder, such as Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, et cetera, liver disease, cystic fibrosis, and fat malabsorption disorders. Can't seem to get my words out, apparently. In addition, the use of oral blood thinning medications and some antibiotics can interfere with vitamin K. Individuals with chronic kidney disease are at risk for vitamin K deficiencies. Individuals with APOE4 genotype may be at greater risk for low vitamin K. And since vitamin K is fat soluble, following a chronically low fat diet can inhibit absorption.
So, I just thought that was fascinating and I wanted to share that with you so that, you know, if this is something that interests you, if you want to know specifically which supplements you should be taking, ask your doctor, your practitioner, your functional medicine doctor to do a micronutrient panel.
The second one I was deficient in was chromium. It says clinical manifestations of excess or risk for toxicity. Chromium occurs in primary two states, found in foods typically found in industrial sources and pollutants. Let’s see what would be interesting for you to know.
Chromium is an essential nutrient used in trace amounts in humans. It acts as a cofactor for chromodulin, a peptide that enhances the effect of insulin on target tissues, which aids in regulation of blood sugar and lipid metabolism. Another thing I've been learning a lot about too, is metabolism and how to eat in a way that you're not inducing chronic insulin spikes because a continuous chronic insulin spike will break down your mitochondria, which breaks down your cells and then it can, you know, lead to disease or premature aging, et cetera. So that's another topic we'll talk about is metabolic health because I totally geeked out on that and I got, what do they call it, a continuous glucose monitor, which most people with diabetes use, but you can also use it on a regular basis. You could use it for like, up to two or three months just to see what your food habits are and how they affect your glucose spikes.
Deficiency is very rare with chromium, but it can occur in patients receiving IV and parenteral nutrition without supplemental chromium added and individuals who regularly participate in endurance exercise. Interesting. Clinical manifestations of depletion can contribute to the development of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. So again, checking out that metabolic health and glucose spikes. Even mild deficiencies of chromium can produce problems in blood sugar metabolism and contribute to other symptoms, such as anxiety or fatigue. That's the piece I found fascinating. What? Chromium deficiency could be the factor to our fatigue or our anxiety?
Oh, that just could take me on a tangent for days. So, if we have anxiety and a lot of time, there's so many people, especially women who have experienced anxiety and they are dismissed or given something, you know, prescripted to take rather than looking at the deeper cause of it. This is why I'm going to school for this so I can learn more about it. But I'm still just sharing the facts that I read from books, from podcasts, from my own blood work. Obviously you guys are going to need to go find out for yourself about yourself from your own doctor, but this shit fascinates me.
Food sources of chromium include brewer's yeast, especially beer, broccoli, grape juice, meat, and whole grain products. Some fruits, vegetables, and spices provide chromium. Romaine lettuce, raw onions, and ripe tomatoes are all good sources. And then it lists supplement options. Insanity. Okay, so then the last one I'll talk about, because this is the other one I supplemented for, inositol.
Inositol derivatives are used in the cellular signaling process after the insulin receptor is activated. It is crucial for the development of peripheral nerves, helps move fats out of the liver, promotes production of lecithin and is anti-atherosclerotic, good lord! I hope I learn how to pronounce these words once I go to school!
Okay, how it gets depleted: inositol can be released from phytate compounds via intestinal bacteria, breaking phytate degrading enzymes. Interesting. In many cases if antibiotics are used, there may be some depletion of inositol from microbiome conversion. Inositol is also stored in the liver, spinal cord, nerves, and in the brain, and cerebrospinal fluid.
Here we go, here's the symptoms. Maybe there aren’t any. Inositol can be synthesized in the human body from glucose-6-phosphate, a derivative of glucose. Therefore, deficiency could be rare, but I did. Urinary levels of inositol derivatives or seen as a biomarker for insulin resistance. So, looking at this, maybe I was close to being diabetic. Which is interesting because, as you know, with Mexican heritage, a lot of Hispanics are more susceptible to having diabetes. And then I think that comes along also with our food that we eat. In general, of course, food is huge for anything and everything, a lot of diseases, but our backgrounds, our genetic backgrounds also play a huge role in that. Urinary levels of inositol derivatives are seen as a biomarker for insulin resistance.
Okay, conditions associated with depletion of inositol, however, are depression. Again, depression, anxiety, PCOS, diabetes, CVD- which I don't know what that stands for, and obesity. Come on! Again, we're deficient in something and it could lead to anxiety or PCOS. This is what I want to know.
So maybe this isn't necessarily fascinating to you, but it's fascinating to me because, personally, if I went to a doctor and said, I am depressed, or I am anxious, or I am experiencing, or I'm diabetic or I have PCOS; I want to look at the root cause of it. I don't necessarily want them to pull out the prescription pad immediately.
I want them to look deeper and go, okay, well, let's take a deeper look. Let's get to the root cause and then decide from there what to do. Whether it's start with supplementation and then if that doesn't work, what else can we do? You know, this is why I think this is so, so fascinating. Then it goes on to list food sources; good dietary sources of inositol include oranges, cantaloupe, prunes, navy beans, grapefruit, limes, blackberries, kiwis. The list goes on and then it offers supplement options.
So, yeah, I thought that was interesting. Another reason why, like I said, I went back to school is because I wanted to learn all about this so I could be the person who asks for the labs, reads the labs for you, and then helps you supplement accordingly and get to the bottom, get to the root cause of it all.
But for me, looking at my own labs and knowing what's going on, it blows my mind. So I hope that was helpful to you. Again, obviously, not offering any sort of medical advice other than go ask your doctor for a micronutrient panel and find out what you're deficient in and supplement accordingly rather than guessing what it is that you might need.
All right, my friends, share this podcast episode with someone you think could use it, check out the website and find other tools that are available to you. It's www.nataliesayswtf.com. You could also find me on Instagram at that same handle; @nataliesayswtf. But send me your questions on Instagram, and you want to talk about anything specific that's going on with your body and I can send you in the direction of some great resources, I'm all for it. So have a great one. See you next time.