TMJ vs Teeth Grinding – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 528
Are you grinding your teeth or do you have TMJ? Many people confuse these two issues. Find out how they are different and what you can do to help from Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.
Tag: calcium
Your Cardiologist Needs To Know This Supplement – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 524
Magnesium is one of the most important nutrients for making sure the heart is functioning properly, yet your cardiologist may not put it on your radar. Here’s why your heart needs magnesium.
Diuretics and Nutrient Depletions – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 509
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Diuretics and Nutrient Depletions – InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode 509
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH:
[00:00:40] Let me continue on my journey of drug-induced nutrient depletion when it comes to cardiac medications. The most commonly-prescribed medications oftentimes create significant nutrient depletion, so I’m going to go over a few more. I did a podcast on beta blocking drugs. Now, today I’m going to talk about diuretics. These are many times combined with other hypertensive drugs, so you’ll see a combination of maybe a beta blocker with hydrochlorothiazide. So I want to talk about the diuretics and how many nutrients have a potential of becoming depleted and that is a big problem. We certainly know that to be the case. I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH, and let’s get right to it.† [00:01:26]
[00:01:26] Let’s jump into the class of antihypertensive medications classically known as the diuretics. We have loop diuretics. We have thiazide diuretics. You have your potassium-sparing diuretics. But we know one thing about these diuretics, whether you’re taking hydrochlorothiazide, you’re on Lasix, furosemide. We know that these in particular are definitely a risk factor for creating significant nutrient depletions when we look at things like calcium, magnesium, zinc, folate. Why are these a problem? Well, let’s just break that down. Say you’re on a medication for your high blood pressure and it is stripping the body of zinc. What is that doing to the health of your immune system? Yes, we know the importance of zinc when it comes to immune defenses. We know the importance of zinc when it comes to the thyroid function. Let’s think about magnesium. This is always the classic one that I go to whenever I’m talking about drug-induced nutrient depletions and cardiac drugs.† [00:02:33]
[00:02:34] OK, let’s think of the nonsensical way that this works. You’re on a medication because you have high blood pressure, so we already have to clue in to the fact the body naturally is probably lacking magnesium. Because remember, one of the roles of magnesium of its many roles in the body is to create vasodilation. It does this through the relaxation of the smooth muscles of your arteries. So if we have a lack of magnesium, what that in turn can do is create vessel constriction. If we have vasoconstriction, we’re going to elevate our blood pressure. So we get into the trap of being on a medication to lower your blood pressure. And that same medication is lowering your body’s ability to hold on to magnesium, so it’s actually removing magnesium. So at the end of the day, what’s occurring is your blood pressure medication can at the same time, be raising your blood pressure because it’s stripping you of magnesium. So if someone is on a diuretic in particular, you really have to be cognizant of this and you have to make sure that you are at minimum, taking a multivitamin.† [00:03:50]
MAGNESIUM: THE HEART OF HEALTH – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 420. Listen Now>>
[00:03:52] Now, when we look at things like hydrochlorothiazide, we know this is like the top 10 of commonly-prescribed medications. We know that many people are taking these medications on a regular basis, and most people are not taking, in addition to that hydrochlorothiazide, they’re not taking magnesium, which means you’re not helping your condition of hypertension. So this is a huge, huge problem. And I’ve talked to so many folks who have been on high blood pressure medications for many years, and they’ve never linked the two together. They’ve never realized that the reason why they’re struggling with having stable blood pressure readings is because maybe the medication that they’re on to control the blood pressure is actually removing key nutrients. And so we see this with furosemide, which is known as Lasix. We definitely see this with hydrochlorothiazide. So if this is the case, we’re stripping out magnesium. We are still not resolving the problem.† [00:05:03]
[00:05:04] And let’s just say we’re removing calcium. Now what are we doing now? We are potentially creating a problem with the rhythm of the heart, we’re creating a problem with weakening of the bones. We can certainly, you know, lump in our calcium, magnesium, potassium, all of those and the inadequate access at that cellular level to those key nutrients, those key minerals. We can look at muscle pain, we can look at problems with sleep. We can look at problems with muscle cramps. So we definitely know that these medications in particular, are known to drive this. We can also see, as I talked about with beta blockers and coenzyme Q10, we know that the hydrochlorothiazide can lower your CoQ10 level as well, which once again, now we’re dealing with a problem with decrease in cellular energy production. So we think about the rhythm of the heart. We think about the functionality of the heart, how reliant those are on the energy production that occurs within the cardiac myocytes. And if our medication is stripping us of that, then this becomes a significant problem.† [00:06:16]
[00:06:17] Now let’s just go back and let’s look at other areas that can get thrown into the mix when we’re dealing with these diuretic medications that can lower your zinc. This can potentially slow your wound healing down. Now there’s oftentimes a comorbid condition of type two diabetes that goes along with hypertension. So many diabetics are on their medication for diabetes, but they’re also on high blood pressure medication. Well, what’s one thing that we definitely know about diabetics is that they are slower to heal from any type of a wound. So say they even just get a scratch on the surface of the skin. If you are lacking zinc because your diuretic medication is stripping the body of its ability to properly heal itself because you now have deficient or insufficient zinc, this can certainly be a problem. So we look at a decrease in immune function. We’re looking at issues with poor concentration, we’re looking at issues with muscle weakness. All of these can be coming as a side effect to the medication that you’re on to regulate your blood pressure. So we can see these things clearly. We know that arrhythmias, for example, are quite common in people who are taking these diuretics. And we think about the electrical conduction system of the heart and how reliant that is on things like magnesium and potassium. And so if we’re creating this imbalance of these minerals because of the medication, then as I said, at minimum, we want to be including in to our daily routine things such as a multivitamin, just a bare minimum, cover those bases.† [00:08:04]
HOW MULTIVITAMINS CAN SUPPORT IMMUNITY – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 217. Listen Now>>
[00:08:05] Now we can also look at other cardiac medications, the calcium channel blockers, for example, and we know that those too can disrupt the proper absorption of things like folic acid and zinc once again, so we can look at the slow wound healing. We can look at issues when it comes to elevated homocysteine. So if you already have someone who is dealing with high blood pressure, the last thing we need is vascular inflammation on top of that. So if the medication is creating a imbalance of adequate B-vitamin absorption, now we are adding insult to injury by creating vascular inflammation with elevated homocysteine levels.† [00:08:47]
[00:08:48] So there are so many different medications that are out there that are so commonly prescribed that we know create these nutrient depletion, which is why the more you know about medications that you’re put on and the potential nutrient depletions that can occur, the better off you are. So whether we’re looking at ACE inhibitor drugs like lisinopril, I had mentioned this in the beta blocker podcast how if someone’s on an ACE inhibitor, oftentimes they’ll get a dry cat cough, I always describe it as, but it’s a dry, nonproductive cough. And the reason why this is is because of where in the body the ACE inhibitors are actually working. They’re working through an enzymatic pathway in the lung. And so long-term use of ACE inhibitor drugs and those always end in “pril,” “pril” like lisinopril… Long-term use of those are usually always associated with someone developing that type of a dry cough. And for some people, they can get this after, you know, being on a ACE inhibitor drug for one week. But once again, these are areas that you just need to be aware of and you need to take appropriate steps when it comes to your supplementation routine to make sure that you are doing the right things. Now those are just cardiac drugs that we know all of these things. When we get into things like birth control, hormone replacement, acid reflux medications, antibiotics, we really start to get that ball rolling with nutrient depletion. So I’m going to do more podcasts on the impact of drug-induced nutrient depletion. Today, I wanted to zero in predominantly on those diuretic drugs because I do think that that’s a common, very common area that people overlook when you see how widely prescribed these drugs are and just how likely it is for those nutrients to get kind of wiped out and the harmful impact that that can make in the body over the course of time when you’re on one of those medications. So if you’re on one, you definitely want to make sure that at bare minimum, you are on a comprehensive multivitamin, multimineral formulations such as the Core Multivitamin would be an excellent choice for you.† [00:11:14]
[00:11:15] So that’s all that I have for you for today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure that you subscribe. Leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health podcast.† [00:11:15]
Gabapentin Used for Nerve Pain Depletes Important Nutrients – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 495
Gabapentin is a drug that is commonly prescribed for nerve pain, but this medication may cause you to lose important nutrients that are necessary for the health of your brain, heart and more.
Nonprescription Drugs That Deplete Important Nutrients, Part 2 – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 483
In this episode of the InVite Health Podcast, Jerry Hickey, Ph. discusses additional nonprescription drugs that can deplete important nutrients the body needs to function properly.
Nonprescription Drugs That Deplete Important Nutrients, Part 1 – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 482
nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs nonprescription drugs
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Nonprescription Drugs That Deplete Important Nutrients, Part 1 – InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode 482
Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
*Intro music*
InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InViteⓇ Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!
*Intro music*
Jerry Hickey, Ph.: You could walk into a grocery store and buy drugs without a prescription. There’s a lot of drugs like that: drugs for pain, drugs for an upset stomach, drugs for… laxatives, constipation treatment. And what you’re not told is these drugs can really deplete you of common nutrients.†
So welcome to the fifth installment in my series of drug-induced nutrient depletions. This time we’re talking about nonprescription medication, which is also called over-the-counter medication, medication you can sometimes buy at a gas station store, and the important nutrients they deplete. Thanks for tuning in today to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen or visit invitehealth.com/podcast. Please subscribe and leave us a review. You can also follow us on Metaverse, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth and the information on this episode is linked at the episode description, so let’s get going.†
We already did a podcast episode on NSAID drugs. I did that about a month ago. NSAID drugs include Advil and Aleve and how there are problems with nutrients such as folate and iron and Vitamin C, so I’m not going to discuss that today. We did an entire podcast on it.†
But let’s talk about acetaminophen, which is also called Tylenol. If you’re in Europe, they have a cousin of Tylenol that’s called Panadol, a very commonly used prescription drug in Europe. Acetaminophen is commonly used for pain, even arthritis pain. It works pretty well. It’s used for fevers. It depletes two very important nutrients. One of them is glutathione. Glutathione is an enzyme system antioxidant that works for about 24 hours, so it’s a very important nutrient in the body. It protects your brain. It’s a very powerful antioxidant. It protects your brain. It protects your eyes. It protects your heart. It protects your kidneys and liver. It protects your muscles. I mean, it’s just really important all over the body and the amount of glutathione can vary from person to person. And glutathione protects you from energy utilization. When you eat food and breathe in oxygen, a byproduct of that is peroxides. Peroxides are solvents, they’re toxins. They’re free radical generators and they can kill your cells. So glutathione is there to break down peroxides. That’s one of the free radicals it neutralizes. And there’s evidence that people who lack glutathione in the eye, they have a higher risk of eye diseases such as cataracts. People who lack glutathione in general, pollution is more dangerous to them. Cigarette smoke is more dangerous to them. Glutathione is incredibly important for protecting the liver and there’s been studies showing that drugs that can hurt the liver, sometimes it’s simply because they deplete the body of glutathione. You could take glutathione, but you need to take a lot of it because it’s very poorly absorbed. It’s a big molecule. It’s a tripeptide. It’s made out of three amino acids. But it’s… you’re probably better off taking NAC (N-acetyl cysteine), the stabilized version of the amino acid cysteine. N-acetyl cysteine is very easily converted into glutathione and it’s not expensive, it’s readily available and it works. So if you’re taking acetaminophen, you should be taking something to promote glutathione production, otherwise you could have issues. You’ll age at a more rapid rate.†
Now, the other thing that acetaminophen lowers is your level of ubiquinol, which is the active version of coenzyme Q10. That’s very bad for your muscles. It’s not as big a depletion as you would see with some statin drugs like atorvastatin or simvastatin, but it is a depletion. And without ubiquinol, your muscles have less endurance. You might even have less strength. But think of your most important muscle, your heart. Your heart really depends on ubiquinol so it can beat like 80 times a minute or 120 times a minute when you’re exercising, for most people. As you grow older, you have less and less ubiquinol and also diabetics are very poor at converting regular CoQ10 into ubiquinol. So if you’re on Tylenol consistently, not if you take it once in a while, but if you’re on it consistently, if you’re on acetaminophen consistently, you really need to take some ubiquinol and you really need to pay attention to your glutathione. And like I said, it’s simple, just take NAC.†
What about antacids? There’s a whole bunch of them: Maalox, Mylanta, Gaviscon, Amphojel, Basojel. They use them for heartburn, upset stomach, gassiness and bloating. They deplete your beta carotene. Now, beta carotene is found in vegetables and the body uses beta carotene to make skin and the lining of your intestines and the lining of your blood vessels, etc. But beta carotene is also needed by the immune system and beta carotene is also needed for your vision. You can get natural beta carotene in supplements. Don’t get the synthetic, it doesn’t seem to work as well.†
Folate… antacids inhibit folate. We just spoke about folate recently. I was doing a podcast episode recently on metformin, a diabetes drug, that also depletes folate. So folate is needed to lower homocysteine. Homocysteine is an intermediary in protein metabolism. It’s not what the body is trying to make, but its level can increase if you lack folate. Homocysteine could be toxic to your bones. It could hollow out your bones a little bit and contribute to bone loss with aging. Homocysteine is toxic to the heart if you have other issues to the heart, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and also, if your homocysteine goes up, it could be pretty dangerous for the heart. It could be involved with developing hardening of the arteries, where your blood vessels in your heart, which are already smaller than other blood vessels, are thickening and stiffening, and of course, this can lead to really scary circumstances, like a heart attack or a stroke. But homocysteine in the brain is really toxic. It can contribute to depression. It can contribute to brain shrinkage, which occurs with aging anyway, but it can strongly contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. So if you’re on an antacid consistently, once again, it’s not using it once in a while, but if you’re consistently using an antacid like Maalox or Mylanta, you need to get some natural beta carotene. You need to get folate and the best form of folate, cause some people have trouble getting the synthetic folic acid and converting it into the active form of folate, would be methyltetrahydrofolate.†
Antacids also deplete you of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is needed just for muscle strength, the health of your teeth, the health of your bones, the health of your brain, lowering your risk of cancer, helping you survive cancer, immune system function, protecting your lungs from your own immune system and from infections. So lacking Vitamin D is a terrible thing, so if you’re consistently using an antacid, you need Vitamin D.†
But also bone minerals: calcium and magnesium. Calcium and magnesium are both intimately involved with creating energy out of food. There’s little powerplants that create energy in your body. They’re called mitochondria. They will not work if you lack calcium. It’s at the core of triggering these mitochondria to convert sugar from food into energy. But the other thing is, that energy that’s produced is something called ATP, it’s a nucleotide. The ATP is very unstable. You need magnesium attached to it so you have a stable source of energy. So depleting calcium and magnesium with an antacid is bad for your energy, which is bad for everything else in your body, of course, because everything follows suit from that. But it’s bad for your bones. Calcium makes the collagen in your bones harden to bone and magnesium seals the calcium to the bone, so lacking magnesium or calcium is terrible for your bones. But you also need both of them for the rhythm of your heart and for blood pressure control. So, if you’re on an antacid, you need calcium and magnesium more than likely.†
You need chromium. Chromium is one of the nutrients that interact with glutathione and Vitamin B3 to hold insulin onto the cell so you don’t have diabetes or prediabetes. So if you lack chromium, you have problems with your blood sugar. And, in fact, they’ve shown that diabetics need a lot more chromium than the general public. Someone else who needs more chromium than the general public are elite athletes. The general public, 200mcg of chromium every day is sufficient for their blood sugar needs. Athletes lose chromium in their urine and they need about 400mcg a day, where diabetics need about 1000mcg a day to get any benefit out of it.†
THE MANY HEALTH BENEFITS OF CHROMIUM – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 398. Listen Now>>
With antacids, you lose iron, because the iron gets bound into the antacid. You need iron for everything. I mean, you need iron for the brain to work. You need iron to protect the brain cause iron is converted into neuroglobin in the brain that protects the brain. We need iron for muscle energy. Iron is converted into myoglobin in the muscles, so you can’t use oxygen in the muscles without iron. In the body, it’s hemoglobin. That’s the red stuff in your blood cells that carries oxygen, so without iron, obviously you’re gonna be fatigued. And women, if they’re just a little lacking in iron, we’re not talking about anemia, they can have a real drop in their strength, their endurance and they can’t work out or anything. So you need a little bit of iron if you’re on an antacid.†
Iron is also core to antioxidant production. There’s a powerful antioxidant called catalase. When you use sugar and oxygen for energy, a byproduct is peroxide. Catalase breaks peroxides down into oxygen and water, which, of course, the body needs. And one molecule of catalase is said to convert a million molecules of peroxide into oxygen and water. So if you’re low in catalase, one of the places it’s really bad for is the liver, cause catalase is super high energy in the liver, cause the liver does so many jobs. So, if you lack iron, you don’t have catalase. Also, if you don’t have iron, your immune system won’t work. You’ll get every infection in the world. Every cold that comes by, you’ll get, cause the immune system uses iron to kill viruses. How do you know you’re lacking in iron? Well, I mean, you can look at your palm. In your palm, you see the red stuff. That’s your blood, that’s your hemoglobin. You can look at your lips, if they’re pale, but also if you get sick really easily with a cold. That’s a sign you lack iron. So if you’re on antacids consistently, you probably need some iron.†
Zinc. Zinc does so many things. You need zinc to see. You need zinc for protecting your brain. Zinc interacts with an antioxidant called superoxide dismutase to shield the brain. You need zinc for the immune system. Immune cells are not made and they don’t work without zinc, including your antibodies against specific infections. But you also need zinc to protect your organs from your own immune system during an infection. Zinc is also needed to keep your arteries in your heart clean. Zinc is needed by the pancreas to control your blood sugar. It interacts with Vitamin D and magnesium to control your blood sugar. Zinc is needed by the pancreas to release enzymes to digest your food. Zinc is needed for your thyroid to function for metabolism. Zinc is needed for healing, so if you lack zinc, you’re in trouble. So if you’re constantly on an antacid, you need some zinc. And phosphorous, but phosphorous is all over your food, so we don’t worry about that. If you’re on an antacid, you need beta carotene, folic acid, Vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, chromium, iron and zinc.†
Aspirin. I mean, you know what you use aspirin for. They use a low-dose aspirin to help prevent a second heart attack. They use aspirin for fevers, some pain and inflammation, but only in adults. If you give aspirin to an infant or a young child and they have certain viruses, it’s incredibly dangerous. They could develop something called Reye’s syndrome, so you never give aspirin to a kid. But for adults, even low-dose aspirin… they used to call it baby aspirin, but you can’t give aspirin to a baby. Low-dose aspirin, that daily dose of aspirin, even that can cause intestinal bleeding. That can cause a loss of nutrients like iron, but it’s not unusual, if you use aspirin on a daily basis, to lack folate. We already discussed that twice now. Without folate, it’s bad for your bones, it’s bad for your heart, it’s bad for your brain. You have an increased risk of depression and Alzheimer’s.†
You lack Vitamin C. You need Vitamin C for your immune system. Vitamin C is needed for respiratory burst, where your body releases its weapons to kill infections. And you also need Vitamin C for your immune system to travel to the site of an infection. That’s called chemotaxis. So, without Vitamin C, your immune system isn’t working, but without Vitamin C, you literally melt. Look up scurvy. So if you take aspirin all the time, you probably lack Vitamin C, you probably lack iron, you probably lack folate.†
Potassium. Without potassium, you lose muscle. Now, that’s a problem for older people cause they’re already losing muscle. It’s a process called sarcopenia. So lacking potassium leads to metabolic low-grade acidosis, so you lose more muscle at an accelerated rate than you normally would with aging. You need muscle for survival. Without potassium, you’re much more likely to lose bone and there’s a reason for that. Your blood is supposed to be slightly alkaline. Alkaline is the opposite of acid, so the blood’s supposed to be slightly alkaline. Potassium from your food is one of the major ways that you maintain alkalinity in your blood. If the blood is going towards acid, you can go into a state called ketoacidosis, where you can literally go into a coma and your organs like your lungs, your heart and your kidneys can shut down and then what do you have? But also without potassium, you have a much higher risk of a kidney stone, a stroke, high blood pressure. So if you’re on low-dose aspirin, you probably need some potassium, but you can get that very easily from fresh vegetables and fruits.†
And the last thing is zinc. The last thing is zinc. I think we’re going to stop there. There’s a couple other nonprescription drugs that cause depletions, but today… We didn’t discuss NSAIDs cause I already did a whole podcast on NSAIDs alone, you know, like Advil and Aleve, you know, Naproxin and Ibuprofen. But today we discussed acetaminophen, antacids and aspirin, so I’m gonna end it at that point. So thanks for tuning in today to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Please subscribe and leave us a review. You can also find us on Metaverse, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth. Hope to see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, which will be dealing with other nonprescription drugs that you can buy in any supermarket and the important nutrients that they deplete. So thanks for listening, Jerry Hickey signing off.†
*Exit music*
