|
Malabsorption and
Deficiency Disease
The Symptoms of
Intestinal Malabsorption
In malabsorption,
some abdominal pain is common and constant.
People with malabsorption experience a little
cramping before a bowel movement. Bloating and
flatus will occur particularly in those patients
with intestinal mucosa cell lesions. The
bacterial flora sours the non absorbed
carbohydrates of food, producing gases, the
origin of bloating and flatus. If the
malabsorption is not severe and the appetite
sufficient, a higher food intake may compensate
in part for the lower absorption. Malabsorption
in one of the few conditions in which weight
loss can occur despite hyperphagia (abundant
food intake). Some people with malabsorption
present diarrhea. Diarrhea in toddlers and
children should focus attention on the condition
of their intestin. As far as intestinal
malabsorption is concerned, the main problem is
the diagnosis. Malabsorption is dramatically
under
diagnosed.
The Consequences
of Intestinal Malabsorption
Larger than normal
stool mass, abdominal pain, bloating and flatus
are the first symptoms of malabsorption. Should
malabsorption endure, other symptoms will
develop, related to the gravity and the duration
of the various deficiencies caused by
malabsorption of food and of vitamins and
minerals.
Examples
Here are a few examples of the health conditions
triggered by the various deficiencies that may
result from malabsorption; Iron deficiency
causes anemia in up to 20% of patients with
malabsorption. Iron deficiency results in anemia
by reducing the supply of hemoglobin, the oxygen
transporting pigment of our red blood cells.
Zinc deficiency deprives you amid other things
from your taste by blocking the synthesis of
specific components in the taste cells. Since
malabsorption reduces the supply of foliates the
resulting foliate deficiency will cause abnormal
growth of the red blood cells. During their
maturation some of the cells will become
macrocytic Vitamin B12 will also be less
absorbed. Vitamin B12 deficiency occurs late,
where it may take up to 5 years to deplete the
body store of vitamin B12. It should be noted
that vitamin B12 is the only vitamin where body
store of it can last that long. In
malabsorption, the lesions from the mucosa cells
of the intestine may be associated with protein
leakage. As a result of protein deprivation,
Edema from the lower extremities may follow.
Because of malabsorption of calcium and
resulting calcium deficiency in bones, bone
pain, osteoporosis, bone fragility and
spontaneous fracture may occur. Calcium is
absorbed throughout the length of the small
intestine, but like iron and foliate, more
avidly in the proximal section, the most damaged
part of the intestine in malabsorption. Other
factors than calcium may be involved in bone
lesions caused by malabsorption, as a boron
deficiency caused by the same malabsorption of
minerals.
develops in
patients with years of relatively mild
malabsorption. In fat malabsorption, fatty acids
remain in the intestin. Calcium, as a divalent
cation, combines with fatty acids to form
insoluble soaps. Vitamin B group deficiency
alters the function of the cells in the nervous
system, causing osteomalasia, peripheral
neuropathy . Vitamin A deficiency induces
xerophtalmia and impairs the biochemistry in
cells of the retina causing night
blindness.
Scarcity of Minerals and
Vitamins in Our Food
Veggie Nutrients Dip in
Tests
Some Blame Environment; USDA Says
Better Tests a Factor
Washington - No one
is sure why, but government records of vitamins
and minerals in a sampling of vegetables show
the level of nutrients has gone down over two
decades, some dramatically. The little
publicized changes in broccoli, cauliflower and
other vegetables are prompting suspicion by some
in organic gardening and vegetarian circles that
a changing environment could be affecting the
produce Americans eat. But the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, while acknowledging that its own
data indicate a decline, says it is just as
likely that testing techniques for measuring
vitamins A and C, and calcium and iron, among
other nutrients, have simply become more
accurate, making the old data wrong.
" It's rather
difficult to attribute the change to any one
factor." says David Haytowitz, the USDA
nutritionist whose job is to keep information on
vegetable vitamins and minerals. " I'm not
saying it's one or the other." says Joanne
Holden, the research leader of the USDA's
Nutrition Data Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. "
I'm just saying that we can't avoid looking at
all of these things." Haytowitz says there is no
way to be certain because it is impossible to
retest the onions, collards and other vegetables
that show changes in nutrients over the last 25
years. Those vegetables or ones from the same
crop, have long since been destroyed or eaten.
But testing methods have improved substantially,
he said, so the laboratory's goal is to focus on
better analysis. The governments approach does
not satisfy Alex Jack, a Massachusetts author,
editor and advocate of natural food diets. Jack
was updating a book: " Healing Food." with the
latest USDA nutrition information when he first
noticed changes between figures published by the
government in 1973 and 1997. " My best guess is
that this was environmental, part of the large
environmental crisis - Food quality, air
quality, water quality, sea quality. " Jack
said. " I don't have definite proof, but I think
that government and our representatives should
be looking into this." Jack published his
findings in "One Peaceful World." his newsletter
advocating a macrobiotic diet, in the spring of
1998. Anne Marie Mayer, a British nutritionist
now working on a doctorate at Cornell
University, had found similar decline in England
during research that began in 1995. No one else
appears have done such an analysis.
Jack randomly
selected 12 vegetables to check nutrients:
broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower,
collards, daikon, kale, mustard greens, onions,
parsley, turnip greens and watercress. Comparing
data published in a nutrition handbook in 1975
with data on the Internet in 1997, he found that
the amount of calcium reported for raw broccoli
- the kind sold at supermarkets - had declined
by 53 percent. Broccoli also had 38 percent less
vitamin A, 48 percent less riboflavin, 35
percent less thiamine and 29 percent less
niacin. Similar declines were found for the
other vegetables. The measurements were for 100
grams (3.5 ounces) of each uncooked vegetable,
the equivalent of one-third to one-half a
cup.
The above text
was published in the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD on
Saturday, January 29, 2000
|
