EP. 07: Drug-induced Nutrient Depletion
When your doctor prescribes a medication, do they also spend time telling you all of the side effects and how you can also combat those? My guess is no...
Today, we’re spending time discussing various over the counter and prescribed medications - which do have a time and place - and how they can deplete the body of various nutrients. For examples, Prilosec or Omeprazole deplete the body of calcium. Women on birth control are often depleted of folic acid and B vitamins. Antibiotics deplete the body of magnesium. Knowing all of this can help us uncover how to combat those depletions because, over time, these nutrient depletions can contribute to chronic disease. It’s very good insight and, hopefully, will help you marry traditional and holistic health and wellness practices so you can live your good, better, and best life.
Show Notes
0:00:00
Hi everybody, I hope that your week has been going well and that you're getting excited for the weekend. So I just wanted to switch gears a little bit and just talk about something that isn't very frequently talked about. Nutritional support for drug-induced nutrient depletions. So a lot of us are on prescription medications, right? And many of us are on more than one, which, great, time and a place for all of that. However, if you're going to be taking prescription medications, let's talk about what they can do, right?
0:00:42
Besides their intended goal. So, of course, medications in general, and some herbs and supplements as well, They can affect liver detoxification, they can affect nutrient absorption, they can deplete nutrients. And some of those nutrients are really important for, again, like liver detoxification, mental clarity, energy metabolism, metabolism in general.
0:01:06
So let's talk about some of that today. I'm gonna go over some of the most common medications that as Americans we are on, and just talk about what nutrients they deplete, how we can address that, and just kind of go from there. So in practice, I have a couple of books that I always refer to. This one is out of print, but I will share one that you can get on Amazon as well. They're just nice to have on
0:01:34
hand for yourself, for your friends, for your family, because again, this is something that primaries, for the most part, aren't talking about and it's, it's important. So here's this one. This is actually, gosh, I'm going to date myself probably 20-25 years old now. It was written by a clinical nutritionist, as well as a naturopath, as well as a doctor of pharmacy out of Cincinnati, Ohio, which is pretty close to us. He was actually one of my instructors
0:02:05
and it's a fantastic book because what I appreciate about it is you can look up most any prescription. You can look up their common names, their brand names, a list of what's depleted. And the cool thing is, is there's scientific studies to back what they deplete. So it's not just hearsay, right? You guys know,
0:02:27
I'm very evidence based. So you can actually kind of go in the back of the book and pull up the studies for that medication and that drug. So I've used this and you can see it's well loved. I've used this for years. So this is a really good one. But again, I'll give you guys if you can't find this one that you can look up. And then we'll talk about this kind of later in some future podcasts too, but he also wrote one called Cracking the Metabolic Code. So it just talks about you know metabolic syndrome, how to control stress, understanding body
0:03:05
biochemistry, and just how to optimize health. What I appreciate about it is there are studies included and being a pharmacist he has the beauty of marrying the nutrition world with the pharmacy world right which I didn't go to pharmacy school so that's not my strong suit but this is a great resource and it's an easy read he goes over a lot of different things on like balancing your thyroid balancing your blood sugar key foods and supplements to power your health. So really, really, really good resource. So that's another one you can look up and just kind of get a feel for how to optimize your health. So let's talk about
0:03:53
prescriptions just a little bit. Statistics show, and this is from the CDC, it's a little bit outdated, it's from 2016, percentage of persons using at least one prescription drug in the past month, 48%, right? So that includes like Tylenol, aspirin, percentage of people using three or more in the past month, 24%, and I can attest when patients have come to me in the past, they have a laundry list of medications, and a lot of times they're on medications to counterbalance the effects of another medication and so then that list starts to add up. And then the percentage of persons using five or more prescription drugs is 12% right? And again this is
0:04:39
outdated so I'm sure it's up quite a bit. The percentage of physicians office involving drug therapy 74% right? So again, there's a time and a place for medications, but we know that they're being used quite heavily. The most frequently prescribed pain relievers, no surprise there. We know that pain and inflammation is the root of chronic disease and pain in joints and headaches and everything else. Anti-hyperlipidemic agents of cholesterol medications and then skin agents, dermatological issues. How many as women, how many of you had acne
0:05:20
growing up in high school? We're great in your 20s, and then you hit your 30s, and then you're starting to break out again, right? We're getting these hormonal shifts. So there's kind of ebbs and flows with what gets prescribed. And as I've said in the past in podcasts, your skin is kind of the temperature gauge
0:05:42
for what's going on in your body. It talks about detoxification, it shows you what you're getting sensitive to or having a reaction to. So that's really important to understand too. So that makes sense to me. 81% of adults use over-the-counter meds as a first response to minor ailments.
0:05:59
So hopefully with the podcast, I give you guys some options on alternative pain relievers and things that we can do. Not that I don't want you to use prescriptions, but if we can always go more natural, that would be a good outcome. And then interesting enough too is US consumers make about 26 trips a year to purchase
0:06:22
over-the-counter products, but they only visit doctors about three times a year. So a lot of Americans are kind of self-prescribing or self-dosing, which can be good and can be bad. I know growing up, being from a medical family, my parents always had a cabinet of supplements and then they had a cabinet of medications. And my dad, God loves him, was notorious for,
0:06:51
if he didn't feel good, he'd just take some Cipro or he'd just take some amoxicillin. He would just kind of dose as he wanted to and he would never finish a prescription so he'd always have some on hand, right? And I know, I mean, how many of us have something that we got for pain or like a steroid pack and we didn't finish it just to have it So medication uses is quite a bit. As far as your primary talking to about this, for the most part, based on medical school curriculum, and I have family of course that are MDs, I have nieces and nephews that are in medical school, so a
0:07:35
first-hand account of what the current curriculum is as well, a lot of nutrition classes are optional or as electives, and it's very brief. So for the most part, I always say they don't know what they don't know, unless you go and get some extra training or certification. They might not say when they hand you that script for blood pressure medication or steroids,
0:07:59
hey, it might have these side effects but it could also deplete XYZ from your system which could cause XYZ. So that's just something to keep in mind if you're not getting this information from somewhere. Number one you need it and you need to get it from a reputable source which again these books are great or again someone that is a clinical nutritionist or if you have the research, you can always ask your doctor. Say, hey, I've been reading. I've been on low-dose steroids for 15 years. I see that they do XYZ.
0:08:37
What do you think about this? So again, it's really a relationship with your provider for optimizing your health. So a couple of the prescriptions that I want to talk about, which so many of us are on, and it's designed for short term, Prilosec, right? You have stomach pain, upset, heartburn, Prilosec, or Omniprazole. So the biggest one with that is, A,
0:09:04
it's meant to be kind of short term because it'll decrease acid production, which is its goal. And over time, it can permanently decrease iron, which if you're a menstruating female, that could be a problem. Calcium, if you have a history of osteoporosis, osteopenia, that's a big deal. And B12, right? We've talked about B12 for energy metabolism,
0:09:29
fat metabolism, detoxification. So you could always, if you've been on this for a while, you could always ask your doctor to get your iron levels checked or and your B12. Calcium is kind of tricky. You can get your calcium checked in your serum, so in your blood, but it's not a good representation of what your bones are doing. So you almost need a bone scan like a DEXA scan to see how the bones are doing. So make sure you're getting enough calcium in your diet.
0:10:02
And what you are getting, if you're on omniprizol, you might not be absorbing it. So that's something to look at. Prescription antibiotics. So the most common, there's different classes of them. Penicillin, so amoxicillin, tetracyclines, doxycycline is a common one, the quinolones, Cipro, and the sulfos, so like Bactrim, so pretty strong ones.
0:10:28
These guys, and a lot of doctors will tell you this, like have some yogurt when you're on an antibiotic. We know for sure they kill everything in your guts, good and bad. So they deplete bifidobacterium, lactobacillus acidophilus, which is in yogurt, and a lot of other strains that isn't in yogurt. So yes, a good probiotic, if you're on an antibiotic,
0:10:55
is a must. Don't take it at the same time as you take your antibiotic, because, right, they'll cancel each other out. You wanna take it opposite time of the day, and you wanna stay on it for quite a bit afterwards, because antibiotics can stay in your system for a while. So besides the gut bacteria, depending on what one you're on, they can deplete magnesium, potassium, which is really important for the heart, your B
0:11:19
vitamins, right? So your B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, and vitamin K, which with blood clotting I usually don't supplement vitamin K. Sometimes when I recommend vitamin D, I'll pair D and K, but I usually don't recommend K by itself. And there really isn't a good medical blood test for vitamin K. There's functional ones, but not a true medical one. So really you wanna focus on the Bs, the gut bacteria, and then possibly potassium if you're on Amoxy,
0:11:59
and then magnesium and calcium if you're on doxycycline. As far as Bactrim, that's a little bit of a different one. It will do gut bacteria, but also folic acid, which is B9. And we've talked about people that don't methylate, right? So you take folic acid, you don't have the enzymes to convert it over. So if you're on Bactrim, take a probiotic, and then get on a really good methylated folate B9.
0:12:31
That way, it's the active form. So you can easily see if, say, you're a female, and you're on birth control. And then you're on an antibiotic. The birth control is already depleting your folic acid and your B vitamins, maybe magnesium as well. And then maybe your antibiotic is doing that as well. So you kind of get this domino effect of this medications depleting it.
0:12:56
This one is this two let's compound those effects. Well, you have the standard American diet where you're not getting a lot of nutrients there. And so you can see how over time these nutrient depletions can contribute to chronic disease. Um, pain medications. So these guys, um, of course there's different classes of them as well. Um, there's Cox one, there's Cox two, um, and they each do different things.
0:13:23
The biggest thing to consider is acetaminophen will deplete glutathione, which we know is really important for the gut. So that's a good one to supplement with as a powder. Um, if you're on acetaminophen regularly. Ibuprofen, naproxen, Celebrex, those all deplete folic acid again. And then aspirin, if you're on baby aspirin for clotting or just for pain relief, that does folic acid as well,
0:13:55
but also iron, potassium, sodium, and vitamin C. So just things to consider. The hypertension ones, it depends on which ones you're on. There's thiazide diuretics, there's potassium sparing diuretics, there's centrally acting hypertensives. So for say like thiazide diuretics, like hydrochlorothiazide,
0:14:23
that will deplete CoQ10 and your electrolytes, right? Your potassium, your magnesium, sodium, zinc. A big side effect of statins, which we've heard about for years, is the depletion of an enzyme called CoQ10. CoQ10, his little goal in life is to make you energy. He's part of this energy metabolism pathway where he helps your muscles make energy, including your heart and just your overall
0:14:54
energy metabolism. So, if he's getting depleted, a lot of times with satins, patients will get weakness or fatigue in the arms or the legs or just tiredness, chest pain. Same thing for blood pressure medications. CoQ10 can be depleted from those as well. So that's important to look up depending on which one you're on with what's getting depleted. Potassium-sparing diuretics, so that's a plus.
0:15:20
But they can still deplete calcium, your folic acid, your CoQ10, and your sodium. And those are easy to supplement with. You can either do an electrolyte drink, like the liquid IV I love, or you can just up your natural food intake of those as well. Beta blockers, again, CoQ10, we've talked about that, and then centrally acting will do CoQ10 as well as your electrolytes.
0:15:51
The statins, I just mentioned, like Lipitor, CoQ10 is huge. Then some of the cholesterol amines, those will do calcium, folic acid, iron, magnesium, your Bs, and zinc. So again, you just have to look at what class of medications you're on, which can kind of be tricky,
0:16:16
which again, it's nice to kind of have a book or an internet source to kind of look it up. Now, birth control. I mentioned before birth control will deplete B vitamins. It does depend on which one you're on. There's hormonal and non-hormonal. Right now the only non-hormonal birth control that I'm aware of is the Paragard which is the copper IUD which is wonderful. I love that one if you're going to go with traditional contraceptive. For contraceptives in general, magnesium is huge and we've talked about magnesium for mental clarity, muscle health, it
0:17:01
helps to address fatigue, metabolism, your B vitamins right? No surprise B1, B3, B6, B12, B9 and then vitamin C and zinc. So those are just a good one to kind of address if you're on birth control make sure you have a good multi that has those in it and again like the methylated forms and then maybe take a magnesium as well. And then for the topical like the dermatological agents so gosh there's salicylic acid there's like antifungals like lamisil, benadryl, hydrocortisone. So if you are struggling, let's just talk about fungus for a second. If you're struggling with foot fungus,
0:17:46
Lamisil has been around for a while. We know it works well. If you want something a little bit more natural, tea tree oil. Tea tree oil with a little coconut oil, over time, works very, very well. So that's a nice natural alternative. If you're taking hydrocortisone, that will deplete
0:18:06
your minerals, so your magnesium, your potassium, your selenium, your folic acid, and your C and your D. And then if you want to talk about, and I see so many patients that have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance, and we're diabetic, metformin, right? Been around for a long time. It's interesting though because we've seen studies, if you compare diet modification and exercise, like walking, with metformin, diet and exercise actually went out.
0:18:39
Metformin is okay, but lifestyle is better, right? Good, better, best. Folic acid and B12 for metformin. And again, we talked about B12 with metabolism. We talked about it with proper neurological health. So that's a big one. And then glyburide, which I don't see a lot of physicians prescribing this a lot,
0:19:05
but that will deplete CoQ10. So you might be diabetic. You might be on glyburide. You might be on a statin. And you might be on a blood pressure medication and you're getting three medications depleting CoQ10 for energy and you might be tired, right? You might understand why you're so tired all the time. You're tired of being tired. So getting your CoQ10 is an easy way to kind of address that and just live
0:19:35
better, right? Live optimally. So foods. Let's talk about foods. We can always do supplements and supplements are great. But foods for these nutrients. So no surprise, your B vitamins, B vitamins, gosh, they're, they're plentiful in so many like nuts and seeds, legumes, so that's really good. Folic acid, your green leafies, right? If you want a natural source or citric fruit. Legumes, antioxidants, right? Eat the rainbow.
0:20:11
So eat a variety of fruits and veggies. Vitamin E, your nuts. Whole grains, not whole wheat, whole grains. And your green leafies. And vitamin C, red, right? So red peppers, oranges, strawberries, grapefruit. So those are really good ways just to kind of address some of these nutrient depletions through food. Now supplements, I can always link some supplements, just general ones that
0:20:44
you guys can look at on our website. That way if you don't know where to start you can always start with that. And then of course if you have any questions you can let me know that as well. So look at your medications, have that conversation with your primary about the long projected outcome of that medication, right? Are you on a short-term, long-term, are there natural alternatives? If you are on a short or long-term, let's do some nutrient intervention so you don't get depleted over time and then just kind of have that that conversation in that relationship with them do some research see a clinical nutritionist and just kind of fill in that piece of the puzzle yes diet is important yes exercise is
0:21:33
great but if you're on something that's depleting your system you've got to address that because that's going to continue. So if you have any questions certainly reach out to me and if there's anything else that you guys want to talk about in the future let me know that as well.
Transcribed with Cockatoo