Drug-Induced Malnutrition

Organic Consumer reports that Americans are considered to be the most drug-oriented people in the world: drugs to wake up; drugs to go to sleep; drugs to tranquilize the mind against tensions; drugs to lose weight; drugs for pimples, falling hair, and about every human complaint.

Most, if not all, drugs can create serious nutritional deficiencies difficult to document unless in severe cases, or where research has been done in the development and marketing of a drug, such as the “pill,” known to create vitamin B-6 deficiency.

Drug-induced malnutrition is a serious threat to many consumers, especially those who overuse alcohol.  Others at risk too include those hospitalized and persons using multiple drugs.

Dr. Daphne A. Roe of Cornell University spoke out concerning drug-induced malnutrition: “Many physicians do not know about the effect of drugs on nutrition and malnutrition, although it is generally recognized that anti-convulsion drugs used in the treatment of epilepsy can cause deficiencies of the B-vitamins, folic acid, vitamin D and K.  This can lead to bone disease.

Appetite-reducing drugs and high doses of digitalis are often forerunners of malnutrition as are of the cancer chemotherapeutic drugs.

Deficiencies of potassium, zinc and magnesium all critically important for life-support, are created through extended use of diuretics often prescribed in combination with drugs to reduce high blood pressure.

Antibiotics can create nutritional deficiencies through creating malabsorption in the colon.  Some hospitals provided yogurt during and following antibiotic use.

Daily doses of folic acid, a B vitamin, can save or prolong the lives of 400,000 heart and artery disease patients every year, declared cardiologist Dr. Kurt A. Oster.

Folic acid counteracts the damage to heart and arteries caused by an enzyme in homogenized milk, xanthine oxidase or XO.

“I believe,” says Dr. Oster, “that half of all atherosclerosis – fatty build-up in arteries – is caused by XO because of the widespread use of homogenized milk in the U.S.A.  About a million people are dying each year of heart and blood vessel diseases and about 500,000 have XO damage.  Folic acid neutralizes XO and restores a substance – plasmalogen – that repairs the damage and stops the fatty buildup.”