Sault Naturopath

Thiamin, vitamin B1, is an essential nutrient. Our bodies need thiamin to digest carbohydrates, to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, and to produce hydrochloric acid in our stomachs that is needed to digest food. Deficiencies are linked to PMS, anxiety, and peripheral nerve disease. Prolonged deficiency can lead to labored breathing and cardiac damage. Although important, thiamin deficiency unfortunately is often under diagnosed.

Early symptoms of deficiency may include:

• easy fatigue
• loss of appetite
• irritability and emotional instability
• confusion, loss of memory

Later signs of deficiency may include:  Read more...

• burning feet (especially at night)

James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch

Sometimes I feel that it would be infinitely easier to pretend that our world’s healthcare problems do not exist. It would be bliss to trust that our food industry operates with the public’s best interests at heart and that the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry are committed to human health. I suspect however that you already realize that this is currently a fairy tale dream. Or perhaps you’re like many others and understandably feel confronted by criticism of these paradigms. Whatever the case may be, James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch have learnt the hard way.  Read more...

We’ve explored the possible nutrient depletions associated with antibiotics. Let’s continue this look into nutrient depletions by moving on to another set of very common drugs: gastric acid reducers and anti-ulcer medications.

The following nutrients are depleted by gastric acid reducers and/or anti-ulcer drugs:

Beta-carotene Proton pump inhibitors, such as esomeprazole (Nexium®), lansoprazole (Prevacid®), omeprazole (Prilosec®, Losec®), rabeprazole (Aciphex®), and pantoprazole (Protonix®, Pantoloc®), may cause a loss of stomach acid and may reduce absorption of a single dose of beta-carotene.  Read more...