Micronutrient are essential to preserve health. Learn which ones are important to pay attention to. ♥️ 👀 Next: Top 10 Immune Boosting Foods On-The-Go ♥️ Try Dr. Liu’s All-In-One Immune Support: https://nacproplus.com/
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Welcome to Healthy Immune Doc
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The trauma of working in the frontlines as an acute and critical care Infectious Disease specialist during the chaos and stress of 2020-21, motivated Dr. Liu to promote practical health and wellness principles for her community.
Healthy Immune Doc youtube channel is an extension of her education campaign to help people understand how to optimize immunity and inflammation and slow down premature aging caused by acute and chronic conditions.
Everyone is welcome!
Dr. Liu’s Bio
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Dr. Liu is the co-founder of NACPro+, dedicated to optimizing immunity and wellness.
Dr. Liu graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1998 and is Double Boarded in Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine. She is licensed in the state of California.
This channel is separate from Dr. Liu’s duties as Attending Medical Staff @ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and as Assistant Professor at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. The views on this channel are her own.
VIDEO TOPICS:
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00:00 Preview
00:11 Introduction
00:24 Vitamin D
01:11 Supplement Reputation
02:27 Food versus Supplements
02:48 Causes of Mortality
03:33 Benefits
05:00 Thiamine
06:45 RDA Thiamine
07:04 Macronutrients vs micronutrients
07:22 Thiamine Deficiency
09:06 Microwave Popcorn
09:27 Diseases of Deficiency
09:48 Refeeding Syndrome
11:49 Antioxidants
12:02 Fiber & Gut Microbes
12:25 Leaky Gut
12:43 Brain Boosting Supplements
13:37 Vitamin B1 Deficiency & Mortality
14:16 Energy Production
14:30 Oral Sores
15:06 Choosing Supplements
15:19 Diets and Essential Nutrients
15:43 Diesel & Processed Food
19:55 Missing Essential Nutrients
21:08 Fats
22:03 Magnesium
22:31 Commonly Deficient
23:10 Potentially Toxic Essential Minerals
LEGAL DISCLAIMERS:
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Sorry, occupational hazard: This is NOT medical advice, nor can I give you medical advice. I AM NOT YOUR DOCTOR. This video does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Liu and you. Everything here is for general informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing medical advice. Information in this video is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and it should not be used to self-diagnose nor should it substitute for a medical exam, treatment, diagnosis, and prescription or other recommendations by a professional medical doctor. You should not make any changes in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice from health care professionals for any medical condition.
Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos!
All non-licensed clips are used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).
these two nutrients are literally found in your retina to protect your vision yet we don’t consider them as essential your body can’t make them so you have to hi friends for years I doubted the benefits of supplements I thought they were just expensive yellow pee I’ve Learned how wrong I was when I struggled with my own health issues and discovered I had super low levels of vitamin d and the only person who I know that had even lower levels was my dad and he suffered from a spinal fracture because he had unmeasurable vitamin d levels nobody checked his vitamin d and when you don’t have vitamin d it causes a whole host of problems from osteoporosis to bad skin to memory problems to autoimmune diseases to getting sick and really there’s no body part that won’t be affected because there are vitamin d receptors in every single cell in your body and how many times have you heard that supplements are waste of money well to my dad it would have been a lifesaver and here’s the deal supplements to some are luxury but to others they are essential and in today’s video we’ll look at the real truth about supplements why they’re misunderstood and which ones can truly benefit your health if you know how to use it correctly so let’s start with why supplements get a bad reputation the supplement industry is not regulated as prescription drugs and it’s true some companies have made poor quality products or even harmful ones and that’s LED to skepticism in the whole medical community for years about the whole industry but let me ask you this are supplements really as dangerous compared to other things in our lives take cars for example did you know that 46,000 people died in car accidents in 2018 now does that mean that all cars should be banned altogether of course not we need cars but we also need to use them safely and responsibly and the same is true with supplements and for years I was taught to believe that supplements were useless from being expensive pee to in the long term possibly even a bad idea now the headlines make it sound as if supplements were deadly but are they really now studies like the Women Health Initiative in 2011 claim supplements were linked to an increased mortality how many people do you know that has suffered serious complications from supplements I know a few but we used to have cases of anti estrogenic fatty liver that induce cirrhosis without a history of alcohol and we thought it was because they were taking bad supplements now we know what’s in the supplements but the bad highly refined processed foods including highly refined sugars combined with saturated fat and that is still the issue today we’re blaming supplements for what our bad food is causing so we’ve confused the industries now the 2011 Women’s Health Study failed to mention that participants also had existing health conditions like cancer and heart disease and also ignore the role of alcohol consumption you know 178,000 people don’t make it because of alcohol every year and heart disease well that takes out 700,000 people every year and supplements well over a 12 year period I could only find 34 cases and we do know some supplements that have caused a few fatalities in the US but most supplements don’t do that they’re not like prescription drugs which are the third leading cause of fatalities in the US and Europe behind heart disease and cancers no wonder many patients are concerned about medicines however health care workers they are more concerned about supplements so why the double standard and that huge disconnect especially since now we have numerous published studies that have shown taking supplements regularly don’t increase mortality and in fact can have many benefits maybe those health care workers aren’t aware of the data or are they secretly taking supplements and just hesitant to endorse them publicly did you know that when physicians prescribe a supplement it’s actually considered a medicine but when you buy that exact same supplement over the counter we call them supplements weird right now I personally take a once a day supplement sometimes every 6 hours when I’m trying to optimize my health when I have various challenges and like most healthcare workers I find supplements to be an uncomfortable topic because many companies portray supplements as a magic pill but depending on the supplement they may simply be supplying essential nutrients missing in your daily diet you don’t miss medications because they’re not essential and the thing is with nutrients is that you only need to miss one essential nutrient to have catastrophic disease and symptoms and replacing that one nutrient or filling your bucket back up will significantly improve your health now some may appear to work like magic because your body is miraculous if you just supply your body what it needs it will heal itself but unlike drugs where you’re actually treating a disease state many supplements just supply micronutrients to keep you healthy and no matter how much drug you take if your body can’t get healthy you’re just gonna feel sick now it’s just been over 100 years since we first discovered the first B vitamin vitamin B1 the discovery of thiamine taught the world that missing one essential nutrient can cause fatal irreversible damage to the brain the nervous system and the heart and unlike fat can’t really store vitamin B1 when you fast missing thiamine is the reason why people kick the bucket and did you know that the more carbohydrates you eat the more thiamine you need so if you’re eating a ton of empty carbs like drinking soda candy sugary coffee well you just get to the bottom faster now personally I think thiamine inadequacy is the reason why many people feel tired burnt out have memory issues especially those who are elderly and this is why many neurologists automatically put people on a thiamine supplement when they get hospitalized for confusion now the RDA for thiamine is less than 1.5 mg a day I think that is just crazy low there’s no way for physicians even prescribe that tiny dose and it won’t make a dent in people who are inadequate or deficient this is 100 mg this is the smallest one I can find in the store but the crazy part is in the average American diet even a poor one you should easily meet the requirement for 1.5 mg and yet across multiple studies the incidence of thiamine deficiency can range from 20% to 90% but just like all other nutrients your body’s need for any nutrient is dependent upon your lifestyle so a Marathon runner will need more a thiamine than me sitting behind this desk a person fighting infection or illness will probably need as much as a Marathon runner or more and the person eating a bag of chocolate will also need more than me because that’s not my diet because my diet isn’t full of sugar the RD requirement for thiamine I think is unable to meet our demands of our lifestyle today have you ever thought about increasing your thiamine when you’re working out or simply moving more or eating more junk no nobody thinks about that except for me and that’s why when you look at the nutrition facts for my supplement Nupro Plus it has 25 mg or over 2,000 of the RDA of Simon and now you know why so why do people get vitamin deficient well because the American diet is a big problem we focus on macronutrients like protein and we forget about micronutrients vitamins minerals and even fiber missing just one essential nutrient can make your body feel bad and there are certain people who are at risk of having thiamine deficiency if you’re elderly eating alone if you’re not in great shape and taking multiple medications you may not have much of an appetite and people who don’t eat don’t get enough fiber if you’re on a diet restriction or drinking alcohol you may not be hungry or you may be skipping meals to do intermittent fasting or you may have inflammatory bowel disease or short gut syndrome or maybe even a gastric bypass all those people need more thiamine if you’re eating but not eating Whole Foods like whole grains or whole nuts or whole seeds or whole beans or you’re not eating thiamine fortified foods like cereals you may be thiamine deficient and in fact if you’re drinking lots of tea or eating raw fish those foods may have thiamineases or enzymes that destroy thiamine and you can either take it in an oral supplement or intravenously if you have absorption problems oral supplements may not help and this is why it’s super important to eat a diversity of foods and know the benefits of taking supplements to make up for deficiencies hi friends I am so thrilled that you want to take charge of your health and take charge of your food now I know nutrition can be complex but it doesn’t have to be and I’m here to support you in this lifelong journey so if you point your camera app to this Q R code it’ll take you to a link for a free handout that I created just for you and if you like it if you wanna see other handouts please go to the link in my show notes and then you can leave me your feedback on what I could do to help you in your journey okay back to the video now now in college I had a roommate who ate only microwave popcorn I honestly didn’t see her eat anything else and every day she would eat a bag of microwave popcorn for dinner and there are lots of reasons why microwave popcorn is just not healthy if you’re nutrient deficient you’re gonna have performance issues as a doctor I used to think of supplements as prescription drugs and that was a huge mistakes because some of these supplements are actually essential there’s something your body needs every day and unlike prescription supplements they’re not meant to treat disease they’re meant to fill in nutritional gap to prevent disease but when you are deficient you will have disease and then those supplements they actually become prescription medications now if you have scurvy that’s a disease from the lack of vitamin C if you have muscle spasms that may be due to a lack of magnesium if if you have anemia that may be due to folate deficiency or vitamin B12 deficiency or iron deficiency if you’re altered or delirious maybe from alcohol you need vitamin and in fact we will give you vitamin before we even give you any sugar or any food because if you don’t give these nutrients in the right order you can actually precipitate life threatening conditions such as meningitis and encephalopathy which causes permanent brain damage scary stuff right when was the last time you had your thiamine level checked it’s not checked unless you have a problem because we just assume people are getting enough so unless you live in a perfect world eating a perfect diet living your perfect life you may be deficient on thiamine do you skip meals do you work late do you not eat a balanced diet do you not eat nutritious meals how many people just grab a bag of soda and chips to get them through the day I used to do that but now I take a supplement my supplement called Macro Plus because I realize I got plenty of calories on me I’m not deficient in calories but what I’m deficient in are micronutrients that I need to actually metabolize these calories that I’m carrying so when I do restrict my diet whether on purpose or because I have no option cause I’m busy working I’m not getting essential micronutrients and that’s when supplements can come in handy for me so like many colleagues I’m always in a rush I’m skipping meals because we’re busy and honestly we’re often too busy to eat so this is why relying on a good multivitamin is really insurance policy that I am getting my essential nutrients that my body needs to function regardless if I put any food in my mouth and so my supplement ncroplus it doesn’t fulfill everything it’s designed as a supplement for a good balanced diet it’s not designed to be a diet and when I first graduated from school I never imagined that I would make a multivitamin supplement and the thing is natural plus isn’t just a multivitamin it actually has a variety of plant extracts because there’s so many antioxidants in plants that are beneficial that people don’t appreciate so take lutein and zeaxanthin found in fruits and vegetables these two nutrients are literally found in your retina to protect your vision yet we don’t consider them as essential go figure your body can’t make them so you have to eat them and did I mention the role of fiber which you can’t metabolize and therefore it feeds your gut microbiome which is your largest immune organ and people forget that sharing is caring so whenever you eat you actually need to have some leftovers for your gut microbiome otherwise they starve and when they starve well they turn on you and they will feed on the carbohydrate lining your mucus lining that separates you from them that’s a start of leaky gut and a ulcer so if you still doubt the benefits of supplements well consider this Doctor Howard Levine the chief medical editor at Harvard Health Publishing he actually changed his mind of supplements after years of skepticism and now he recommends a daily multivitamin to support brain health as we age that’s because multiple large studies have now shown that people who take multivitamins perform better on cognitive tests than those who didn’t and these studies involve thousands of participants and the results are consistent across a couple of years now to me that’s clear that supplements can have long term benefits for your health but it’s super important that you learn how to use them now I don’t hesitate to take supplements because I watched my parents take these two supplements my entire life vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 and I didn’t really understand why until I started studying the history of nutrition now my dad he was actually a physician and he was also an Asian history teacher and also survived the communist revolution and also the Japanese takeover of China during the World War now in the 19th century vitamin B1 deficiency was rampant in the southeast and East Asia especially in Japan Indonesia and the Philippines and this is because they were eating white rice now even the Japanese Navy suffered thousands of casualties eating white rice and in the early 20th century prisoners soldiers and laborers who had restricted diets mainly on white rice while they also didn’t survive and it was during my dad’s lifetime that scientists discovered all our essential B vitamins starting with vitamin B1 white rice has no vitamin B1 and that’s why tens of thousands of Asians perish it’s amazing to me that vitamin B1 and B2 are so underappreciated these two B vitamins are so important for energy production and they’re super cheap people don’t understand that this is the rate limiting step for energy if you don’t have adequate thiamine and riboflavin it doesn’t matter how much protein fat and carbohydrates you’re going to get you’re not going to be able to process them and do you know how many people with sore tongues and swords in their mouth that I see on a daily basis or hear about people running out of gas at work or at home no one will feel good if they don’t have the right proportions of essential micronutrients I I wish it was an easy answer to tell you how to scream for supplements but there isn’t because everybody’s lifestyle is different and every day your nutritional needs will change depending on your physical activity your diet or whether or not you’re ill so if you’re going to go to Disneyland you’re going to need more micronutrients and if you sit on the couch to watch football but the good news is there are three basic principles to think about when you’re going to use a supplement so let’s start with the basics so No.1 no amount of supplements will make up for a bad diet or a restricted diet so if you’re eating less ultra processed foods that’s good but if that’s the only thing you’re eating well you’re gonna be more nutrient deficient and that’s one reason why people hit a plateau in their weight loss journey when they take a GLP1 agonist and they don’t fix their diet my friend’s husband decided to eat less of the bad food he was eating so he lost a bunch of weight in the first few weeks but then he got disappointed because he’s not losing any more weight because he’s not changing his diet quality now do you think your unleaded car will run better if you put in less diesel if the gas station runs out of unleaded gasoline would you ever put leaded gas even a little bit no because you know you’re gonna ruin your car but many ultra processed foods it’s like diesel for your body it’s ruining your engine good quality food propels your metabolism to give you health because they’re full of micro nutrients bad food not only doesn’t give you micronutrients it taxes your metabolism which then leads to bad health and in this modern day shopping trip to the supermarket or a restaurant so many people eat as if there’s no consequences holidays are a great time to pig out and make exceptions we find we fried those pizza bread it’s really just never healthy it seems like every day is a holiday we keep making exceptions to our food if you accidentally put diesel in one day can you make up for that diesel by putting in supreme high octane gasoline the next day no you’re gonna wanna pump out that diesel and your body works the same way what you eat is not only burned as fuel but ultimately becomes building material for your organs and bones just like not all gasoline will propel your car not all food will propel your engine here and if you’re missing nutrients well no matter how much protein fat and carbohydrates you’re gonna get you’re not gonna be able to metabolize those protein fats and carbs people take better care of their car than they do their body I’m not sure why because your car is not built to last but this is supposed to last a lifetime but unlike a gas station where they clearly Mark diesel from unleaded so that customers don’t get confused when you go on a shopping trip there’s nothing clear about the ingredient list and there’s nothing clear about a menu processed food companies confuse shoppers by putting a bunch of nonsense clean green labels to pretend engineer foods are all natural there’s nothing natural about food that comes in a plastic container or a box and in fact the finer they process that food the more chemicals they can hide in it and that’s how processed food ruins your metabolism recently my son went to fill up his gasoline tank with the cheapest gas in town five minutes after he filled his tank to the maximum his check engine light went on and he thought he overfilled his tank and ultimately he went to the dealership who concluded that he had put in bad gas now the dealer said the unleaded gas was probably contaminated with debris water or was simply the wrong mixture of gasoline but since the car didn’t have any symptoms we should just drive it around to use up all the bad fuel and then with the next fill up we should put some high grade octane gas or they can empty the gasoline tank for us for $800 now which one would you choose to do I was really concerned but not 800 bucks concerned enough but I was wondering if that bad gas would corrode my engine and after talking to my brother who has a PhD in biochemistry and my husband who’s also a physician I concluded that I was probably overreacting overthinking it and we could just run the car until the gasoline wears off but my fear was what if that was just a red hearing and it was actually a coincidence that the warning light went on right after he filled up the tank and could there be a more serious reason and honestly our bodies work like our cars when you put in bad fuel or food you have to work that off until it it’s gone you don’t put any more so that you fix your health but unlike cars we don’t have a check engine warning light however we walk around with a ton of symptoms but it’s so subtle like cold sores dry skin headaches pain bloating fatigue but nobody puts two and two together that it’s bad fuel and unlike a car your body is actually really resilient and it can heal itself including the toxins but you gotta stop eating the ultra processed engineered pretend food and supply it with the right micronutrients and it only works if you haven’t permanently damaged your engine parts and just like your car if you want to feel better you have to empty yourself of the poisonous toxins and then give yourself super boost high octane fuel with good quality Whole Foods and plants with good quality supplements because there is no diet that’s perfect so how do you know what you need well that’s where getting together with a professional health care provider can help you based on your activity and your diet certain things like vitamin d and vitamin B12 can be easily measured and many people are deficient in those two micronutrients and if you’re on a vegan diet or you’re not eating much you may be B12 deficient others can be easily calculated like fiber but it’s impractical for people to expect an overnight change from a lifetime of bad dietary habit and that’s why No. 2 is a perfectly reasonable start to take a daily multivitamin we recommend that to women of childbearing age that’s a prenatal vitamin it’s an insurance policy that you’re getting at least a little bit of many essential micronutrients that you need on a daily basis we give people on dialysis special multivitamins to take daily and ideally you should be getting these nutrients in your food but if you only eat 10 different foods and you don’t eat all the time and you’re eating the same foods every day well you can be pretty confident that you’re missing essential micronutrients and I think people overestimate how balance the average American diet is there are at least 34 essential micronutrients that we need to get on a daily basis no one food or food group has everything a person needs and some of these nutrients people overeat like Omega 6 fat because most people love to eat oils and no matter how restricted your diet is people usually will eat 30% of fat in their diet so the only things that go up and down are carbohydrates and proteins and depending on what you choose to eat will depend on how much micronutrients is attached to those carbohydrates and proteins I know most people are overachievers when it comes to protein and carbohydrates they eat plenty of both and what everybody struggles with is getting enough of the right micronutrients and simply this is because people aren’t eating whole plants as a source of their protein and carbohydrates instead they either eat ultra processed refined foods and then they add a little bit of vitamins and minerals like cereals or they’re just heavily eating protein you know if you eat an ounce of pumpkin seeds that’s like two tablespoons full you’ll get 156 milligrams of magnesium but if you eat granola bars there’s no magnesium in some of them this granola bars has 10% magnesium what’s 10% well in day you need 400 milligrams so then 10% is 40 and two tablespoons of pumpkin seeds will give you 39% of your daily needs nothing beats nature but at that rate supplementing is very beneficial and we know there are several common micronutrients that people just don’t eat enough of potassium magnesium vitamin d vitamin C and Omega 3 fats there is no one multivitamin that will cover an adequate amount of all these nutrients for your specific needs and hence it’s really important to do number three get together with your health care provider to fine tune what exactly you need and they should be getting a good dietary history and lab test when applicable now I don’t want to discount the role of multivitamins because literally a good multivitamin can help you meet an adequate amount of essential vitamins and minerals but I personally wouldn’t want multivitamins to overload on certain ingredients especially when it comes to iron and copper cause these metals can be toxic in excess hence not all essential micronutrients should be taken as a supplement for example iron causes a massive amount of oxidized stress in the body and has been linked to an increased risk of colon cancer it’s a strong irritant that even kills malaria parasites copper will turn green like a penny that means it’s oxidizing and that can cause our bodies to get oxidized so here’s the bottom line our modern diets are not providing the nutrients that we need and that’s why supplements have become essential for many people but supplements are no substitute for a healthy diet but they can fill in your nutritional gaps where food quality has declined and where busy life cells make perfect diets nearly impossible to achieve and that’s why it’s important to pay attention to your essential micronutrients like B vitamins and especially magnesium if you want to learn more about which magnesium you should take check out the next video
