Supplementing for Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies?
Maintaining adequate levels of essential vitamins and minerals is crucial for hormonal balance as deficiencies in these nutrients can lead to a range of issues including hormonal disorders like endometriosis and PMDD.
Knowing exactly which vitamins or minerals we are deficient in can be tricky, though.
For instance, fatigue and muscle weakness can be symptoms of a Vitamin D deficiency. But, these symptoms can also be related to deficiencies in Magnesium, Iron, Iodine, Copper, Selenium, and Potassium.
Almost every single vitamin and mineral deficiency has multiple symptoms that are shared with a range of other vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
This is why it is important to know what vitamins you are actually deficient in before you start taking vitamins and minerals in supplemental form.
For example: if you consume a great deal of health content on social media, I am quite sure Vitamin D supplements are one of the supplements you have been recommended the most. When people talk about seasonal depression, they recommend you increase your Vitamin D intake. When discussing fatigue, muscle weakness, or “brain fog,” again Vitamin D supplementation is encouraged - and often in very high amounts. I have seen so many health podcasts and instagram reels from the self proclaimed “gurus” encouraging people to take up to 10,000 IU. This is all well and good if you are in fact deficient in Vitamin D and a doctor recommends you this high of an amount. If you have not had your vitamin/mineral levels tested, though, then taking high amounts of Vitamin D without the guidance of a doctor can actually lead to other vitamin deficiencies and disrupt your hormones even further. For instance, excessive intake of Vitamin D can lead to increased absorption of calcium, which in turn can deplete magnesium levels, which in turn can lead to the muscle weakness and fatigue you likely started trying to treat with Vitamin D in the first place. Taking too much Vitamin D can also deplete you of vitamins A and K.
Supplements can play a beneficial role in addressing specific deficiencies. They should, however, always be taken with caution, and they should not be the primary source you are relying on for these vital nutrients. Instead of rushing to take large amounts of the next supplement raved about by influencers (have definitely fallen for this trap myself), it is much better to focus on increasing your intake of vitamin and mineral rich foods.
Supplements should be adjunct to, not a replacement for, a vitamin & mineral rich diet.
Remembering the exact amount that you need to be eating of each vitamin and mineral can be exhausting, though. And if you are like me, you have probably spent a great deal of time googling which food sources have the highest amounts of each of these vitamins, only to forget after a few weeks and then have to search for those same answers all over again. I mean, there are 13 essential vitamins and 12 key minerals to remember - it’s easy to forget, or confuse them with each other. This is why:
I created Vitamin & Mineral Cheat Sheets for us! 🍊
I have these cheat sheets printed out and hanging in my kitchen because they help me remember:
🍒 How much of each vitamin and mineral I need to eat every day.
🍋What foods are highest in these vitamins and minerals.
🍑 & what portion sizes I should be having of these foods.
I’m certain these will help you too! So you can access your free copy by:
1. Creating your own logins to this site.
2. Clicking on your profile and downloading them from the Free Guides tab. 🌝