Dr. Edmund Chein is head of the Life Extension Institute in Palm Springs, California, where he discovered that bioidentical hormone therapy can stop and possibly even reverse the aging process. Here, he discusses why people undergoing hormone therapy would benefit from multiple vitamin and trace mineral supplements.
The scientific world has reached recommended daily allowances and requirements for many trace minerals and vitamins. The most striking examples of clinical deficiency in trace minerals are seen in patients who have been placed on long-term total parenteral nutrition (TPN). Often when no mineral supplements were provided, patients developed multiple deficiency syndromes.
Most manifestations of trace mineral deficiency, especially the endocrine and metabolic derangements, can be attributed to decreases in concentration or activity of enzymes. Many enzymes contain trace amounts of minerals required for their full activity.
Removal of trace minerals from an enzyme often reduces its activity to zero and sometimes replenishment of the mineral restores the enzymatic activity. In the case of vitamin supplements, it is noted that vitamin B12 improves the quality of semen in fertile men in that it increased total sperm count, increased motility and decreased immune forms of the sperm.
Therefore, it is recommended that adults on hormone replacement therapy be supplemented simultaneously with multiple trace minerals and multiple vitamins. A few other ecxamples:
- Zinc deficiency has been noted to decrease somatomedin-C (insulin growth factor) activity; therefore, somatomedin-C activity appears to be zinc dependent. Zinc deficiency also has been noted in night blindness which may be due to depletion of retinene reductase, a zinc metalloenzyme. Patients with zinc deficiency have also suffered from impaired taste and smell senses.
- Copper deficiency has been noted to cause reproductive failure. It may also cause osteoporosis, which is caused in decrease in lisyl oxidase activity, a copper-dependent enzyme necessary for cross-linking of coflagen. Hyperpigmentation of the skin is also noted in copper deficiency which results from the decrease in tyrosinase, a copper-dependent enzyme necessary for melanin synthesis.
- Selenium deficiency will cause reduction in cell membrane protection because selenium is the co-factor in glutathione peroxidase that protects cell membranes against oxidative destruction. Manganese deficiency causes carbohydrate intolerance and disturbs diabetic glucose tolerance tests.
- Chromium deficiency also has been observed to cause abnormal glucose tolerance tests, and chromium deficiency also has been noted to cause hypercholesterolemia.
- Nickel deficiency has been noted to cause iron metabolism impairment which leads to anemia. Vanadium trace mineral deficiency also has been noted to cause hypercholesterolemia.
- Ascorbic acid deficiency has been noted to cause scurvy, which is commonly known, but pathological semen also has been observed in patients with insufficient ascorbic acid. Low vitamin C serum levels have been reported to be an independent risk factor in cervical dysplasia, leading to cervical cancer.
- Deficiency in vitamin E has been noted to cause abnormal glucose tolerance tests, and a pharmacological dose of vitamin E may enhance the insulin action in type II diabetes.
Therefore, it is recommended that adults on hormone replacement therapy be supplemented simultaneously with multiple trace minerals and multiple vitamins.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
