Psychoneuroimmunological Implications of Growing Nutrient Deficiencies and Imbalances: Omegas, Iodine, Vitamin D, Minerals

This is a birds-eye perspective on psychoneuroimmunological consequences of nutrientNutrient insufficiencies and imbalances, with an evolutionary and functional slant. The optimal interaction of the myriad pathways that facilitate life, including immune and neurological function, are utterly dependent on adequate intakes of a range of essential nutrientsNutrient. Insufficiency of essential nutrientsNutrient in the context of a calorie rich diet, leads to pathway malfunction, increased long term oxidative stressOxidative stress, over-activation of immune responses, and degraded neural function; including via oxidative impairment of; interconnected transcription pathways; protein formation and folding; protein clearance; energy pathways; enzyme function; messengering; and antioxidantAntioxidant systems. Key pathways considered include; RXR, RAR, steroid and TPVR1 transcription; oxidative stressOxidative stress including the role of oxidizedOmega Omega 6 OXLAMs, and their derivative aldehydes particularly, 4HNE, Malondialdehyde and Acrolein; and consequent oxidative damage to essential amino acids and formed proteins, including misfolded proteins and aggregates, as well as; damage to mitochondria, and loss of antioxidantAntioxidant capacity, including of glutathione and plant-based sources. Key nutrientsNutrient, briefly considered, include; iodineIodine, vitamins D and A, Omega 3s and 6s, zinc, magnesiumMagnesium, copper, selenium, folate, and B12, with mention of others. Depressingly large numbers of humans globally, are deficient, insufficient, and imbalanced, in one, or often more, key nutrients. Dietary excess of OmegaOmega 6 LA, in the context of an oxidative diet, as a source of OXLAMs including toxic aldehydes, has far more pervasive health consequences than generally appreciated. Availability of nutrientsNutrient within upper and lower parameters, was a foundation of human evolution, during which, those essential nutrients, integral elements of our being, became embedded, thus core to optimal immune and neurological function. Consequent on the advent of highly processed foods, combined with chemical centric farming; food nutrientNutrient values, thus intakes, have fallen. Minimization of ill-health, including neurological issues, requires all nutrient insufficiencies and imbalances are addressed, which begs the question, how? What level of evidence is required within State, Corporate and Educational, Institutions, before there is acceptance, that addressing essential nutrientNutrient deficiencies and imbalances is key to health; and programs implemented, to truly optimize access to nutrient dense diets, including related public education; is essential? Acceptance smokingSmoking was harmful to health, required adoption of the Bradford Hill decision criteria. There never was, and never could be, a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial to prove smokingSmoking was harmful, because unethical and impractical. The situation is similar with meaningful, human, long term, double blind, randomized, placebo controlled, essential nutrientNutrient studies—unlike pharmaceutical studies, but like smokingSmoking studies, they are simply both unethical, and too complex to undertake. Our fixation on gold standard trials, as an exclusive necessity for any action on nutrition, is therefore irrational. Through 100 and more years’ research, we now understand the essentiality of a wide range of nutrients. We increasingly understand at least the outline of biological mechanisms and pathways, that explain their relevance to wider health, and well-being, including psycho-neuro-immune function, and have some idea as to intake requirement ranges. Thus, we need to take the Bradford Hill approach, and fully recognize, absence, insufficiency, or excess, of nutrientsNutrient, individually or in synergy, negatively influences both neural and immunological outcomes, through myriad complex interlinked evolutionary pathways and mechanisms, with multiple consequences for neurological development and wider function; in utero, early years, through the life course, and into old age, both at an individual and wider species level.