Signs and Symptoms You May Have a Vitamin Deficiency
How do you know if you’re vitamin deficient?
“With today’s diet of processed foods, it’s easy to become vitamin-deficient, either by not eating enough of the right foods or not absorbing them properly due to digestive issues,” says Dr. Susan Blum, the founder of the Blum Center for Health and the author of the new book The Immune System Recovery Plan. “You may not get a disease, but you can end up with impaired functioning, because vitamins are cofactors for all the biochemical reactions in the body. We need them in order to function properly.”
Nutritionists use the term subclinical deficiency to describe a nutritional deficit not yet far enough advanced to produce obvious symptoms. In lay terms, however, the phrase has become a handy explanation for common but hard-to-pin-down symptoms, such as fatigue, irritability, nervousness, emotional depression, allergies, and insomnia.
What Happens When You Don’t Get the Vitamins You Need
A Diet Low in This Vitamin May Produce These Signs of Deficiency
Vitamin A
Poor night vision; dry, rough, or cracked skin; dry mucous membranes including the inside of the eye; slow wound healing; nerve damage; reduced ability to taste, hear, and smell; inability to perspire; reduced resistance to respiratory infections
Vitamin D
In children: rickets (weak muscles, delayed tooth development, and soft bones, all caused by the inability to absorb minerals without vitamin D)
In adults: osteomalacia (soft, porous bones that fracture easily)
Vitamin E
Inability to absorb fat
Vitamin K
Blood fails to clot
Vitamin C
Scurvy (bleeding gums; tooth loss; nosebleeds; bruising; painful or swollen joints; shortness of breath; increased susceptibility to infection; slow wound healing; muscle pains; skin rashes)
Thiamin (vitamin B1)
Poor appetite; unintended weight loss; upset stomach; gastric upset (nausea, vomiting); mental depression; an inability to concentrate
Riboflavin (vitamin B2)
Inflamed mucous membranes, including cracked lips, sore tongue and mouth, burning eyes; skin rashes; anemia
Niacin
Pellagra (diarrhea; inflamed skin and mucous membranes; mental confusion and/or dementia)
Vitamin B6
Anemia; convulsions similar to epileptic seizures; skin rashes; upset stomach; nerve damage (in infants)
Folate
Anemia (immature red blood cells)
Vitamin B12
Pernicious anemia (destruction of red blood cells, nerve damage, increased risk of stomach cancer attributed to damaged stomach tissue, neurological/psychiatric symptoms attributed to nerve cell damage)
Biotin
Loss of appetite; upset stomach; pale, dry, scaly skin; hair loss; emotional depression; skin rashes (in infants younger than 6 months)
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