Can nutrients really cure diseases

There is no black-and-white answer to this question - nutrients can indeed play an auxiliary role in regulating diseases under specific indications, but they absolutely cannot replace regular drugs and clinical treatment. Exaggerating their efficacy and completely denying them are both extremes.

A while ago, I came into contact with a 42-year-old female patient. The physical examination showed that the homocysteine level soared to 28 μmol/L, which is more than twice the upper limit of the normal value. She also has hereditary hypertension and is a high-risk group for stroke. At that time, the cardiologist, in addition to adjusting her antihypertensive drug regimen, specifically asked her to take active folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12. She strictly followed the doctor's instructions for more than three months. When she was reexamined, her homocysteine ​​dropped directly to the safe range of 9 μmol/L, and even her blood pressure fluctuations were much smaller. This kind of case is actually quite common in the clinical nutrition department: patients with iron deficiency anemia take supplements of iron dextran and vitamin C, and their recovery speed is much faster than simply eating red dates and pork liver; patients who are temporarily unable to eat normally after gastrointestinal surgery take enteral nutritional preparations and follow up with whey protein isolate, and the speed of wound healing is visible to the naked eye; there are also elderly people with long-term chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who follow the doctor's advice and take specific ratios of nutritional preparations, and the frequency of acute attacks can be reduced.

But why do so many people still think that nutrients are IQ taxes? To put it bluntly, I was deceived by the exaggerated propaganda flying all over the place. I met a 68-year-old diabetic uncle in the emergency department last year. He listened to a health lecture and said that a certain "complex nutrient" could repair the function of pancreatic islets and completely cure diabetes. He stopped taking metformin for more than ten years. He couldn't even control his staple food. He even took it for half a month and was sent to the hospital for ketoacidosis. When he woke up, he patted his chest and said that the lecturer said that he would be cured after taking it for a month. Who knew he almost died? Nowadays, many unscrupulous merchants promote nutrients as magic medicine that can cure all diseases. Vitamin C can cure cancer, probiotics can cure chronic gastroenteritis, and liver-protecting tablets can reverse cirrhosis. Not only do they charge an IQ tax, but they also easily delay formal treatment.

To put it bluntly, the positioning of nutrients is particularly similar to the logistics supply line in the army: frontline soldiers will definitely not win a war if they are short of ammunition and food, but you absolutely cannot expect the logistics soldiers to rush into the position with a cooking pot. The core of disease treatment is always the formal diagnosis and treatment plan given by the doctor. The role of nutrients is only to make up for the gap in daily dietary intake, or to make up for the nutrients that the body consumes extra and cannot be absorbed normally during the disease state, helping the body to adjust to its best condition, better cooperate with treatment, and reduce the occurrence of complications.

And now there is no unified conclusion on the efficacy of all nutrients. For example, in the past two years, vitamin D has been a hot topic in preventing respiratory infections and Omega3 reduces cardiovascular risk. Different clinical trials have come up with different conclusions. This is related to everyone's basic nutritional level, dosage, and daily living habits. There is no universal supplement that "can be used by everyone".

I have been doing nutrition-related work for almost ten years. The most common thing I tell people who come for consultation is: Don’t treat nutrients as magic medicine, and don’t beat them to death by saying that they are all IQ taxes. If you want to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat, first go to the clinical nutrition department of a regular hospital for evaluation. If you really think about it, eating large doses of supplements will cause more problems for the liver and kidneys than lack of nutrition.