Concept of borderline vitamin deficiencies
Pietrzik, K.
International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. Suppl 27: 61-73
1985
PMID: 3926708 Document Number: 2830
Malnutrition is a serious problem all over the world. But the reported incidence especially of vitamin deficiency is contradictory even in homogeneous population groups. The reasons for these differences in the assessment of the nutritional status is to be found in the lack of objective criteria. In this paper the sequence of events in the development of deficiency is described as there are several physiological changes between the stages of optimum vitamin supply and manifest clinical nutrient deficiency. At first there is a lowering of body vitamin content to be found in different tissues. The next stage is characterized by reduced synthesis of vitamin metabolites followed by a depressed activity of vitamin dependent enzymes and hormones. The transit to the fourth step characterized by morphological or functional disturbances should no longer be ignored as it is important to prevent people from clinical symptoms (fifth stage) leading finally to death. From the health point of view the borderline vitamin deficiency is proposed to be represented by the transit from the third to the fourth stage. With folate as an example it is demonstrated how to proceed in the establishment of biologically based functional parameters for the assessment of borderline deficiency. In this case morphological disturbances (hypersegmentation of neutrophilic granulocytes) are taken to characterize the borderline.
Document emailed within 1 workday
