Questions on hair trace mineral analysis, the real problem with seed oils, and the supposed vitamin C tyrosinase complex.

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Is Hair Mineral Testing Useful?

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Podcast

Question: How useful is hair trace mineral analysis (HTMA) for nutritional testing?

Short Answer: Hair trace mineral analysis is included as an optional add-on in the comprehensive nutritional screening from Testing Nutritional Status: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet, because it can capture data for some ultra-trace minerals for which there are no better-validated tests, and it might capture a pattern that might not be picked up as quickly with blood work, such as a mineral transport issue. However, its utility is limited by the fact that hair mineral content is not well validated as a test for any specific mineral, is generally anti-validated when there is enough science on a mineral (such as zinc, where hair zinc does not go down in deficiency), and should not be used as a central piece of data without corroboration from other more well-validated tests, which exist for most of the nutrients.

What's the Deal With Seed Oils?

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Podcast

Question: What Is the Real Issue With Seed Oils?

Short Answer: The main issue with seed oils is that they present an oxidative liability. They do not acutely cause oxidative stress, but their polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are more vulnerable than any other macronutrient to oxidative damage. Oxidative stress can increase because of nutrient deficiencies, toxins, infections, other sources of inflammation, alcohol, or smoking, and it will inevitably increase as a function of aging. As oxidative stress increases, more PUFAs in the tissues mean more damage. At least 0.6 milligrams of vitamin E should be gotten per gram of PUFA in the diet, but vitamin E cannot fully protect against PUFA, so their intake should be moderated to the very low levels needed, as obtained by eating fatty fish once or twice a week, eating eggs daily, and eating 4-8 ounces of liver per week. Additional secondary problems with them include residual solvents and heat damage prior to intake, but the main issue is that we do not want to increase our tissue PUFA content more than needed.

Is Whole Food Vitamin C Really Different?

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Podcast

Question: Is whole food vitamin C superior to natural because it is part of a tyrosinase complex?

Short Answer: Vitamin C is nearly ubiquitously distributed in plant tissues, and is never bound to any enzyme as a structural complex. Vitamin C promotes absorption of iron from plant foods, inhibits copper absorption, and de-loads copper from ceruloplasmin, which may play a role in distributing copper to tissues. Vitamin C is not capable of destroying ceruloplasmin. These functions follow directly from vitamin C as an electron donor and there is no evidence whatsoever that whole food vitamin C behaves differently in these respects than synthetic vitamin C. However, daily needs in most contexts are 2-400 milligrams of vitamin C per day, which is below the dose shown to potentially cause problems with copper. Getting this from whole foods or whole food supplements is better than using synthetic vitamin C because it avoids GMO corn and Chinese synthetics and provides a host of other beneficial constituents alongside the vitamin C.

The Full Recordings and Transcripts

These Q&A Files episodes are free snippets taken from three recent AMAs. To access the full recordings and transcripts, become a Masterpass member. You can learn more about it here. Get 10% off the membership fee using this link.

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Ask Me Anything | June 16, 2023 AMA

Questions on hair trace mineral analysis, the real problem with seed oils, the supposed vitamin C tyrosinase complex, respiratory chain disorders, body composition, and more.

The questions include:

• Butyrate for Hashimoto’s? What else?

• What in the comprehensive nutritional screening is helping to interpret lactate/pyruvate and ketone ratios?

• Is the solution to a respiratory chain disorder to take Niagen?

• If I have high manganese on an HTMA, do I need to detox?

• Should CFS patients target reducing their serum BH4?

• What to do about low alkaline phosphatase?

• If my glucose spikes above 140, should I eat fiber and take ACV before the meal, eat cinnamon with the meal, chew slowly, and move for ten minutes after my meals?

• Difficulty getting Quest to do the lactate/pyruvate ratio correctly.

• Is 38 milligrams of niacinamide enough to rule out niacin deficiency as a cause of low NAD+?

• How does optimizing body composition help optimize energy metabolism? Can impaired energy metabolism make someone fatter?

• Is monounsaturated fat the best fat?

• Manganese followup.

• Do you need to stop taking biotin before a biotin test?

• What in "a bunch of supplements" flip the lactate/pyruvate ratio from high to low?

• NAD infusions, yay or nay?

• Why do I feel better after a warm shower, even better than after sunshine?

• Should I cut back on vitamin A if I have toxicity symptoms but cutting back makes me get sick?

• Do home blood drop tests have to be pricked at the finger?

• Is it true that my boyfriend was just born a night owl?

• How much eating out is too much?

• When measuring ketones, lactate, and glucose at home to optimize energy metabolism, what time of day should we take the measurements?

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Thanks to everyone who participated, and I hope you find these useful!
Chris