Harnessing the Power of Nutrients

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What Makes a Good Marker of Nutritional Status?

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Mastering Nutrition

What Makes a Good Marker of Nutritional Status?

Interlude

Chris Masterjohn, PhD
Jan 26, 2016
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What Makes a Good Marker of Nutritional Status?

chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com

Introduction

In this special interlude, I lay down the framework of the five core principles that make a good marker of nutritional status. This is to lay down the framework for a series of podcasts in the future about managing nutritional status for specific vitamins and minerals.

Since these core principles will be referred back to as a general reference in so many other episodes, this one has a special place outside of the sequence and you can reach it at any time with this url: 

The episodes of the series are kept in the show notes section, under Episodes of the Managing Nutritional Status Series.

Show Notes

In this episode, you’ll find all of the following and more:

00:37  Cliff Notes

02:44  Purpose of this podcast and its place in the upcoming series on managing nutritional status

05:13   What are the core principles?

05:25  Principle #1: We understand its biochemistry and physiology.

08:22  Principle #2: It has been validated against changes in nutritional status.

10:35   Principle #3: Sensitivity

11:10  Principle #4 Specificity

13:01  Principle #5: It must be interpreted in the overall context of other markers and the clinical and health history, current signs and symptoms, and diet and lifestyle analysis.

16:34  Example of principle #1: Spectracell vs dp-ucMGP as tests of vitamin K2 status.

20:38  Example of principle #2: 25(OH)D vs. calcitriol

22:37  Example of principle #3: transferrin saturation vs. ferritin

24:26  Example of principle #4: specificity of 25(OH)D and contexts where its specificity fails

26:08  Example of principle #5: distinguishing between calcium and vitamin D deficiencies as causes of 25(OH)D by testing PTH, calcitriol, and analyzing the diet and lifestyle

31:08  Shotgun approaches to nutritional testing

33:49 Whether to act on leads from shotgun approaches should depend on the risks and other costs of the actions.

Episodes of the Managing Nutritional Status Series

Balancing Calcium and Phosphorus in the Diet, and the Importance of Measuring Parathyroid Hormone (PTH).

Why You Should Manage Your Glutathione Status and How to Do It

Why You Need to Manage Your Iron Status and How to Do It

Why You Should Manage Your Copper Status and How to Do It

Why You Should Manage Your Selenium Status and How to Do It

Why You Should Manage Your Zinc Status and How to Do It

Read the Transcript or Leave a Comment

Masterpass members have access to the transcript below.

Masterpass members can also read and leave comments below. Non-members can read and leave comments on the general podcast page.

Learn more about the Masterpass here.

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