Re: What are the effects of protein starvation?

[Guest guest]

,

I cannot thank you enough for this thorough lecture on the effect of

long term protein starvation.

It's ironic that my daughter, 8 y.o., is always tall for her age, and

she seems to have more muscles than I do. I don't know whether she

gets various amino acids to make so many metabolic enzymes.

I am totally convinced that I need to add in more protein into her

diet. Your lecture gives me the confidence to pursue as well as the

urgency of doing so. I'll be asking listmates in a different thread on

how to add yummy protein foods into her diet.

I fully acknowledge, as graciously pointed out, that any

protocol that produces a lasting side-effect needs to be re-evaluated.

An overemphasis on one single piece of the biochemical pathways can

have really serious adverse consequences. I have learned that first hand!

I am very grateful to you and many parents who have generously offered

their openness and insights. I am quite embarrassed that how ignorant

I was and am about the detrimental effects of protein restriction.

Bo

>

> Bo and other listmates,

>

> The gut is a different sort of organ in that it gets most of its

nutrition

> directly from food so that it is not as reliant as other organs on the

> blood supply to deliver goods to it. That is probably why the gut

would be

> more dependent on the diet than any other organ. As an example, I've

put a

> study below about rats where they restricted the diet in various

> proportions or totally for one week, and they found that after that

week

> the weight of duodenum (I'm sure empty of its contents) dropped 40%,

the

> jejunum 25% and ileum 18%. This is just ONE week! On refeeding, the

mass

> was regained, but it took a various number of days, depending on the

segment.

>

> One of the problems with restricting protein too much is that our

enzymes

> that digest our food in the gut are made of protein, and these

enzymes may

> stop being made as adequately at a very depressed level of protein

> nutrition. Once that has started, then someone will develop an

increased

> intolerance of more foods, and may lose the will to eat. There are

> actually studies that say that the appetite is especially lost for

protein

> when the amount of the protein as a percent of the total diet goes too

> low! That is why it is dangerous to reduce protein in the diet too

much

> and if your child won't eat protein after a period of cutting back

protein,

> that may be the way he or she got there.

>

> There are countries where babies do OK as long as they are breastfed

(and

> many mothers consequently breast feed them for much longer than in more

> " modern " nations). Breast milk will end up in those countries

providing a

> much higher amount of protein than is available to that child any other

> way. That means that once the baby is weaned, he will start to be fed

> things like gruel that are practically all carbohydrate. This is

when the

> child will begin to lose his ability to fight disease (as

Binstock's

> article she circulated about today stated). Immunoglobulins are

among the

> proteins whose manufacture is slighted when protein is low. but it is

> certainly not the only and frequently measuring blood proteins is

used as

> an assessment of protein status. Remember, enzymes function to speed

> chemical reactions in the body, and take substrates of one type and

produce

> products that are different. With reduced enzyme activity you get a

build

> up of the subsrate and a diminished supply of the product.

>

> This scenario with breastmilk and the loss of protein in the diet after

> weaning is the origin of the term " kwashiorkor " which technically means

> " protein malnutrtion " but the source of the word is a term that is

tied to

> an older child being weaned and beginning to starve when a new

sibling arrives.

>

> We don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There is a lot of

literature on

> protein energy malnutrition and some of you may remember that I

included

> some information about this in lectures I did quite a few years ago.

My

> interest in this area began when I met some very emaciated children

with

> autism who were very lacking in muscle, and when I realized that if

some of

> our autism children have started to break down muscle (and in adults

with

> cachexia, that process can make an adult lose muscle as fast as a

pound a

> day, I read yesterday) then that lowers the creatinine and makes a

lot of

> things look over-elevated on spot urine tests, including heavy metal

> testing. In this case, the correction for creatinine can be very

> misleading and may give the impression that " extra metals are being

> chelated " when some portion of the change could have reflected a

loss of

> muscle that changed the ratio of creatinine to everything else. So,

buyer

> beware if someone is encouraging you to restrict protein too far and

then

> getting happy if you start to see higher looking levels on heavy metals

> testing that is reported ratioed to creatinine. If you have any

suspicions

> that your child has lost muscle mass, you should insist on getting a

full

> organic acid test at the same time as a metals test, for that will

allow

> you to use the ratio of all the analytes to each other to discover the

> influence of changes in creatinine.

>

> I've gone into more detail on how this calculation of changed

creatinine

> ratios works on posts written to sulfurstories and

Trying_Low_Oxalates, so

> if you want more explanation on this interpretation of lab testing,

check

> there!

>

> In the meantime, if you are concerned that someone you love might have

> gotten too low in protein, or if you want to be able to recognize the

> signs, please read the articles below.

>

> I hope this helps.

>

>