Owl of Minerva Herbal Advisory
Vitamin Deficiencies and Alchemaic Interactions
Vitamin deficients are not always caused by "germs", they can be caused by a lack of plant constituents. Herbal and plant remedies can assist in replacing these constituents if the correct missing parts of these intimate consituents are identified. However, before, we go any further, we have to ask ourselves, what is a vitamin? Vitamins themselves are actually the food consituents in which deficiency disease have a lack of. For example, the nitrogenous amine (caused by decomposition of albumens belonging to a chemical group called amines) is an important vitamin for keeping healthy. Diseases due to malnutrition caused by lack of vitamins or amines in the diet are called avitaminosis.
Diseased organs may be the result of vitamin deficiency. If you notice sudden palour, muscular weakness and pains, respiritory problems and become listless you may have a vitamin deficiency. Rheumatoid arthritis can also be associated with vitamin deficiency. Teeth can become loose and fall out. These symptoms could occur if you change your diet suddenly. Your diet may change suddenly due to poverty or to lifestyle change.
Many people over the past 50 years have been taking vitamins to supplement their health to prevent and help heal certain conditions. Mostly, this has taken place via self-treatment. However, this unregulated action has created problems as some vitamins have been found to be harmful if taken incorrectly, especially when taking large doses for longer than necessary. Problems stemming from the availability of vitamins that are dominant in the vitamin industry include a) over dosage b) taking incorrect vitamins for certain conditons. These problems have led to governments taking steps to regulate the vitamin industry. From April 2011, all vitamins that contain herbs and plants will require registration in Europe and the UK.
The requirement of registration will lead to it being almost impossible to take larger doses eg 500 -2000 mg vitamin C unless they are prescribed to you by a doctor. Manufacturers of vitamins will not easily obtain licenses to make larger dose vitamins for sale to the public. Shops will still sell multi-vitamins with doses regulated to meet just the daily requirements. On account of this widespread regulation of health products, we will aim to provide useful advice so that you can make and ingest the right chemical balance of foods in order to obtain necessary doses. We will provide you with historical records of knowledge of use of vitamins, some being ancient. Below are described examples of common vitamin deficiency conditions describing the delicate balance between one constituent of a plant and a deficiency:
Vitamins in History:
Scurvy
Scurvy was well known to the Vikings being a sailing culture. They included onions in their stock to prevent it. In the 1700's, Kramer discovered the treatment of it through citrus fruits. Captain Cook also used citrus fruits to prevent and cure it on his many naval voyages. Indian troops in Mesopotamia suffered badly with scurvy during the first World War as did soldiers in Vienna and Berlin. The children's disease known as Möellar-Barlow coresponds to scurvy in adults. It is caused by boiling milk for too long and killing off Vitamin C. Farinaceous foods consisting or made of starch, such as bread, macaroni, and potatoes also contribute. This is why we wash the starch from rice before we boil it. Eating too much starch can cause beri beri, pellegra and rickets.
Symptoms of Scurvy: General muscular weakness, growing listlessness, bleeding gums.
Beri Beri
Was common in Japan in the past. The cause, identified by a Dr Eijkman during the Japan epidemic was isolated to the washing of rice called polishing. The process of polishing the rice removed key nutrients. Thus eating unpolished rice resulted in immunity. It was identified that a diet of rice bran cured it.
Symptoms of Beri Beri: Fatigue, numbness in feet and legs, unsteady gait, itching, in the legs and palpitations. Symptoms led to wasting and insensibility. Water retention occured in some.
Pellegra
This is a skin disease and manifests as red pacthes on the hands, feet and head, followed by small bumbs or spots which can develop into blisters. The pattern is symmetrical on the body. Finger nails can become thick and brittle and the tounge becomes red and the mouth becomes inflammed. The victim becomes overcome by nausea, and suffers diarrhoea and vomiting. Blood stained phlegm is expelled, stomach ulcers and inflammation of the nerves follows. Water on the brain and brain shinkage happens in worst cases. Deficiency of Vitamin B2 and other B Vitamins are the cause of pellegra. Doseage of Vitamin B will cure and banish symptoms. Aneamia is common and can be a warning sign. Pernicious aenemia is also associated with pellegra.
Sprue
This is a tropical diease which affects the intestine. It is related to dysentry. Anaemia is integral to this condition. It is curable by a diet of fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit.
Rickets
Rachitis or rickets is due to a lack of vitamin D and happens when there is a lack of sun light. Sunlight helps the body produce protovitamins from substances already present in food which then go onto produce vitamin D. Eating calcium and phosphorus salts in conditions of poor access to sun light increases the chance of getting rickets as the requirements from the body for vitamins increases. They should only be taken with vitamin D if they are taken with vitamin D produced by raditation or by sunbaths rich in short wave rays in order for the protovitamin to be produced by the body and turned into vitamin D.
Rickets has recently re-emerged in the UK over the past year. Pollution from aeroplane contrials have recently created more cloud cover than normal, blocking valuable sunlight, and may have played a part. Sedentry lifestyle may also have contributed. Taking extra vitamin D is therefore pretty crucial as well as ensuring extra time is spent outdoors.
Asthenia
This condition was common in troops during the world wars and was given the name asthenia. Symptoms include breathlessness, fatigue and exhaustion, palpitations, dizziness, sweating, blueness of the hands. The pulse is normal ar rest, but is increased rapidly by emotion or exhertion and takes a while to return to normal after rest. A key symptom is an increase of phosphorus in the urine. The cause is poor blood-sugar and low blood pressure made evident by a disturbed vitamin equilibrium. If vitamin B is low, and there is a lack of balance between it and vitamin C, then carbohydrate function will fail and the above symptoms may occur.
Early research studies on this theme at the Mayo Clinic, New York 1939 led to deliberate restriction of vitamin B causing moodiness, fear, indifference, sluggishness, mental and physical fatigue. When thiamine was given is low doses symtoms dissipated. Larger doses (600 iu) produced enhanced alertness and greater capacity for physical work. As a result, the League of Nations suggested 300 iu a day for the public.
General Vitamin Deficiencies
The designations of vitamins are given by their function. Non-specific functions can influence metabolic systems and are closely related to the ferments of combustion.
Lack of vitamin A produces eye problems and blindness in children. Warning signs are night-blindness. Taking cod liver oil and full cream milk can help heal vitamin A deficiency. Lack of vitamin A can also cause sterility in women. Vitamin E deficiency can cause death of a foetus before birth. A lack of both vitamin A and E can stop growth. Vitamin C can become ineffective in adrenal disorders. Poor absorbtion of fat is caused by a vitamin K deficiency which affects the liver.
Boiling vegetables reduces vitamin potential so ensure plenty of raw produce is eaten. High alkaline and high acid bodt states influence vitamin absorbtion. Vitamins taken in an acid system (sodium chloride) are broken down and wasted, whereas in an alkaline system (potassium) they work. This explains why fruits and vegetables with potassium are so good for us (eg banannas).
Salty and high protein diets are acid and should be avoided where possible. If forced to endure either of these, counteracting a salty or high protein diet can be done by ingesting taking phosphorus and sugar to combat protein poisoning and potassium to fight the salts and the acids.
From an alchemaic perspective, as vitamins are not independent of each other; they interact with chemical properites of bodies and environments, vitamins can be utilized to work in harmony to create vitality. Harmonization occurs via manipulation of each different vitamin group (eg vitamin B1, B2 and C = oxydation group). Harmonization is required when there are dangers in health caused by a group of lacking vitamins. For example, deficiency of vitamin B leads to a whole complex of symptoms; the normal brain function requires carbohydrates. If sugar is not present in sufficient quantities in the blood and tissues and brain, they will not obtain enough carbohydrates... without vitamin B, which facilitates metabolism of carbohydrates, the brain cannot obtain the energising elements on which it works. The result will be partial lack of memory, inability to concentrate, lassitude and insomnia. It is easy to see how some depressive states or symptoms of depression could reflect vitamin deficiencies.
How do vitamins work in the body?
Vitamins are ferments or enzymes which are organic bodies, and accelerate or retard chemical processes in the human body. The action they induce is called catalysis. Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations. Catalysts that speed the reaction are called positive catalysts. Catalysts that slow the reaction are called negative catalysts, or inhibitors. Substances that increase the activity of catalysts are called promoters, and substances that deactivate catalysts are called catalytic poisons. Catalysis can influence personality and physical health. Vitality is comprehended by catalytic principle. Catalysis makes possible the assimilation of nutriments.
Although oxidation reactions are crucial for cellular life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as such as enzymes catalyse, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Herbal remedies provide all these, whereas synthetic medicines often do not. Synthetic medicines can in fact create low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, and cause oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.
Within catalysis, the chemical action is either synthetic or analytic and the power of their action is colloidal. The state of aggregation ability (ability to revert to prior state of aggression or not) is key and depends on the memory of organic matter and is driven by protoplasm. Protoplasm is the living content of a cell that is surrounded by a plasma membrane (cell membrane).
The ability of protoplasm to drive is organised by catalytic agents or bioacatalyts. Protoplasm is involved as a detector in collating sympathies in organic matter. Protoplasm is composed of a mixture of small molecules such as ions, amino acids, monosaccharides and water, and macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and polysaccharides. Vitamins play a central role in the upkeep of keeping protoplasm on track. Without good protoplasm function, cellular life becomes disorganised and diseased.