Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In medicine, a deficiency is a lack or shortage of a functional entity, by less than normal or necessary supply or function. A person can have chromosomal deficiencies, mental deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies, complement deficiencies, or enzyme deficiencies.
Vitamins and minerals are essential to the proper functioning and maintenance of the human body. [114] There are 20 trace elements and minerals that are essential in small quantities to body function and overall human health. [114] Iron deficiency is the most common inadequate nutrient worldwide, affecting approximately 2 billion people. [115]
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. [11] [12] Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues and form. [13] Malnutrition is a category of diseases that includes undernutrition and ...
Vitamin deficiency is the condition of a long-term lack of a vitamin. When caused by not enough vitamin intake it is classified as a primary deficiency, whereas when due to an underlying disorder such as malabsorption it is called a secondary deficiency. An underlying disorder can have 2 main causes:
Parts-per-million cube of relative abundance by mass of elements in an average adult human body down to 1 ppm. About 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium ...
Iron deficiency, or sideropenia, is the state in which a body lacks enough iron to supply its needs. Iron is present in all cells in the human body and has several vital functions, such as carrying oxygen to the tissues from the lungs as a key component of the hemoglobin protein, acting as a transport medium for electrons within the cells in the form of cytochromes, and facilitating oxygen ...
Vitamin B 12 cannot be produced by the human body, and must be obtained from the diet. [2] The body normally gets enough vitamin B 12 from the consumption of foods from animal sources. [2] Inadequate dietary intake of animal products such as eggs, meat, milk, fish, fowl (and some types of edible algae) can result in a deficiency state. [135]
Mineral deficiency is a lack of the dietary minerals, the micronutrients that are needed for an organism's proper health. [1] The cause may be a poor diet , impaired uptake of the minerals that are consumed, or a dysfunction in the organism's use of the mineral after it is absorbed.