We’re not talking here about the effect you experience when sitting in a movie theatre wearing funny-looking, funny-colored glasses. The three Ds we are discussing are the three stages of Nutrient Deficiency Syndrome; stages which allow us to track NDS as it advance, until it becomes what we recognize as disease. Watching the progression of these stages shows us clearly, for the first time, that what we call disease is not a state, but instead is a process. During that process, the body, lacking the correct levels of some of the nutrients it desperately needs in order to function optimally, gradually breaks down at the cellular level. Eventually, seemingly out of nowhere, we display symptoms. Only then do we think, “I’m sick.” But in reality, the process that led to those symptoms appearing almost certainly began years earlier.

 

These Three D's are the building blocks of Nutrient Deficiency Syndrome. The Ds we define here begin to occur when the body does not receive enough of the essential nutrients it needs. Unless the particular nutrients the body lacks are provided, one D will inevitably progress to the next.

 

The Three D's are:

1. Depletion—Depletion occurs when the body’s intake of one or more essential nutrients falls below the level that one or more of its systems need to function at its peak. An example of depletion is the body’s level of Coenzyme Q10, which is vital for heart muscle health, dropping below the level needed for total well being, due to dietary shortcomings and the demands of a stressful life.

 

2. Deficiency—Deficiency occurs when the chronic depletion of one or more essential nutrients begins to cause the breakdown of body systems at the cellular level. An example of deficiency is heart muscle cells beginning to show signs of damage after being deprived of sufficient levels of coenzyme Q10 for ten years.

 

3. Dysfunction—Dysfunction begins when such significant cellular damage has occurred that previously invisible harm begins to manifest as symptoms. An example of dysfunction is a person beginning to experience shortness of breath and chest pain, following an additional ten years of cellular breakdown due to deficiency. Mainstream medicine would diagnosis this as heart failure, but our nutritional perspective defines it rather as cardiovascular dysfunction: the predictable end-result of the process of failing to provide necessary nutrition to the heart muscle.