Nitrogen Deficiency

Nitrogen deficiency: causes, symptoms and treatment

Nitrogen deficiency, also known as negative nitrogen balance, occurs when the amount of nitrogen taken into the body is less than the amount of nitrogen the body loses. Nitrogen is an essential element for building protein in the body, so nitrogen deficiency can lead to decreased muscle mass, a weakened immune system, and other health problems.

The causes of nitrogen deficiency can be different. This can occur with insufficient protein intake, as well as with certain diseases, such as cancer or acute inflammation. The body can also lose nitrogen through the skin, intestines, kidneys and other organs.

Symptoms of nitrogen deficiency may include weakness, fatigue, loss of muscle mass, decreased immune function, delayed growth and development in children, and other health problems. Diagnosing nitrogen deficiency may require a blood test to determine nitrogen levels in the body.

Treatment for nitrogen deficiency may include increasing your protein intake, taking supplements, and treating the underlying condition if it is causing the nitrogen deficiency. You may also need to increase your physical activity and exercise to promote muscle growth.

Overall, nitrogen deficiency can lead to serious health problems, so it is important to seek medical help if you suspect you have this condition. Eating protein regularly, being physically active and living a healthy lifestyle can help prevent nitrogen deficiency and keep your body healthy.

Nitrogen (amino group or nucleoprotein) balance is a condition in which the total amount of free amino acids that make up proteins produced and entering the blood is equal to their total losses in tears, urine, sweat, feces and exhaled air over a certain period of time. As you can see, the name *nitrogen concentration* is more suitable for this concept. The normal amount of the nitrogen group (the total content of all twenty amino acid units) in the blood is about 25 g/l. Sometimes there may be a deficiency of the amino group, that is, nitrogen starvation.

The lack of amino acids (not only individual, but entire groups - both essential and non-essential), their low digestibility is the reason that we lose at least 60% of protein naturally, and yet hypoproteinemia, and even more so hypoproteinopeptinemia, is relatively common in the human body rarely if they have a properly balanced diet. The cause of disturbances in the nutritional status of proteins most often lies in overeating carbohydrates or fats, which entails an increase in the concentration of pathogenic low-density lipoproteins, depleting the reserves of whole proteins (myoglobin). Under the influence of starvation or poor nutrition, nitrogen-containing food chains are also reduced, like artificial ones. Hypoplasia can occur due to a deficiency, for example, of iron, which ensures the enzymatic creation of glycosaminoglycans necessary for the health of connective tissue and bones, the synthesis of hemoglobin and myoglobin, thyroid hormones and hemocyte clotting factors. As a result, the synthesis and availability of proteins for almost all organs and systems is reduced. The concentration of ammonia in tissues and blood increases, excessive decomposition of non-amine nitrogenous substances (purines, pyrimidines) occurs, toxic products of the breakdown of the Krebs cycle accumulate, the activity of transmembrane respiration enzymes, which also causes the decomposition of purine nucleotides, decreases, important bones, joints, kidneys are destroyed, and irritation of the nervous system develops. systems and a number of functional disorders of all major life systems, hypoproteinemic intoxication occurs. Until these defects in the diet are eliminated, the levels of nitrogen metabolism in the body always remain at low levels, which leads to hypoproteinumia and hypoproteinocytes, decreased cell metabolism and a general deterioration of intracellular microstructures of cells, changing the functionality of tissues and organ subsystems. This is what actually causes severe states of nitrogen starvation, sometimes manifested by deadly consequences, without compromising the functioning and metabolism of other substances.