There are three common nutrient deficiencies that I find in my patients who are testing positive for HPV virus.

Testing positive for HPV is becoming increasingly common, so this information is important for everyone to protect themselves both now and in the future.

HPV Testing and Abnormal Cell Development 

More and more women across all demographics and age groups are being tested for HPV. Many of these women are finding out they test positive, which can be shocking and concerning news.

Women who test positive for HPV often have to go through various stressful and invasive medical procedures to check whether any abnormal or even cancerous cell development has occurred on the cervix or in the vagina.

In conventional Western medicine, the only solution offered for confirmed abnormalities is to remove the abnormal cells through procedures such as a LEEP, conization, or hysterectomy.

However, these procedures cannot eradicate the HPV virus itself. This means the virus may continue causing recurrent abnormalities in different areas of the reproductive system for months or even years after these procedures.

This is a frustrating and worrisome situation that too many women find themselves stuck in – having abnormalcells identified, removed and then continuing to deal with HPV, abnormal cells, and frequent medical tests and procedures year after year with no apparent resolution.

Many women feel frightened receiving an HPV diagnosis. It immediately makes them worry about their future risk of developing cancer and wonder if they will ever fully regain health and peace of mind after testing positive. 

This uncertainty motivated me early in my medical career to dedicate years of intensive research to discovering how to help women proactively strengthen their bodies to gain the upper hand over HPV instead of just continually reacting to symptoms and removing abnormal cells again and again without ending the cycle.

Why Nutrient Deficiencies Make You Susceptible to HPV

When I review particularly complex cases of women who have dealt with recurring HPV infections, abnormal cells and medical procedures over decades of their life without resolving the problem at its root, I look closely for any clues about why this virus persists year after year.

Oftentimes, I identify key foundational nutrient deficiencies that are making them continually susceptible to HPV. By addressing these nutrient deficiencies, we can finally empower the immune system and protect vulnerable cells. This stops the recurring cycle of vulnerability and allows the body to regain health and control.

These nutrient deficiencies unfortunately don’t show up on standard bloodwork. But they make their impact known through symptoms and conditions like:

• Recurrent infections, including HPV and others
• Fatigue and anxiety due to neurotransmitter imbalances
• Poor stress resilience

Restoring optimal levels of key nutrients strengthens every system of the body. This allows it to effectively clear infections itself instead of requiring continual medical interventions. 

Addressing nutrient deficiencies neutralizes key susceptibility factors that allow HPV to keep gaining traction. Now we can start resolving the root causes!

Most Common Nutrient Deficiencies in Patients with HPV 

Through analyzing data from in-depth case reviews and lab testing of hundreds of women over nearly 25 years now, I have conclusively identified three nutrients that are most often deficient in patients with recurrent and persistent HPV:

1. Protein
2. Iron
3. Vitamin D

Let’s explore the vital roles each of these nutrients play and how to determine if you could benefit from boosting your levels.

Please keep in mind that there are many other possible nutrient deficiencies. It’s important to know your body and work with a practitioner who can help you to do the right tests to identify which nutrients you need and at what dose.

1. Protein Deficiency 

The first nutrient deficiency I find over and over is a lack of adequate protein in the diet. When evaluating patients’ diets, I often notice an emphasis on getting enough healthy carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables and whole grains along with healthy fats from foods like olive oil, avocado and nuts. 

These are certainly both very important components of an overall balanced diet. However, protein sources often take a back seat.

You need to be sure to incorporate high quality protein sources at every meal. Generally aim for at least 30g of protein, 3 times per day or 20g of protein, 4 times per day, at a minimum. 

Without adequate protein and amino acid availability, you become more vulnerable to viruses like HPV in a few key ways:

1. Your body requires amino acids from protein to produce key neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine that regulate mood, motivation, focus, sleep quality and stress resilience. When neurotransmitter status is suboptimal, you lose a major buffer against the impacts of stress. Since chronic stress suppresses immune function dramatically, this makes you more prone to infections and abnormalities.

2. Building, activating and regulating a robust immune system response requires abundant amino acids to produce new immune cells constantly. Glutamine and arginine for example are particularly important here. So if protein/amino acid intake from your diet or supplementation is too low, your immune system’s ability to clear HPV is reduced.

Those are just two examples of why not eating enough protein causes vulnerability – there are more complex interactions as well involving gut health, enzyme function, antioxidant capacity and detoxification.

How to Identify Potential Protein Deficiency

There are a few ways to assess whether your protein intake could use improvement:

1. Simply track your diet for at least 3 days while aiming to accurately quantify protein portions. Calculate your protein totals daily and weekly and compare it to the baseline recommendations of 0.36g of protein per pound that you weigh. If you are regularly falling under you need to eat more protein.

2. Testing your urinary neurotransmitter levels can provide another clue (this requires special lab testing). Low amounts of serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and adrenaline indicate inadequate protein and amino acid precursors to produce optimal levels. Neurotransmitter deficiencies are almost always the root cause of lower stress and infection resilience.

3. Bloodwork will not reveal a mild-moderate protein inadequacy before it has progressed to seriously alarming levels seen in advanced disease states. Do not rely on a “normal” total protein lab test to rule out the need for more protein because these tests measure the proteins that are produced by the liver and not your protein intake.

How to Restore Healthy Protein Levels

Calculate your minimum protein needs based on your weight. Then implement a plan to include a quality protein source containing at least 20-30g per meal. Great options include pasture-raised wild caught fish, grass-fed meat, bone broth and collagen powder, plant proteins like pea, beans, nuts and seeds. If you follow a plant-based diet you should be especially diligent about sufficient protein quantity and quality.

Find the highest quality protein powders I suggest here: 
Pea protein shake
Bone broth protein shake

2. Iron Deficiency 

The second most common nutrient deficiency I find in those struggling with HPV is lower than optimal iron levels. It’s important to know having a normal CBC and iron lab tests do not always guarantee you have sufficient iron reserves. For resilient immune health, you actually need a ferritin level between 50-100 ng/ml. 

At the same time, it is important to not have too much iron either. However, in women following a plant-based diet and with heavy menstrual periods, it is much more likely to find low iron levels.

Those with heavy menstrual periods are at especially high risk for iron depletion over time. Each month you lose a substantial amount of iron along with blood, but rarely do you correspondingly increase dietary iron enough to replenish what was lost.

Some roles of iron that impact HPV susceptibility when deficient include:

1. Helping to form new red blood cells to carry oxygen efficiently to your cells for optimal energy production and function. Low iron = low oxygen = vulnerability.

2. Supporting key components of immune function like eliminating pathogens for removal and building antibodies to confer future protection.

3. Protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage – iron helps eliminate free radicals produced internally and from toxin exposure.

As you can see, restoring iron reserves (ferritin) back up to healthier levels between 50-100ng/ml can really help reset resilience against HPV. Once again, those who follow a plant-based diet are at high risk of this nutrient deficiency and should check ferritin levels frequently. Non-heme (plant) iron sources are just not as bioavailable and absorbable as iron from meat, fish and eggs.

Find the highest quality supplement I suggest here: 
Iron Support (if you are deficient)

3. Vitamin D Deficiency

In third place we have the widespread nutrient deficiency of vitamin D, which I commonly see playing a role in sensitivity to infections like HPV as well. Vitamin D is one of those uniquely powerful nutrients that is needed for so much more than maintaining bone density and calcium metabolism.

Vitamin D is a very important nutrient for the immune system to work right. It boosts the body’s early response to HPV after infection. It also helps immune cells in the body mature and stay strong over time to keep fighting HPV.

When vitamin D levels are low, the immune system can’t fight off HPV fast enough. HPV is able to spread more and stay in the body long term. Low D levels also lower the body’s later antibody response. This allows the virus to keep growing and increase abnormal cell risks. Vitamin D also helps regulate body inflammation. 

People respond differently to vitamin D from the sun and supplements. How much vitamin D your body makes and absorbs depends on your genes. This means the right supplement dosage will be different for each person. Getting either too much or too little vitamin D can be bad for balanced immunity.

It’s key to test vitamin D levels first. Then see how they change with more sunlight exposure. After that, personalized supplemental doses can be added based on follow-up lab tests.

A person’s optimal vitamin D level depends on several factors. These include location, skin color, weight, age, other diseases, and medications taken. Getting regular sunlight exposure is essential for the body to make vitamin D. People working and living farther from the equator, spending little time outdoors, or using too much sunscreen often have low vitamin D levels.

To know if vitamin D is low or adequate, get a baseline blood test first. Then test again in 2-3 months afterspending more time outdoors daily. Then you take a D3/K2 supplement if needed to maintain a sufficient level. 

Testing and fixing low protein, iron, and vitamin D levels can help us build resilience to HPV and abnormal cell changes from high-risk types. By analyzing your unique nutrient deficiencies, we can develop a plan to correct them. This will help your body become resilient to HPV by fixing the root causes of your susceptibility.

Not everyone needs more of these nutrients, and there are other possible nutrient deficiencies that are important to consider, as well as other causes for being susceptible to HPV, so please use this information as part of a comprehensive plan. I encourage you to work with a naturopathic doctor with experience helping with HPV to ensure you are taking the nutrients you need.

Find the highest quality supplement I suggest here: 
Vitamin D

Take Aways from this Episode

It’s important to consider nutrient deficiencies as contributing to HPV and cervical cancer risk. 

Nutrients are not usually checked on standard blood work. It is best to work with an expert who knows which tests to do and how to address them effectively with clinical nutrition. 

There are many other factors contributing to risk of HPV related cancers. I teach about them and how to identify and address them in the Heal HPV Worldwide Workshop and Say Goodbye to HPV Program.

By taking your health into your own hands, it is possible to stop HPV virus from causing abnormal cells.

Learn More About HPV

I hope this information empowers you to take control of your health. Regaining control over this virus is possible by understanding and addressing the nutrient deficiencies affecting your susceptibility.

I look forward to your questions and comments and I definitely encourage you to subscribe and join me for the next episode of How Humans Heal so you don’t miss new updates and topic discussions related to overcoming frustrating infections like HPV.

If you would like to learn more about how I can help you fend off this virus for good I encourage you to take two actions:

First, watch my HPV Masterclass:

Sign Up Now (Free!)

I will also be hosting a live HPV Workshop

Sign Up Now (Free!)

If you are ready to get rid of this virus right away, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12 Week Program here where we go into depth about all the common susceptibilities I find, and how to effectively address them.

We’re here to help you!

Disclaimer: This specific article and all other Content, Products, and Services of this Website are NOT intended as, and must not be understood or construed as, medical care or advice, naturopathic medical care or advice, the practice of medicine, or the practice of counseling care, nor can it be understood or construed as providing any form of medical diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevention of any disease.

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723551/ – Role of amino acids like glutamine in supporting immune health
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5908416/ – Impact of protein deficiency on immunosuppression
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122262/ – Mechanisms linking iron deficiency to reduced immune function
• https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/134/10/2523/4688347 – Role of iron in building antibodies and eliminating pathogens
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ – Role of vitamin D in regulating immune responses to infections
• https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/10/4/517 – Mechanisms linking vitamin D deficiency to susceptibility of viral infections
• Amino acid deficiency may impair immune function: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1286594/
• Low iron levels associated with reduced immune function: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6274482/
• Vitamin D helps regulate immune function related to HPV: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/
• Soyano A, Gómez M. Participación del hierro en la inmunidad y su relación con las infecciones [Role of iron in immunity and its relation with infections]. Arch Latinoam Nutr. 1999 Sep;49(3 Suppl 2):40S-46S. Spanish. PMID: 10971835. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10971835/
• Cherayil BJ. Iron and immunity: immunological consequences of iron deficiency and overload. Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz). 2010 Dec;58(6):407-15. doi: 10.1007/s00005-010-0095-9. Epub 2010 Sep 28. PMID: 20878249; PMCID: PMC3173740.