iSAYSO
The public has never been told that medications deplete nutrients
All These Years in the Health System — And They Missed Something Essential
By Nigel Gray — 18 May 2026
Most New Zealanders assume that when they go to a doctor or a hospital, the fundamentals are covered.
That the system has already thought through the basics.
That the care they receive is built on complete, up‑to‑date medical knowledge.
That the system has already thought through the basics.
That the care they receive is built on complete, up‑to‑date medical knowledge.
But there is a critical part of medical care that has been missing in New Zealand for decades — quietly, structurally, and without public awareness.
And that is why I have now lodged an Official Information Act request to Te Whatu Ora.
This OIA asks a simple, unavoidable question:
What training — if any — is given to doctors about nutrient depletion caused by medications, and the nutritional support required when starting or stopping them?
Because the public has never been told that this training may not exist at all.
The public has never been told that medications deplete nutrients — and the health system has never built training to address it
Everyday medications — the ones hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders take — are known to deplete essential nutrients:
This is not fringe science.
It is in pharmacology textbooks, Medsafe data sheets, and international clinical guidelines.
It is in pharmacology textbooks, Medsafe data sheets, and international clinical guidelines.
Yet Te Whatu Ora has already confirmed:
There are no national protocols for nutrient monitoring or nutritional support for medicated patients.
So the OIA now asks the next logical question:
If the system has no protocols, what training has been provided to clinicians to prevent predictable harm?
Why this matters to every New Zealander
Because if the training was never built, then:
This is not a small oversight.
It is a structural gap in the foundations of medical care.
It is a structural gap in the foundations of medical care.
Doctors are required to apply established medical knowledge — but the system never trained them to
The Medical Council of New Zealand requires doctors to:
But if Te Whatu Ora confirms that no training exists, then doctors have been held to a standard they were never equipped to meet.
That is a governance failure, not a clinical one.
This OIA forces the system to answer a binary question
Either:
A. Training exists
→ and must be released, allowing the public to see what clinicians are taught.
or:
B. Training does not exist
→ confirming that the health system has overlooked a fundamental part of patient safety for decades.
There is no middle ground.
Why the public deserves this answer now
Because this affects:
If the training was never built, then the public was never protected.
This OIA is about transparency, accountability, and the right to safe, informed medical care.
