If an individual was suffering from a nutritional deficiency, what would be an adequate length of time following the introduction/re-introduction of such a nutrient to observe a biological difference (e.g 3 months?).
In particular, I am interested in studying/quantifying plasma/serum: Vitamin B12, ferritin, calicum, zinc, DHA.
Any advice is greatly apprecoated.
Like that each of these compounds has it's own uptake kinetics and time sure. B12 is mediated by intrinsic factor, zinc probably a simple transporter in the intent mucosa. I also wonder if this time curve is not variable between health humans. Uptake would also depend on deficiency state. Many things will affect plasma concentration of the small molecules besides uptake. In a PKU pt, measuring changes in plasma PHE would need to account for dietary changes and the residual enzyme activity (highly variable between pts). I think you would find that steady state is established in 48hrs after a dietary change is made but I don't know of data to support.