Life
The benefits of vitamins
Fact: Everybody knows that it’s important to get enough vitamins. Unfortunately there is no exact science of the facts about vitamins for determining just how much of any given vitamin, mineral, or essential nutrient anybody needs at any given time.
Your age, your genetics, the varying combinations of the foods you eat and the times you eat them all interact with disease conditions to determine how much of various nutrients you need. Your needs aren’t exactly the same as anybody else”s. Your needs aren’t even exactly the same each and every day. It’s one of the basic facts about vitamins that a daily multivitamin is extremely important to ensure good health.
Severe deficiencies of vitamins or minerals are relatively rare in healthy, young people. Slight deficiencies of certain ingredients, however, are fairly common. Vitamin B-12 is a common nutritional deficiency in people over 60 years of age. Calcium, chromium, folic acid, magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and zinc are frequently deficient among people of all ages.
Just a little deficiency can create big problems in your health over the long run. Insufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium raises your risk of developing osteoporosis. Not getting enough folic acid and vitamin B6 increases your risk of heart disease.
Certain illnesses put a severe strain on the body’s stores of vitamins. Antioxidant vitamins are depleted by diabetes. Ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and Crohn’s disease can rob the body of vitamins D, E, and K.
One of the more somber facts about vitamins is that HIV depletes virtually every vitamin and mineral, as do smoking cigarettes and drinking excessive alcohol. And just because you do not have HIV does not mean you are safe.
The much more common human papillomavirus (HPV), the cause of cervical cancer and genital warts, diverts vitamin A and beta-carotene from almost every tissue in the body. However, it is worth noting, (for additional facts about vitamins), that scientists at the University of Washington have discovered that taking just a small, 5000 IU dose vitamin A every day can make transmitting HPV to another person as much as 99% less likely.
If you are taking any kind of prescription drug to stay healthy, you most certainly need a nutritional supplement. Statin drugs for lowering cholesterol interfere with the production co-enzyme Q10. The “water pill” Lasix (furosemide) that is given to almost anyone who’s ever had a heart attack, flushes away the B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium. It’s just one of the fundamental facts about vitamins that hundreds of prescription drugs interfere with the body’s absorption, use, or storage of vitamins and deprive the body of their benefits.
There is evidence that multivitamins can help correct many specific conditions. The B vitamins enhance men’s fertility. Folic acid is important for expectant mothers. Multivitamins may soothe the pain of arthritis, eliminate symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), boost mental function, cut down on antisocial behavior in children, and generally improve well being. Whether you are healthy or you are sick, chances are you can benefit from a daily multivitamin.
Vitamin enthusiasts often promote “megadose” therapies with common vitamins. A megadose is an intake of a vitamin in an amount greatly above the amount the body needs for normal function. Megadoses can be 5, 10, or even 20 or 30 times the recommended daily allowance.
Sometimes a megadose of a water-soluble vitamin just for a day or two actually helps prevent disease, as is the case with taking up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C a day or two can help keep you from catching cold. Sometimes a megadose of vitamins under professional supervision can correct a chronic deficiency disease such as pernicious anemia or certain conditions of the bone.
Most of us, however, only need vitamins at the level of nutritional needs. For generally healthy people, vitamins are a safe and effective “added insurance” against developing chronic conditions.