Vitamins are Good for Your Health

There are many people who are interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and supplementing the diet with vitamins and minerals is one way to do this. Vitamin and mineral supplements are beneficial to those who are open to ways of improving and maintaining their health and often have a part to play in preventing certain illnesses in the first place..

Vitamins and minerals can be taken individually for certain reasons or some people prefer to take a multivitamin supplement on a daily basis. These are made up of a balanced combination of intake of these vitamins and minerals although there is variation in what is considered to be the recommended daily allowance of each one. Individual conditions may benefit from different combinations of supplements, for example, arthritis or eczema among many others. Supplements are available in liquid or tablet form and there s a wide variety of them to meet specific needs and conditions.

Mental health as well as physical health can be greatly improved by taking the appropriate supplement. They can often be taken alongside traditional prescription medications but it is worthwhile to confirm that this is possible by consulting your doctor. Having said that, those practicing orthodox medicine are sometimes suspicious of using supplements and alternative medical interventions of any kind. However, within traditional medical circles, the value of some vitamin supplements is widely recognized and recommended. A good example of this is the use of folic acid supplements in pregnancy which it is now standard practice to recommend in traditional medicine.

Other examples of the potential use of vitamin and mineral supplements are the use of vitamin C and E in the prevention or arrest of Alzheimer’s disease and the use of CoEnzyme Q10 in heart disease

Prevention of deficiency of nutrients necessary for the body in healthy individuals is a good reason for taking supplements as well their use in managing specific conditions.

There are thirteen vitamins necessary for good health, including7 B-complex vitamins, as well as Vitamins A,C,D and E. Most of these are available from the food we eat but some are not. For example, vitamin D is produced by exposure to sunlight Some of these vitamins are fat-soluble A and E, some water-soluble B and C, some are stored by the body for future use and some are excreted regularly so are more susceptible to becoming depleted. Deficiency in one or more of the vitamins or minerals necessary for good health can cause illness, hence the value of using supplements.

There is a combined or synergistic effect in using a combination of vitamins and minerals which would not be achieved by the use of a particular nutrient on it’s own. An example of this is how using vitamin C increases iron absorption.

Finally, although supplementation of the diet with vitamins and minerals is not a guarantee of good health, it is a good practice to maintain the most optimum health you can achieve.