Vitamins A General Overview

A vitamin is something that is needed in our diet. If we have a shortage in one of the important vitamins or it isn’t properly absorbed, a disease that is specific to that vitamin may occur. Vitamins are organic substances divided into water-soluble and fat-soluble. They are diverse in nature and are normally organic and found in our regular diet. They help preserve life and promote growth. They are different in function from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They also vary in the amounts the body needs.

Vitamin originated from the word “vitamine” which was first used in 1911. They were thought to all have a nitrogen-containing ingredient known as asmines. When it was discovered not all the compounds contained asmines, the “e” was dropped and the word became vitamin.

There are different ways of deciding what we need in our diet. There are several items that decide what each of us needs to keep our body healthy. Genetic differences, any prescription drugs we may be on, if we have environmental stresses, and what other foods are included in our diet may affect how much of any vitamin we need to thrive. Recommended daily allowances are useful in helping us to decide what vitamins we need, but these are only guidelines.

Vitamins are important for our health and they help prevent diseases that are associated with a shortage of that vitamin. Diseases such as rickets, scurvy, pellagra and beriberi are diseases caused by lack of specific vitamins. Before you write them off as diseases that no longer exist, my grandson was hospitalized in serious condition because of rickets. His body was not using the Vitamin D that was in his body. Vitamins keep our bones and teeth healthy, keep us from going blind, and makes sure we don’t have unexpected bleeding in our bodies. Some studies show that Vitamins C and E helps reduce our risk of Alzheimer’s disease if they are combined in high doses. Vitamins protect our hearts from damage and help prevent cancer.

If we eat a balanced diet, we get most of the vitamins our body needs. The problem is, not all of us eat a balanced diet. Our body may also need higher doses of some vitamins to help prevent some diseases. We may also need more than the RDA requires for the vitamin be of maximum benefit.

Many vitamins for sale on the shelves of a pharmacy or supermarket may not include enough of a vitamin that is needed as a minimum. Read your labels, does your multivitamin give you 400 IU of Vitamin E? That is the amount your body needs as a minimum. Some vitamins are water soluble which means that if you have get too much the excess passes from the body through the urine. That means that we must restore our supply daily to have the amount we need for our bodies. Look at the label of your multivitamin. Is it giving you the amount your body needs?