Vitamin Supplements and Minerals

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Vitamin Supplements

Anti aging products in their Vitamins Supplements are what most people are looking for today. There are no anti aging miracle products on the market. There is also no “best multi vitamin” or “best whole food supplement”. There is only the “best multi vitamin for you or me”. Most people are buying vitamins and Minerals separately, the anti aging ones that everyone needs, like calcium supplements and B complex.

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Vitamins

Vitamin A

Beta Carotene

Vitamin C

Bioflavinoids

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Vitamin B Complex

Biotin

Choline

Folate

Inositol

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B2

Vitamin B3

Vitamin B5

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B12

Minerals

Boron

Calcium

Chromium

Copper

Iron

Magnesium

Manganese

Potassium

Selenium

Silicon

Zinc

From Wikipedia.org...:

A Vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism...and it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet... Dietary Minerals are the chemical elements required by living organisms, other than the four elements  carbon,  hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen present in common organic molecules... *

B Vitamins In Whole Grains

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Vitamins have diverse biochemical functions.

Some have hormone-like functions as regulators of mineral metabolism (e.g. vitamin D), or regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation (e.g. some forms of vitamin A).

Others function as antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E and sometimes vitamin C). *

Vitamins and Minerals In Fruit & Cheese

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The largest number of vitamins (e.g. B complex vitamins) function as precursors for enzyme cofactors, that help enzymes in their work as catalysts in metabolism.

In this role, vitamins may be tightly bound to enzymes as part of prosthetic groups: for example, biotin is part of enzymes involved in making fatty acids.

Alternately, vitamins may also be less tightly bound to enzyme catalysts as coenzymes, detachable molecules which function to carry chemical groups or electrons between molecules.

Although these roles in assisting enzyme-substrate reactions are vitamins' best-known function, the other vitamin functions are equally important. *

The Ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a patient liver (back, right) would help cure night blindness.

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Humans used to make their own vitamin as the animals still do. We now must consume our vitamin daily to keep us healthy. How much is required is quite the contraversy. It is some doctors' (doing research) opinions that we should take much more than the USRDA recommends. However, if we were to consume as much vitamin per kg of body weight as the animals do per their kg of body weight we would be taking 12,000 mg of vitamin C daily. Of course under a doctors care.

Vitamin C and more In Peppers

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Vitamins

The term vitamin does not include other essential nutrients such as dietary minerals, essential fatty acids, or essential amino acids, nor does it encompass the large number of other nutrients that promote health but are otherwise required less often. *

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In nutrition and diseases

Vitamins are essential for the normal growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop, at the moment of conception, from the nutrients it absorbs. It requires certain vitamins and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, and muscle. If there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent damage.

For the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. For example, microorganisms in the intestine—commonly known as "gut flora"—produce vitamin K and biotin, while one form of vitamin D is synthesized in the skin with the help of the natural ultraviolet wavelength of sunlight. Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume. Examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan.

Once growth and development are completed, vitamins remain essential nutrients for the healthy maintenance of the cells, tissues, and organs that make up a multicellular organism; they also enable a multicellular life form to efficiently use chemical energy provided by food it eats, and to help process the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats required for respiration. *

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Deficiencies

Humans must consume vitamins periodically but with differing schedules, to avoid deficiency. Human bodily stores for different vitamins vary widely; vitamins A, D, and B12 are stored in significant amounts in the human body, mainly in the liver, and an adult human's diet may be deficient in vitamins A for many months and B12 in some cases for years, before developing a deficiency condition. However, vitamin B3(niacin and niacinamide) is not stored in the human body in significant amounts, so stores may only last a couple of weeks.. For vitamin C, the first symptoms of scurvy in experimental studies of complete vitamin C deprivation in humans have varied widely, from a month to more than six months, depending on previous dietary history which determined body stores. 

Deficiencies of vitamins are classified as either primary or secondary. A primary deficiency occurs when an organism does not get enough of the vitamin in its food. A secondary deficiency may be due to an underlying disorder that prevents or limits the absorption or use of the vitamin, due to a “lifestyle factor”, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, or the use of medications that interfere with the absorption or use of the vitamin. People who eat a varied diet are unlikely to develop a severe primary vitamin deficiency. In contrast, restrictive diets have the potential to cause prolonged vitamin deficits, which may result in often painful and potentially deadly diseases.

Well-known human vitamin deficiencies involve thiamine (beriberi), niacin (pellagra), vitamin C (scurvy) and vitamin D (rickets). In much of the developed world, such deficiencies are rare; this is due to (1) an adequate supply of food; and (2) the addition of vitamins and minerals to common foods, often called fortification. In addition to these classical vitamin deficiency diseases, some evidence has also suggested links between vitamin deficiency and a number of different disorders. *

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Side effects and overdose

In large doses, some vitamins have documented side effects that tend to be more severe with a larger dosage. The likelihood of consuming too much of any vitamin from food is remote, but overdosing (vitamin poisoning) from vitamin supplementation does occur. At high enough dosages some vitamins cause side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting and even worse.

When side effects emerge, recovery is often accomplished by reducing the dosage. The doses of vitamins different individual can tolerate varies widely, and appear to be related to age and state of health. *

Minerals

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* Read an article in Wikipedia with references and links Sept 15, 2011

** Read a more current article in Wikipedia with references and links April 29, 2012

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