What Are Vitamins?

Vitamins are one of the most important things that you feed your body on a daily basis. With only two exceptions, your body is unable to produce vitamins and must rely on getting them through diet alone. Though they provide no calories to you, your body would be rendered useless without them. A lack of vitamins can make you tired, weak, short of breath and in some cases, even colorblind.

Vitamins are what aid your bodily functions such as your metabolism, growth and energy production. For example, you probably know that most milk is fortified with vitamin D, but did you know why? It is an important tool in balancing your bloods calcium and phosphorus levels. Without vitamin D, your body can't absorb and use calcium. For this reason, it is always important if you are taking calcium supplements to make sure it also contains vitamin D to ensure your body has an adequate amount of vitamin D to process the calcium.

Water and Fat Soluble Vitamins
There are two main categories of vitamins, water-soluble and fat-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins can be stored in your body's fat reserves until you need them. Fat-soluble vitamins include E, D, K and A. However, because you don't flush these through your system, these four vitamins in particular have a higher risk of ill side effects when overdosed.

Water-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin C cannot be stored by your body for great lengths of time and require a much more regular intake to keep you healthy. These types of vitamins are passed to your blood stream directly from your intestine. Most of these are stored only on a daily basis and excreted in your urine. There is one exception to this rule, B12, which is excreted through feces. The water-soluble vitamins in particular help your vision, digestive system and skin among other important functions.

When You're Getting Too Much

There is too much of a good thing, even when it comes to vitamins. For example, too many carrots can cause your skin to turn orange from the Beta-Carotene and vitamin A. Too much vitamin C, a vitamin abundantly found in oranges, can cause much more serious side effects such as kidney stones or chronic diarrhea if taken in extreme excess. Ironically, one source also indicates that extreme excess can actually cause a stuffy nose instead of prevent the common cold as most people believe it does.

When you're not getting enough
On the other hand, a lack of vitamins can cause detrimental effects. Lack of vitamin C can cause scurvy, a serious disease that can lead to death if left untreated. Other vitamin deficient related diseases include anemia, brain or nerve damage, impaired vision and a variety of bone related diseases.

However, watching your vitamin intake or using a supplement can be a very good thing, especially in the world of fast food and super sized Cokes that we live in. After analyzing your diet for holes in nutrition, you can properly determine exactly what vitamins you might be deficient in and work from there to fill in the gaps with supplements or a change in diet.

Vitamin B12, Methyl Sublingual

On one article, they said vitamin B might actually be helpful in improving our memory and verbal ability. The B vitamins are found in many foods, this includes kidneys, liver, dairy products, vegetables and whole grains. Most heart diseases and elevated blood homocysteine are caused by lack of vitamin B. This only proves that vitamin B plays an important role in many body processes including cell maintenance and repair, even synthesis of DNA, formation of the red and white blood cells and the amino acid metabolism.

Always remember that too much of anything can be dangerous to your health, no matter how helpful it had been. Too much is still too much. The primary result would be toxicity. This by then can cause many other illnesses. To avoid this, contact a dietitian to know more about the supplements and foods to take to improve the intake of the vitamins you need. Informations can also be found in nutritional magazines, and all around the Internet. Feel free to surf around. For more information on the benefits of the vitamin B and its complex, plus the other vitamins, visit the nearest nutritionist and inquire about the benefits these vitamins can give you. Magazines and seminars are also available everywhere. You just need to talk to the right persons. Some fitness magazines contain recipes of great foods that are really helpful in giving us enough vitamins. Who knows, you can even help your family and friends. Keep yourself healthy and life will be great.