Getting The Right Amount Of Vitamins

If you eat healthy and balanced meals each and every day, you will get all of the necessary vitamins and minerals your body needs to function. Even though we all have different dietary needs, we all need vitamins in order to live healthy lives and prevent diseases. Vitamins have been around for hundreds of years, providing us with a way to live our lives in a healthy manner.

Although there are many different vitamins out there, you'll need a certain amount of each one to keep your body healthy. There are many different classifications of vitamins, including A, B, C, and E. These vitamins are extremely important, with each one serving a unique purpose for both your body and your health.

When it comes to the type of vitamins, B vitamins are the most diverse. This is a very important vitamin, one that was discovered by mixing several chemicals together. With the B vitamin being so diverse, scientists understand the complex well enough to isolate the vitamin into eight different variations of the B vitamin family. These variations include B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12.

As with other vitamin classes, a deficiency in the B vitamin can result in several different conditions such as weight loss, weakness, stress, diarrhea, dementia, anemia, and other things. A deficiency in B vitamins isn't good for anyone, as the entire family contributes to your body. If you have a deficiency of any of the variation of this vitamin, you should always do something about it just as fast as you can.

As a whole, the B vitamin family will work to give you healthier skin, a faster metabolism, and an overall better immune system. They can also help you to fight back against depression and stress as well, which is something we could all use. No matter how you look at it, this family of vitamins could greatly improve life as you know it. Although other vitamins are essential to your diet as well, the B family is among the most important. All of these vitamins should be included in your daily diet, as they greatly improve your body and your health.

Even though you may be on a healthy diet, you may not be getting what you need of the B vitamin family. If this happens to be the case, you should look into vitamin supplements that will give you the doses of the B vitamins you need. Although you may not realize it, going without B vitamins can be very bad on your body and your health. If you make the smart choice and get yourself some B vitamin supplements - you'll know that you are getting exactly what you need to live a healthy life.

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Vitamin B1 In The Body And The Brain

Vitamin B1, also called thiamine, is one of the eight vitamins that make up the powerful Vitamin B complex. Like all of the B vitamins, this nutrient plays a great role in the health of the body and the health of the mind. Care should be taken to maintain the recommended daily intake levels of this essential nutrient, as the results of deficiencies can be devastating in nature.

Vitamin B1 serves many purposes in the body. It is an essential part of converting carbohydrates to energy, and necessary to the proper functioning of the nervous system, the heart and the musculature system of the body. Thiamine is very important to the brain, particularly in terms of emotional health and well being, as well as being useful for focus and concentration.

There are a variety of physical conditions and diseases associated with deficiencies in Vitamin B1. Symptoms include pain, numbness and tingling in the extremities, muscle weakness and a lack of physical coordination, particularly in the larger muscle masses that make up the leg muscles.

A deficiency in thiamine can cause enlargement of the heart, which can itself lead to congestive heart failure, and lung congestion. A severe deficiency in Vitamin B1 can lead to nerve damage, brain damage and even death. Mental symptoms associated with a serious lack of Vitamin B include fatigue, psychosis, and confusion.

These are a few serious diseases specifically associated with a deficiency of Vitamin B1, including the notorious beriberi disease. There are also two specific types of brain damage associated with severely low levels of Vitamin B1. One, Korsakoff syndrome, results in confusion and short term memory loss. Another, Wernicke’s Disease has symptoms that include vision disturbances and irregularities, an unsteady walk, and mental confusion.

Despite the obvious importance of Vitamin B1 to many of the body’s important functions, a great deal of people regularly fail to meet the recommended daily intake levels. Alcoholics are particularly vulnerable to being deficient in Vitamin B1, because alcohol ruins the B vitamins.

Illnesses that force bodily fluids from the body, such as chronic diarrhea, can deplete the body’s levels of thiamine, because it is a water-soluble vitamin and the body needs to have its supply renewed every day. There are also rare conditions that interfere with the body’s ability to use Vitamin B1 properly.

Dietary supplements are an affordable, safe and effective way to consistently meet the recommended daily intake levels of Vitamin B1. It is especially important, however, when taking supplements to use them with care and attention, because taking too much Vitamin B1 can cause adverse side effects and even serious health problems.

As with all substances, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. While there are certain health situations that do call for higher than average doses of this powerful B vitamin, high dosages should only be taken while under the direct care of a qualified health care professional. Like any other medication or dietary supplement, Vitamin B1 supplements should always be kept well out of the reach of children.

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The Antioxidant Vitamins

The antioxidant vitamins perform many essential tasks within the body. In recent years, a great deal of research has been done concerning the abilities of the antioxidant vitamins to prevent certain diseases, ranging from cancer to heart ailments. Many studies have shown promising results, and researchers continue their efforts at determining all of the ways that these powerful antioxidant vitamins protect our health and well being.

One of the many important tasks that antioxidant vitamins perform is that of bringing free radicals under control. A free radical is an unstable molecule, operating within the much larger context of a cell. What makes it unstable is that it is lacking an electron. Electrons are a part of the system that enables chemical reactions within the body. Chemical and electrical actions and reactions are the base of all operations of the body.

The free radical lacks an electron because it is the result of the splitting of a structure weakened by either one of the body’s natural metabolizing processes or by some external contaminant, such as pollution or cigarette smoke. The free radical attacks other molecules, seeking its missing part, which leads to its molecule victim becoming a free radical as well. When enough free radicals accumulate with a cell, the cell can be damaged, or worse.

Antioxidant vitamins have the power to bring these free radicals under control. They do this by meeting the free radicals’ most basic needs, by giving them the electrons they need to be stable. Thus, the antioxidant vitamins remove the free radicals’ motive for aggression and crime -- their motive to attack other molecules to steal their electrons, thereby creating still more free radicals -- and bring an end to the free radical crime wave that threatened the very existence of their world and restore social order and peace to their world, the cell, and perhaps even to their universe, the body.

The primary antioxidant vitamins are Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Vitamin A. They do not become free radical themselves when they give an electron to the unstable molecule, because they have the special capacity to remain stable with or without the electron. It is through this interaction with the free radicals that the antioxidant vitamins are able to assist in the prevention of damage to tissues and cells that could lead to disease.

Numerous studies have found that the antioxidant vitamins may offer protection against a variety of cancers. Other studies have associated antioxidant vitamins with helping to lower blood pressure. Controlling free radicals, as the antioxidant vitamins do, is thought to be an important part of defending the body and the mind against the effects of aging.

In addition to continuous studies concerning antioxidant vitamins potential in preventing cancers, heart disease, and diabetes related conditions, researchers are also paying close attention to the possibilities antioxidant vitamins may hold for Alzheimer's disease.

Dietary supplements offer a safe and convenient means of meeting the suggested daily intake requirements of these powerful antioxidant vitamins, provided that the standard dosage recommendations are followed.

The chemical balance that allows the body to operate at peak performance can be seriously disrupted by taking too much of any supplement. A licensed nutritionist or your health care provider can best advise you on the dosage most suitable to your individual dietary needs and health goals.

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