Vitamins should be tailored to individual needs, with some conditions requiring specific supplements. A healthy diet is still important, as food contains beneficial ingredients that cannot be obtained from vitamins. Taking too many vitamins can be ineffective and even harmful. Consult a doctor for personalized recommendations.
Although the ideal way to obtain vitamins is through a healthy diet, not all vitamins are equally absorbed by all people. Also, some conditions suggest that certain vitamin supplements should definitely be added to diets. For example, people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) have difficulty absorbing vitamins from food and may benefit from a good, easy-to-digest multivitamin.
The vitamins one takes must be tailored to the individual. A pregnant woman, for example, should start taking a pregnancy multivitamin that contains folic acid before conception. Taking folic acid significantly reduces the risk of certain birth defects when a daily amount is taken before a woman conceives.
Someone on a calorie-restricted diet may also need a good multivitamin because the person may not be getting enough of the vitamins from their food. Vegetarians in particular need vitamin B12, which is often lacking in the vegetarian diet. People who cannot consume dairy products lose vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Most doctors also recommend that all women take a daily calcium supplement. This is especially true for women entering age 30 and older, as calcium can help prevent osteoporosis. Many also benefit from the vitamin A in fish oil and flaxseed oil, which has mood-regulating benefits and may be helpful in preventing heart disease. Vitamin A levels must be carefully regulated, as too much vitamin A has been linked to birth defects. People with heart rhythm irregularities should also not take fish oil, as it may actually increase the chance of having a dangerous arrhythmia.
Older people or young children who have very picky eating habits may also benefit from taking vitamins that have a basic selection of several vitamins. Please note that calcium and iron vitamins or minerals should never be taken together, as iron interferes with calcium absorption. People with immunodeficiencies should also take a multivitamin supplement.
However, vitamins should not be a substitute for a healthy diet, because it has been shown that vitamins in food tend to be much more easily absorbed. Also, food often contains beneficial ingredients that cannot be obtained from vitamins. Milk, for example, contains calcium and vitamin D, as well as magnesium and potassium. Simply taking a vitamin D supplement will not fully make up for what is lost by going dairy-free.
Taking too many vitamins has also been shown to be largely ineffective. Most additional vitamins, such as additional vitamin C, are simply excreted through the urine and do not provide much benefit. In fact, as important as it may be to take some vitamins, it is equally important not to take too many. The best option is to get recommendations from a doctor so that the suggested vitamins fit well with dietary needs, medications one may be taking, and medical conditions one may have.
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