How vitamins work

 A well-balanced diet provides your body with the energy it needs to keep functioning. Proteins, carbohydrates and fats are vital ingredients for your body’s health. These macronutrients act as fuel, essential to keep all the organs functioning optimally. Vitamins and minerals, on the other hand, are micronutrients. They may not satisfy our energy needs, but they are essential ingredients for efficient metabolism, replacing dead cells, and promoting hormonal growth.

All vitamins function along with the macronutrients to support and promote physical health and well-being. Most of these vitamins maybe found in natural sources such as vegetables, fruits, dairy, seafood, meat and poultry. In certain cases, like Vitamin D, the body creates this particular vitamin by absorbing sunlight through the skin. Increasingly, the health industry for vitamin supplements and multivitamins has also expanded multifold. Although vitamins are vital for optimum functioning of the body, you do not require large quantities of vitamins. Their potency ensures that you need a very small measure of the different kinds of vitamins for maintaining good health. Most vitamins need to stay intact to work effectively. Excessive cooking may destroy the benefits of certain vitamins. Similarly, improperly stored or expired vitamin supplements are also rendered useless.

Here’s how vitamins work in the body:

• Vitamin A, known as retinol, when it occurs in animal sources, is essential for our eye health, especially clear night vision. It boosts the immune system and helps to maintain healthy bones, teeth, skin and hair.
• Vitamin B and B complex are water-soluble vitamins, which the body requires constantly. Healthy bones, muscles, and red and white blood cells all need Vitamin B1 or thiamin. Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin and B3 (Niacin) help your body to convert carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy. A deficiency of folates results in poor growth and development. Vitamin B6 or pyridoxine helps the body absorb protein and essential amino acids from the blood stream. Panthothenic acid helps in the production of hormones, and Vitamin B12 or cobalamin helps cell reproduction and healthy nerve tissue.
• Vitamin C, another water-soluble vitamin is essential for healing wounds and promoting a healthy immune system and the production of collagen for healthy skin. Vitamin C is known to fight the visible signs of aging.
• Vitamin D is essential for healthy bone development.
• Vitamin E, known for its anti-aging and cancer-fighting properties is necessary for cell regeneration.
• Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting in case of wounds or injuries.

Nearly all vitamins act as a catalyst in the chemical processes of metabolism, hormone growth, cell regeneration and nerve stimuli. Vitamins also function as an interdependent group. Therefore, taking an excess of one kind of vitamin over the other will not prove useful. Your doctor may prescribe a certain kind of vitamins for you if you are working out or for pregnant or lactating women as well as convalescing patients. However, this is likely to be a temporary recommendation for certain health or medical conditions.