About Vitamins

Along with carbohydrates, fats, protein and minerals, vitamins are essential nutrients that allow the human body to properly function. We can obtain many of our daily doses of vitamins from the foods we eat, but others must be taken in supplement form in order to have a full effect. With the addition of vitamins to a healthy diet, people are able to have a healthier life and live longer than ever before.

Significance

Vitamins are organic compounds required by living organisms in order to perform the processes of life. While some animals need more, or different, vitamins than others, humans require the largest amount of different vitamins to live healthily. Vitamins perform many tasks within the body, ranging from hormone triggers to antioxidants to co-enzymes that help with metabolism. Each set of different vitamin compounds performs a different task when integrated into the body.

Function

Figuring out which vitamins are important for which body functions has been an ongoing process. While often times it was not known that a specific vitamin was responsible for curing an illness or strengthening the body, foods rich in vitamins were often prescribed as cures--even though doctors back then didn't know it was the vitamins doing the curing. For example, ancient Egyptians often prescribed a diet high in liver for those people who suffered from night blindness. Today, however, we know this is because liver is rich in vitamin A--a vitamin that helps with sight.

Types

There are many different types of vitamins; most were discovered, or at least identified, in the early 1900s. In 1909, vitamin A, (retinol) was the first vitamin discovered. Vitamin C, an important vitamin throughout the history of world exploration because of its connection to scurvy, was not discovered until 1912. Thankfully, people had been eating fruits with high amounts of vitamin C to prevent scurvy before vitamin C was discovered. Vitamin B9 (folic acid), discovered in 1942, was one of the last vitamins discovered. Vitamin B9 is very important to fetal development.

Effects

The lack of vitamins can have a profound effect on the human body. For instance, in the case of scurvy, the lack of vitamin C can cause teeth to fall out and other hideous conditions of the skin and bone, eventually leading to death. The lack of vitamin B in the diets of some Asian cultures lead to the disease known as beriberi, another deadly illness. The lack of vitamin B12, well known for its role in supplying energy, can create pernicious anemia. This disease has many different symptoms, but the most major is severe fatigue.

Considerations

Today, there are set guidelines for the amounts of specific vitamins that humans need each day. The recommended daily allowances are chosen so that the body will perform at its optimum capacity and so that illnesses caused by the lack of these vitamins can be avoided. Most doctors believe that if you eat a completely balanced diet, full of vegetables, fruits, meats and grain, you will get all of the vitamins you need for a day. If your diet is less than balanced, a multivitamin might make sure that you are getting all the vitamins you need to be healthy.

Resources

• USDA Dietary Guidance