Vitamin Food Supplement

Vitamins are essential food supplements. A food supplement is something which complements or enhances the effect of food.

Vitamins are defined as the factors which are essential for optimal nutrition of the human body and the deficiency of which causes disease of a peculiar kind.

What exactly are these vitamins? Why are they so necessary for human health? What are the different Vitamins? Are these Vitamins available in natural food? Why should the Vitamins be taken in recommended doses? What are the diseases caused by the deficiency of these Vitamins? All these queries and much more are being asked by every health conscious person.

The term Vitamin was coined in the early nineteenth century and was actually formed by joining together two different words. Vital and mineral were the words combined to form the term Vitamin. Though not scientifically correct, yet this term helped in conveying the major part of the information that Vitamins were vital to life.

The strangest part about Vitamins is that in spite of being so essential to human life, they cannot be produced by the human body. These Vitamins have to be supplemented through proper food.

There are mainly two types of Vitamins. The water soluble and the fat soluble vitamins are the two classifications. The B group of Vitamins, Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B9 and B12 are the only water soluble vitamins. The rest Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Vitamin K are all fat soluble vitamins.

Vitamins are actually organic compounds. They are required by the body in normal functioning of the various physiological processes and also in the maintenance of optimal immunity. Some of the Vitamins also carry out the function of hormones, for example Vitamin D. Some are necessary for the reproductive function like Vitamin E. Vitamin K is necessary for normal and timely clotting of blood.

Though the awareness about the functions and utility of the Vitamins were known even from the 18th century, yet the production of synthetic vitamins was initiated quite late, in the twentieth century. Vitamins were acquired only through regulation of the dietary habits, before the synthetic Vitamins were manufactured.

Vitamin deficiency can cause a variety of disorders like scurvy, due to Vitamin C deficiency, Night blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency, Beriberi due to Vitamin B deficiency, Anemia due to Vitamin B deficiency and so on.

Use of Vitamin food supplements is necessary in such cases and should be initiated only under strict medical supervision because any over dosage can cause severe side effects too.

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