"Basic Vitamin Supplement Guide"

Your guide to the ins and outs of supplements

Millions of people spend billions on vitamin supplements every year. In 2004, 19.6 billion dollars was spent in this market. Many people think they are preventing heart disease or cancer by popping every vitamin supplement they can get their hands on. What many fail to realize, however, is that with the water soluble vitamins (B vitamins and vitamin C), whatever is not used is discarded each day. Stocking up on these vitamins therefore, is not possible.

I am pretty sure that you know how important vitamins are for the human body, in order for it to function normally. Usually we get vitamins from food, but sometimes the level of vitamins and minerals is not sufficient, which means that we will need to supplement them artificially. So I hope the next brief vitamin supplement guide will help you to find out the basic information about the most important vitamins that your body might need.

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Vitamin A

Vitamin A could be considered a woman’s friend (yes even better then diamonds!). Why do you ask? Because it is the main vitamin that helps to keep your skin smooth and supple. Vitamin A stimulates the regeneration of cells, improves eyesight, stimulates activity of the nerve system and helps our immune system. From a food point of view, you’ll usually find Vitamin A in most yellow, red and green vegetables (especially carrots).

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Various B Vitamins

There are a plethora of B vitamins, but the 4 main vitamins of the group, B1, B2, B6, and B12, are outlined below. Vitamin B1 is important for carbohydrate metabolism and for your central nervous system. As a vitamin, it is a major source of energy, and can be found in a variety of daily foods.

Vitamin B2 produces energy, may prevent cancer, helps to make the skin beautiful and helps take care of the nerves and the eyes. It is available in wheat, meat, eggs and cheese.

B6 is necessary for the metabolism of proteins and finally vitamin B12 can aid in the production of your bodies red blood cells thereby increasing energy and muscle creation (from an exercise point of view).

Together, the 8 B vitamins from the group take part in the metabolism and the release of energy. So, if you feel tired, faint or weak this could mean that you don’t have enough B vitamins in your system, and should look out for a decent B Complex at your local health store.

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Vitamin C

This vitamin has very important functions in the human body. It is necessary for the formation of the collagen – a substance that is included in the structure of the bones, teeth and blood vessels. Vitamin C can aid in strengthening bones, helps the blood vessels to be more elastic and can help your wounds heal fast. It is available in most fruits and vegetables, with the most popular being oranges. From the point of view of this vitamin supplement guide it would be a good idea to eat more fruits and vegetables and in particular oranges.

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Vitamin D

The next important vitamin is vitamin D. We receive it usually through consuming fish, milk, eggs and cheese. To be honest, it is rare that a person will be vitamin D deficiency, simply because by being in the suns rays, your body will produce vitamin D naturally. The main function of vitamin D is that it helps the teeth and the bones to assimilate calcium and it also influences their structure and strengthens your bones.

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Vitamin E

Vitamin E is probably one of the best food substances on the planet. Some experiments show that it fights heart disease, prevents cancer, reduces respiratory problems and the symptoms of Alzheimer's and increases the capability of the immune system to cope with infectious diseases. The best “suppliers” of vitamin E are the nuts that are so nice.

Vitamin Supplement Guide - Vitamin K

The main function of vitamin K is to help the blood to coagulate, when you hurt yourself. Your body needs so small an amount of vitamin K that you probably get enough from your diet without even trying.

I hope that this basic vitamin supplement guide helped you. Please, be careful with taking any form of vitamin, and please ensure that before starting on a vitamin supplement that you consult your health care professional.

Sadly, because of the lack of regulation in this field, it is too easy for the unscrupulous to exaggerate or even invent claims of multiple healing powers of a vitamin supplement. More than one promoter of these false claims has been forced to pay a hefty fine for their outrageous claims.

One rule of thumb: Don’t rely on vitamin supplement information that is provided by the seller as their information may be tainted by their greed. Instead, you can find all the information you need from medical and government sources that are unbiased. You can find other information from advertisers such as the following:

Or you can follow up on other specific information such as on the following pages of this site: