When it comes to health and longevity, everyone immediately thinks of vitamins. And for good reason! Vitamins not only support various body processes, but can even save you from death (such as vitamins A and C). Katherine Price in her book “Vitamania” tells what vitamins help you stay healthy and enjoy life.
Vitamins were discovered a little over a hundred years ago. Few people know, but there are only 13 of them and all of them can be found in food: four fat-soluble vitamins – A, D, E and K, and the remaining nine are water-soluble – vitamin C and B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5 , B6, B7, B9 and B12).
Vitamins constantly act on the human body. Only they do not burn in the body, like fats, proteins and carbohydrates, which serve as a kind of fuel. Vitamins help our body sustain life by promoting the continuous flow of very important chemical reactions. Thanks to them, we can think and speak, see and move, extract energy from food, and even read this very article. They protect us from diseases of the heart and blood vessels, blindness and sclerosis, cancer and hundreds of other diseases. Our need for them is very great. Moreover, vitamins are irreplaceable: if the body does not receive them, it means that a shortage or vitamin deficiency develops. There is no alternative: neither vitamin E, nor B7, nor ascorbic acid can be replaced by anything.
It is interesting that scientists are sure: in ancient times, man was able to produce vitamins (in much the same way as it happens now with vitamin D). However, for some reason, evolution has deprived us of this ability, and we should get most of the nutrients from food: vegetables, fruits, herbs. For example, vitamin C in nature is not considered a vitamin at all, because almost all organisms on our planet, including plants, can independently synthesize it, except for humans (and several other animal species). Why this ability was lost is a mystery. Perhaps it was a mutation, or perhaps a necessary stage of evolution. Nevertheless, our body needs vitamins.
And although vitamins are extremely important to us, the body needs microscopic doses of them. Even if you really want to, with the naked eye it is simply impossible to see the little that is needed for a full-fledged human life.
For example, so that the developing fetus does not develop serious defects while it is in the womb, and problems with the nervous system, as well as the normal development of the circulatory and immune systems, a pregnant woman needs only 240 mcg of vitamin B9. This amount is equal to two crystals of salt. Astonishingly few!
Vitamin D promotes better absorption of calcium in the body and prevents softening of bones and such a terrible disease as osteoporosis, which can lead to disability at a fairly young age. Also, vitamin D is involved in the metabolism. And it must be consumed at 15 mg, which is equal to 1/16 of the dose of vitamin B9 for pregnant women.
Lack of vitamin B12 can cause depression, hallucinations and delusions, memory loss, all sorts of nervous system disorders and fainting. The most frightening consequence of its deficiency is fatal anemia. To avoid all these consequences, the body needs only 2,4 mg of vitamin B12. And this, in turn, is already one hundredth (!) Part of the dose of vitamin B9.
The most important process that continuously continues in the human body is metabolism, or metabolism. And vitamins take the most active part in it. Metabolism is a chemical reaction that takes place inside cells. And one and all vitamins are needed in order for everything to proceed normally. A person is not given to notice how these reactions go, but only thanks to them he is alive: wound healing and bearing children, vision, hearing and tissue renewal, the ability to walk and breathe, the use of oxygen and energy from food, muscle building and body temperature regulation, cleansing from toxins and improved mood – vitamins are involved in all this.
Nature has not fully thought out (or maybe it was done on purpose) the metabolic rate. Reactions proceed extremely slowly, and if they are not fed from the outside with vitamins, microelements and useful substances, they will completely freeze and stop. Life will freeze. To be precise, the accelerators of these reactions are enzymes – large protein molecules. Vitamins are needed just to synthesize enzymes. This is the foundation. In addition, vitamins are not only involved in the “birth” of enzymes, but also help them do their job. These are the important functions!
This mechanism explains why the lack of vitamins is so destructive for the body – the reactions simply stall. For example, a lack of vitamin C, ascorbic acid, can lead to scurvy, a disease in which collagen synthesis is impaired (this is a protein that serves as a “glue” in the body, holding and holding tissues). Without collagen, the body literally disintegrates into pieces, which is what we see with scurvy: teeth fall out, gums bleed, bones break.
For tens of thousands of years, our bodies have not changed in any way, and therefore we desperately need vitamins. These little helpers are the key to survival. Even in the modern world, where it would seem that vitamins are easy to get, there are outbreaks of epidemics associated with the lack of these important substances. The best way to prevent disease and keep the body in good working order is to eat right and not forget about vitamins.