If you?ve been taking all your vitamins and minerals with your morning coffee, you might not be getting the full benefit of your supplements. Taking too many vitamins and minerals together can also increase your risk of overdose. However, some vitamins and minerals can help each other work more effectively.
Do You Need Supplements?
Meeting your nutritional needs from diet alone is preferable because the body is better able to process and use nutrients from foods than from vitamins. If you eat a varied diet, you?re probably getting enough. However, many people don?t eat a diet with enough variety to meet those needs. If you are one that is not getting what you need, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vitamin and Mineral fact sheets provide you with reliable data about a range of vitamins and minerals so. These sheets can help you determine which supplements you might need and which you might not. The botanicals sheets provide information about natural products that is sometimes difficult to find elsewhere.
In addition to looking at your diet, discuss your overall health history with your doctor when determining whether you need supplements. Some diseases cause malabsorption of vitamins and supplementing can help you avoid problems caused by the lack thereof. Celiac disease, Crohn?s, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) can all cause vitamin deficiency from malabsorption. People who diet excessively, smokers, drug users, and heavy drinkers may also have nutritional deficits. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding need more of certain vitamins than usual, so they benefit from vitamins, as well.
It is also important to factor in what you are getting from your diet so you don?t double-dose with vitamins you already get enough of. Many common foods are now fortified with vitamins and minerals you could already be getting in a multivitamin. Two common ones are calcium and Vitamin C. You know you need both of them, but more is not better. Calcium is added to all kinds of foods, but too much calcium inhibits iron absorption, a mineral the body needs for digestion and blood oxygenation, among other things. If you take too much Vitamin C thinking it will keep you healthy, you may find it can cause diarrhea.
When to Take Vitamins and Minerals
It is generally advisable to not take a handful of vitamins and mineral supplements all at once. It can increase the chance of overdose. It also makes the body work hard to get what it can from those supplements, possibly absorbing less than it would if you spread your supplements out through the day. However, some elements work together so the body uses them more efficiently, more like it would process the nutrients if they came from food.? One cool thing about our It Works multi-vitamins is that they are time release so you can take them together without worry.
Vitamin D and calcium are one pair that work excellent together in the bones and teeth. Vitamin K also works to help the body absorb calcium better. It?s Vital? Minerals combines a special blend of Vitamins D, K1 and K2 (MK-7), plus minerals to help optimize your calcium absorption. Of course we all need calcium to maintain bone density and strength. Vitamin D also works together with phosphorus. Phosphorus aids in bone strength and makes up 1% of our body weight. The B Vitamins and phosphorus team up to help regulate heartbeat, nerve signaling, kidney function, and muscle contractions.
Taking vitamins and minerals is chemistry. Always discuss with your doctor which nutrients you should supplement, carefully considering your unique medical history and dietary choices. While a multivitamin will probably not hurt anyone, it might be more than you need to take.
Our Its Vital also comes as a complete pack of multivitamins that come in a convenient pack so you can have some at home or with you while traveling or at work so you can take your vitamins everyday easily.