Vitamins are chemical substances that provide living organisms with the energy they require to thrive, including growth, repair and the proper functioning of immune systems. Vitamin D plays a key role in its creation.
Vitamins can be divided into two main categories, water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins include Vitamin C and the B complex vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid pyroxidine folate and cobalamin). Because water-soluble vitamins don’t store in your body long-term they must be consumed regularly in order to be beneficial.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays an essential role in vision, bone growth, reproductive health and fetal development. Furthermore, vitamin A supports your immune system against infections while potentially decreasing cancer risks.
Vitamin A can be found both in animal products like liver and whole milk as well as plants such as brightly-colored fruits and vegetables as well as supplements. Vitamin A exists in two forms; preformed retinol and provitamin A carotenoids like beta-carotene that your body converts into retinol as needed.
Adequate vitamin A consumption helps prevent night blindness and may slow age-related loss of eyesight, as well as play an integral part in supporting immune cells that protect against diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant, helping protect cells from damage while playing an integral part in tissue formation, healing wounds and keeping immune systems strong. Recent research suggests high intakes of vitamin C could lower risks of heart disease and cancer as well as lessen cold symptoms significantly.
Vitamin C (also referred to as ascorbic acid or l-ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in many food items and supplements, including citrus fruits, berries, peppers and green vegetables, as well as nonprescription dietary supplements. Humans cannot synthesize vitamin C themselves and must obtain it through diet; lack of Vitamin C causes scurvy. Vitamin C has numerous roles including collagen synthesis and epigenetic regulation via histone and DNA methylation as well as modulating inflammatory responses.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that enhances intestinal absorption of calcium and magnesium for improved bone health, as well as several other biological actions.
Vitamin D deficiency leads to osteomalacia (soft bones) in adults and rickets in children, causing their bones to bend or break more readily than usual and potentially leading to high blood pressure, depression and other medical problems.
Studies comparing vitamin D2 and D3 have not conclusively demonstrated one as superior over the other; at low doses they seem equally potent for curing rickets. Supplements containing either D2 or D3 will increase serum 25(OH)D levels, but this amount varies based on dosage and method used [1,2]. Vitamin D may reduce risk for type 2 diabetes; research into this area remains active.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin found in foods like nuts, vegetable oils and green leafy vegetables. It’s available both as natural sources such as tocopherols and tocotrienols and synthetically as alpha-tocopheryl acetate.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant, meaning that it scavenges free radicals from your body, providing possible protection from heart disease and cancer, while possibly also helping prevent cataracts.
Observational studies indicate that vitamin E might help prevent heart attacks and strokes by inhibiting the oxidation of LDL cholesterol and preventing blood clots from forming in arteries. Furthermore, vitamin E might improve insulin function and glucose tolerance for people living with type 2 diabetes – however large randomized controlled trials have yet to support these claims (80).
Vitamin K
Vitamin K, a fat-soluble vitamin, plays an integral part in helping the body produce proteins necessary to form blood clots (hence its name derived from Danish word for “coagulation”).
Vitamin K also aids bone health. According to the Framingham Heart Study, women who consumed at least 110 micrograms daily of vitamin K experienced 30% lower hip fracture risk compared to those consuming lower quantities.
Vitamin K comes in two forms, vitamin K1 and K2. When eaten through diet alone, leafy greens, vegetables, and eggs contain phylloquinones which can be converted to menaquinones by bacteria in the large intestine; observational studies have linked adequate intakes of both forms with lower risks of cardiovascular disease-related mortality; however further research needs to be conducted in this area to confirm this finding.
