Health Essentials: Vitamins 101

Vitamins help us release the energy from foods and help us maintain homeostasis. They can be water-soluble (stored in our body for a brief period of time), which regulate our metabolic system, helps with tissue synthesis, and protects our plasma membrane. Water soluble vitamins are usually coenzymes, which mean they latch with specific proteins to form active enzyme systems. They also can be fat-soluble vitamins (stored in fat cells), which enhances our tissue formation and helps prevent cell damage/inflammation. These vitamins act as antioxidants, helps clear free radicals that cause oxidative cell damage, and helps reduce the risk of heart disease by controlling cellular metabolism.

So how many vitamins should we take? Well, that can be determined by using the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) recommendations, as it gives a pretty complete assessment of values. Any good product or label should explicitly tell consumers how much the recommended daily allowance is. 

For reference the following is the DRI categories: 
1. Estimated Average Requirements (EAR), tells us the amount of the nutrient needed to meet the requirements of half the population by gender group and life-stage.
2. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), tells us the amount that of the nutrient needed to meet 97% of healthy people. 
3. Adequate Intake (AI), tells us the average needed to sustain health based on specific studies, when RDA is not available.
4.Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), the maximum available intake without leading to adverse health effects/diminishing returns.

The following is a quick general overview of common vitamins:
A – Helps support vision, skin health, bone/tissue growth, hormone regulation, immune system, and reproduction.
B1 (Thiamin) – A coenzyme that supports energy metabolism, the nervous system, and appetite functions.
B2 (Riboflavin) – A coenzyme that supports energy metabolism, vision and skin health.
B6 – A coenzyme which helps support red blood cell creation and converts the tryptophan amino acid to niacin. It is used for both amino and fatty acid metabolism.
B12 – A coenzyme which helps support and maintain red blood cell creation, nerve cells, and cell synthesis.
Biotin – A coenzyme for synthesis of fatty acids and glycogen, which helps support skin, nerve, digestive, and metabolic health.
C – Helps maintain cellular health of the bones, capillary vessels, teeth, and supports a healthy immune system.
D – Aid in calcium absorption for the mineralization of bones.
E – Strong antioxidant that stabilizes and regulates cell membranes and oxidation reactions.
Folic Acid – A coenzyme for synthesizing nucleic acid (i.e. DNA) and proteins.
K – Helps synthesis proteins that aid in blood clotting and calcium bonds.
Niacin – A coenzyme that supports energy metabolism, skin, nervous, and digestive health.
Pantothenic Acid – Coenzyme to support energy metabolism.