The Essential Multivitamin Guide

For the best health and wellness, you need to consume a lot of nutrient-dense foods daily. Healthy people need a variety of vitamins and minerals to keep their bodies working well. However, life can be overwhelming.

Every age group, from older adults to teenagers, can easily struggle to get their daily value of nutrient composition within a daily balanced diet. A multivitamin supplement will give your body that extra nutrient boost and keep you functioning at your best!

What is a multivitamin?

A multivitamin is packed with a range of essential vitamins and minerals at dosage levels close to the recommended daily allowance (RDA) needed to prevent nutrient deficiencies and support overall health. Some of the nutrients to look for when buying a multivitamin include:

• Vitamin D3
• Vitamin D3
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• B-complex vitamins
• Vitamin K2
• Folic acid
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Potassium
• Selenium
• Zinc

They may also contain antioxidants, essential fatty acids, omega-3s, herbal extracts, and even digestive enzymes. Multivitamins live up to their name by offering many different supplemental vitamins to fill your nutritional needs.

When a healthy diet is impractical or too difficult to maintain at times, you can take advantage of dietary supplements like multivitamins to help keep you in good health. Don't make excuses for missing out on essential nutrients. Start boosting your health with top-quality products that meet your nutritional needs.

How a multivitamin works

Your body needs many different vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and antioxidants to function optimally. As a healthy adult, it's essential to make sure you get these various vitamins to help with disease prevention and keep your mind sharp.

Multivitamins fill in the nutritional gaps in your diet. Many of the ingredients in multivitamin supplements are essential, water-soluble nutrients that are not made or stored in the body and must be replenished daily.

These nutrients are important cofactors in many chemical reactions that control how your body works. They regulate cell growth and maintenance, blood clotting, brain function, energy production, immune health, and more.

While you can get many of these nutrients from real food and healthier diets, you'll definitely get the recommended amount when you get that daily dose with your multivitamin and dietary supplements.

As great as nutritional supplements are, it's important to note that a multivitamin isn't a replacement for a healthy diet. Make sure you're still getting most of your nutrient needs from food sources.

Who should take a multivitamin supplement?

Most adults can benefit from a multivitamin supplement. People of all ages can struggle to get all the necessary vitamins due to nutritional gaps or health issues that affect your ability to meet dietary recommendations.

Certain people have a greater risk of chronic nutrient deficiencies. This includes older adults, vegans and vegetarians, athletes, people with chronic diseases, those who have undergone bariatric surgery, and people with digestion issues. If you meet the criteria for any of these reasons, you might consider looking into dietary supplements as a way to boost your nutrient intake and improve your immune system.

Risks and symptoms of a multivitamin deficiency

There are different factors that can increase the nutrient demands of your body and potentially increase the risk of deficiencies:

• Stress
• Excessive sun exposure
• Intense exercise
• Pregnancy
• Smoking
• Infections
• Poor diet
• Chronic illness

When you have a nutritional or vitamin deficiency, it can disrupt your body's proper functioning. Recognizing these signs is crucial to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and long-term cognitive issues.

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Health benefits of a multivitamin

There are many benefits to taking a multivitamin; there isn't enough time to list them all! When you start taking supplements to address your nutritional gaps, you might boost your mood, support heart health, and reduce the risk of chronic illnesses. Here are just some of the health benefits you might enjoy:

1. Promotes energy and well-being

Essential nutrients like B-complex vitamins, iron, folate, and magnesium play vital roles in forming healthy red blood cells, which carry oxygen to each cell and reduce fatigue. These nutrients also help the mitochondria to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules from the food you eat.

Ensuring your body produces ATP efficiently helps you have more energy and feel better overall. A promising clinical trial review on healthy adults showed improvement in mood and anxiety among those using a multivitamin supplement.

2. Supports brain health

Various lifestyle changes, like taking daily multivitamin capsules, and maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regimen, help to enhance your cognitive health as you age.

A research team at Columbia University studied thousands of adults over the age of 60. Those taking a multivitamin supplement showed higher scores in memory and cognitive testing than those taking a placebo.

3. Enhances eye health

As you grow older, maintaining good eye health becomes a big concern. Your eyes need a constant supply of nutrients—like vitamins A, C, E, zinc, selenium, and lutein—to protect them from free radical damage and maintain healthy vision.

A recent review study on nutrients found evidence that taking vitamin and mineral supplements is associated with a reduced risk of age-related cataracts, a common cause of vision loss. People who take supplements can benefit from the protective effect of multivitamins and experience positive outcomes for their eyes.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Final thoughts

In the quest for better health, multivitamins are a valuable tool. They offer loads of health benefits to keep you feeling your best. So, as you focus on feeling your best, remember that we're here to support you all the way. Your health is worth every effort.

Sources

• The effect of multivitamin supplementation on mood and stress in healthy older men
• Multivitamin use and the risk of myocardial infarction: a population-based cohort of Swedish women
• The effect of multivitamin/mineral supplements on age-related cataracts: a systematic review and meta-analysis
• Multivitamins in the Prevention of Cancer in Men: The Physicians’ Health Study II Randomized Controlled Trial
• Multivitamin and mineral use and breast cancer mortality in older women with invasive breast cancer in the women's health initiative