Deciding what vitamins and supplements to take depends on what you are using them for. There are so many new vitamin variations and supplements on the market today that it can become confusing as to which vitamins and supplements will work for your particular situation. Researchers are also finding new uses for the standard vitamins found on grocery store shelves. The progress that vitamins and supplements have made is incredible; but if you are feeling left a little bewildered, here is some advice on how to decide what supplements and vitamins you should take.
If you don’t know anything about vitamins and supplements, it’s best to start with a multivitamin if you want to start supplementing your diet to be healthier. You may have friends or coworkers who start making recommendations about all different kinds of supplements that you should be taking, but steer clear of their advice. Otherwise, you will walk out of the health food store with a very expensive parcel of supplements that may or may not be beneficial to your situation.
A good multivitamin will get you started down the road to getting the right dosage of the supplements that researchers deem necessary to prevent most illnesses. Don’t underestimate the power of the multivitamin. It usually has about 20 different vitamins and minerals to get you on the road to good health and prevent most illnesses. Remember, the main point of taking vitamins is to prevent illness, not cure it. So taking the recommended dose of the 20 or so different supplements will put you way ahead of the game if you are already fairly healthy.
Besides a multivitamin, the next step that people take when they want to use vitamins as a method to prevent cancer and other serious diseases is to up their dosage of vitamin C and Vitamin E. These two vitamins have incredible powers to fight cancer and heart disease, and are also a great boost to the immune system. This is why you will see people take extra vitamin C around cold and flu season. If you are taking a multivitamin and want to purchase extra vitamin E and vitamin C, go ahead. Vitamin E and C can both be taken in liberal doses in addition to what you are already getting in your multivitamin.
Other than Vitamin E and Vitamin C, the next vitamin that people are interested in is the B-complex vitamins. This is because a higher dosage of vitamin B compliments what Vitamin E and Vitamin C are already doing with regards to the immune system. Vitamin B also promotes better functioning of the brain.
Basically at this point, if you are taking a multivitamin and extra vitamins C, B, and E, you are essentially taking everything that you can to prevent cancer, heart disease, brain damage, premature aging, bone loss, high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure. If you want any more help than this, you will really have to look at prescribed medications, particularly when it comes to things like lowering cholesterol. This is because in some cases, illnesses like heart disease, high cholesterol, and cancer may be hereditary.
Don’t be fooled by products that make claims of miracle cures for serious medical conditions. Look on the label of many of these vitamins and supplements and you will find that most of them say “claims not evaluated by the FDA”. This usually means that what the manufacturer is claiming isn’t true. Standard vitamins and supplement will do all of the work they can to prevent disease as much as is possible. This is why you also have to be careful not to over consume vitamins. If you take too much Vitamin C for example, it will just flush out of your system. If you take as much of every vitamin you can, some of them will also cancel each other out, leaving you with no positive effects at all. As well, taking too many vitamins can be poisonous and actually make you sick. The best rule of thumb when it comes to taking vitamins is to stick to the basic vitamins and supplements in the recommended doses.
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