Lately, I’ve been looking at different vitamins and what they do for the body. Vitamin A helps your vision; vitamin D helps build strong bones. Other vitamins promote healing (like vitamin C and vitamin E) or energy production (the B-complex vitamins). Every vitamin does something different… but how do they work?
There are two different types of vitamins. Some vitamins are fat soluble — like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. This means the vitamins are stored in the fat tissues in your body — especially in the liver. They wait until your body needs them, and can stay as long as six months in storage. Once the vitamins are needed, special carriers in your body will pick them up and deliver them to where they’re headed.
Vitamin C and the B-complex vitamins are water soluble. These vitamins travel through your bloodstream and pass out quickly through your urine. If they aren’t used quickly, they’re gone. In other words — water soluble vitamins don’t last in the body for a long time at all, and need to be replaced often.
Your body can produce some vitamins without much outside help — vitamin D production, for example, can be stimulated by sunlight. But for the most part, the food you eat is responsible for getting all the vitamins you need. If you’re eating a wide variety of healthy foods, you may be getting all the vitamins your body needs. If you have dietary issues like lactose intolerance or irritable bowel syndrome, you may have trouble getting certain vitamins from traditional sources.
If you are worried that you aren’t getting enough vitamins in your regular diet, talk to your doctor about a multivitamin or other supplement that can help. A vitamin deficiency can show up in weird ways:
- Vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness.
- Vitamin B1 deficiency can cause confusion and balance problems.
- Vitamin B2 deficiency can cause itching and irritation of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. A vitamin B6 deficiency can also cause skin problems.
- Vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency can lead to anemia.
- Vitamin C deficiency can lead to bleeding gums and slow-healing wounds.
- Vitamin D deficiency can lead to weakened teeth and bones. It also causes rickets in children.
- Vitamin E deficiency can leave you with weak muscles.