Vitamin

A vitamin is a organic compound which in small amounts regulate metabolism. Metabolism is the process of the body to convert food into energy forming cells, tissues and body fluids. Vitamins exists as enzymes, protein molecules, which act as catalysts. Catalysts are substances that increase the speed of a chemical reaction without being changed by the reaction. Vitamins enable and allow for this enzyme reaction to proceed at a faster pace then it would if the vitamin were not present. In the body vitamins alter molecules and combine them to create chemical reactions. These enzymes can repeat the processes over and over. There are 700 enzymes in the body, Vitamins are a vital force within us.

Vegetables are a great source of vitamins

The Vitamins

There are 13 essential vitamins and each vitamin has a particular function that is not repeated by another. The lack of a vitamin can interfere with the function of another. In order for a substance to be considered a vitamin it must be essential or required in the diet. Vitamins create good give and take actions between all of the body’s micro and macro parts and this includes trillions of cells.

The human body is estimated to be 70% water, Vitamins are classified based on how they are absorbed in the body. Nine vitamins are water soluble: Vitamin B Complex consists of a group of individual vitamins, these are Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Pyridoxine, Biotin, Folic acid and Cyanocobalamine. Vitamin C is the other, Their solubility in water accounts for the fast assimilation and immediate effect energetically upon our physiology. They do not accumulate in the tissues, are dissolved in blood, urine and spinal fluids and are eliminated quickly. The only exception is Vitamin B12 which is stored in the liver.

The fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K work in the fat tissues and exist in nerve cell membranes. They exert an antioxidant effect protecting the inner and outer cellular membranes. Cellular unity builds tissues which make up organs, bones and blood. These vitamins can accumulate in the body and they can exist in toxic amounts, concentrated amounts and this can become difficult for the body to eliminate them. This can sometimes occur with vitamin supplementation. This group of vitamins are manufactured by the body.

All the vitamins are available to us by eating a balanced healthy diet from all the food groups: grasses, whole grains, milk, eggs, cheese, tofu, yogurt, dark green leafy vegetables, yellow, orange, red vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts, legumes. beans, meat, poultry, fish, salmon and herring

Today with our deeper understanding of food, health, exercise, our habit and environment, the recommended dietary requirements has changed. However, the RDA or recommended dietary allowance is defined as the amounts needed to cover the nutritional requirements of 97% of the population. This is 2 to 6 times the Minimal Daily Requirement. The MDR is defined as the smallest amount of a vitamin that is needed to prevent signs and symptoms of a deficiency. An organism can survive some time without vitamins. However, a prolonged vitamin deficit results in what is called a vitamin deficiency disease, This vitamin deficiency disease is treatable and in most cases is correctable but these diseases can be very painful, debilitating and sometimes cause death. Today our current revisions of requirement can consider the difference for someone who is between the age of 51 to 70 and change again for those over 70. Many things related to lifestyle are considered, activity, medications, wellbeing, habits and food preferences and availability. In our life today we are experiencing a revolution regarding nutrition. Our focus is on the beneficial effects of balanced eating verses prevention or curing deficiencies.

Vitamin A

Retinol (Vitamin A)

Vitamin A, known as retinol is an enzyme that forms two pigments in the retina. The retina relays information to the optic nerve on to the brain. Night blindness, the inability of the eye to accommodate to the darkness, is the early symptom of a Vitamin A deficit in the body. The ancient Egyptians fed liver to their people who suffered night vision problems. Vitamin A helps the immune system prevent infections. Vitamin A creates skin, bone, and teeth; serves prenatal development and the growth of children. The lining of the mouth, throat, nose, lungs, bladder, kidneys and digestive tract is also, the work of this generous vitamin. It produces gastric juices which aid in the assimilation of nutrients including the vitamins. Sperm formation is another important reason to eat dark green, yellow, orange and red vegetables; The body manufactures Vitamin A from the carotene and prothrombin A in the vegetables. Other good sources of this body building vitamin include the animals sources eggs, liver and milk.

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B1, Thiamine, has a good effect on the heart; it keeps the it firm and resilient. The heart muscle expands and contracts on average between 60 to 90 beats a minute. Vitamin B1 contains sulfur and nitrogen which is needed for growth. This B vitamin aids and helps the normal metabolism of carbohydrates into sugar, This sugar is required by the brain and nervous system. Beriberi is a vitamin deficiency disease caused by the lack of the B Complex vitamins. Food sources of this vitamin are whole grains, organ meats, nuts, legumes, pork and most vegetables.

Vitamin B2

Riboflavin, Vitamin B2 is important in the cellular use of oxygen for the conversion of food into energy. This is needed in the smallest processes of the cells and cellular parts to the larger glandular organs and even to the operation of systems, such as the digestive system. This vitamin is essential for the health of the entire glandular system, including the pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, the pancreas, the adrenal glands, including the ovaries and testes. Riboflavin is needed for the assimilation of iron. A deficiency can be recognized easily for the tongue gets shiny and is inflamed and sore, other symptoms include blurred vision and headaches. Food sources of this invigorating vitamin are green leafy vegetables, fish, cheese, poultry, and milk, although direct sunlight destroys the riboflavin in milk.

Vitamin B3

Vitamin B3, Niacin is essential and without it both Thiamine, Vitamin B1 and Riboflavin, Vitamin B2 cannot function properly. It is a core molecule for two enzymes systems. Niacin helps body growth and is needed for healthy tissues. It aids in the conversion of carbohydrates into energy and helps the body produce fats. Our body can produce Niacin from tryptophan, an amino acid which is in milk and eggs. Other good food sources of Niacin are fish and whole grains. A lack of Niacin may cause Pellagra, digestive and nervous system ailments, and the same complications from the lack of Thiamine and/or Riboflavin. All good things exist in three’s Thiamine, Riboflavin and Niacin.

Vitamin B5

Pantothenic acid, Vitamin B5 is a good antistress agent. It works in all of our cells. Vitamin B5 converts fat, carbohydrates and proteins into energy. Pantothenic acid manufactures antibodies to fight germs in the blood. Food sources includes eggs, peanuts, whole grains, beans and organ meats.

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine, creates red blood cells and hemoglobin a blood protein that functions as the carrier of oxygen in the blood to our cells. Vitamin B6 helps in the manufacture of DNA and RNA the signature of physical blood lineage, the genetic code. These nucleic acids are responsible for the development, maintenance, repair and multiplication, the origin, division, union action of the cells. Pyridoxine aids the body to use amino acids, the protein building blocks of life. Pyridoxine nourishes the central nervous system, facilitates the sodium and potassium levels in the blood. The best food sources for this vitamin are brewer’s yeast, brown rice, bananas, pears, beef, pork, salmon and herring.

Vitamin B7

Biotin, Vitamin B7, promotes the conversion of fats into fatty acids which produce energy, creating hair, skin, bone marrow and healthy glands, The body can manufacture Biotin in the intestinal tract, glycogen is produced. Glycogen is an substance that is stored in the body and released when energy is needed. Good food sources include nuts, cheese and eggs.

Vitamin B9

Vitamin B9, Folic acid is a vital component of intercellular fluids. Folic acid is necessary for the manufacture of DNA and RNA, the nucleic acids. These acids are located in the nucleus of the cells and start the procreation process. Folic acid connects amino acids. The world has researched and recognizes the role of Folic acid in human fetal development. This knowledge about Folic acid has lessened the incidence of birth defects around the world. This potent life enzyme Vitamin B9, Folic acid is found in brewer’s yeast, dark green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, oysters, salmon and chicken.

Vitamin B12

Cyanocobalamine, Vitamin B12 is not found in fruit or vegetables but in fermented products like tofu, meat and poultry. Both Vitamin B7, Biotin and Vitamin B12 can be manufactured by microorganisms in the intestinal tract. Cyanocobalamine exists as a coenzyme. This enzyme stimulates the creation of the blood, metabolic functions and the metabolism of protein and amino acids. Vitamin B12 can be injected into the muscle of the body. This treatment is necessary if the body is not able to receive enough of the vitamin from the diet because the body is unable to manufacture it from food ingested. This deficiency disease is called pernicious anemia.

Vitamin C

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Vitamin C is needed for vigourous activity

Vitamin C, Ascorbic acid is an important vitamin for it has been studied and its observed action is impressive. In recent times it has exhibited a pronounced “antiviral effect”. Studies have shown that Vitamin C in large doses inhibit viruses and inactivate viruses from replicating themselves in host cells. Also, in large doses Vitamin C can help with work endurance, such as is experienced in vigorous sports that require long periods of work. Vitamin C supports the body’s ability to detoxify and cleanse itself from the water, air and food we ingest and inhale.

Vitamin C creates collagen. This is a cement like substance that hold the connective tissue together. It is good for the vascular system, inhibiting the build up of plaque in the arteries, helping the heart. It allows the tissues to be supple. Ascorbic acid promotes fertility, it has a laxative effect and tastes good to eat: found in citrus fruits, oranges, lemons, limes, sprouts, berries, melons, sweet potatoes, and green leafy vegetables. Scurvy, a vitamin deficiency disease and its debilitating effects, bleeding gums, pain and poor wound healing was corrected centuries ago. Today, citrus and Vitamin C are impacting other debilitating scourges, cancer, heart disease, Aids, HIV and the common cold. Vitamin C is a suspected antiviral agent. It may also improve the quality of life and /or prolong it, so profound are the feelings of physicians and nutritionists who believe in the findings observed about Vitamin C. We need Vitamin C everyday.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D, is unique as it functions both as a hormone and vitamin. It is called the “sunshine” vitamin for it is formed in the skin of the body when one is in the sunshine. Vitamin D helps utilize calcium and phosphorous. It is vital for the formation of the bones and teeth, kidneys and nervous system. One half an hour of good sunshine per day is the best supplement, however, other dietary sources include fish, milk, eggs and butter. Vitamin D prevents Rickets, a developmental problem with bone formation affecting the strength, size, and configuration of the bones of the body particularly noticed in the long leg bones.

Milk is a good source of vitamins

Vitamin E

Tocopherol, Vitamin E, may be applied topically as an oil application to the skin. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant. Antioxidants protect the cell membranes, made up of fatty acids, from destruction by oxidation or the effect of oxygen. It protects the integrity of the cells. This vitamin is the primary defense protecting the lungs, airways, nose and mouth from infection. It prevents the hemolysis or breakdown of red blood cells, which carry oxygen. Food sources rich in Vitamin E are seeds, nuts, eggs and wheat germ.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K, Naphthoquinone, is essential for blood clotting. It promotes the creation of active prothrombin in the liver cells which clot the blood. Vitamin K is manufactured in the large intestine. The microorganisms use the soy and other fermented dairy food, yogurt and cheese to make Vitamin K. This vitamin also can be injected into the body muscle and is sometimes given to women before childbirth. This can prevent bleeding in the newborn baby . Babies do not produce Vitamin K until two weeks old. This is how long it could take before there is bacteria in their intestinal tract. Vitamin K is plentiful in green leafy vegetables, broccoli, kale, spinach, cauliflower and cabbage.

History

Limes saved the British Navy from scurvy

The value of eating certain foods to maintain health was recognized long before vitamins were identified. The ancient Egyptians knew that feeding a patient liver would help cure night blindness, now known to be caused by a vitamin A deficiency. In 1747, the Scottish surgeon James Lind discovered that citrus foods helped prevent scurvy, a particularly deadly disease in which collagen is not properly formed, and characterized by poor wound healing, bleeding of the gums, and severe pain. In 1753, Lind published his Treatise on the Scurvy. His recommendation of using lemons and limes to avoid scurvy was adopted by the British Royal Navy, resulting in the nickname "Limey" for sailors of that organization. His discovery, however, was not widely accepted by individuals; In the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century, for example, it was widely believed that scurvy was prevented by good hygiene on board ship, regular exercise, and maintaining the morale of the crew, rather than by a diet of fresh food, so that Navy expeditions took all the amenities of 'sophisticated' society, like silk sheets, spices, expensive food and drink, and almost nothing of any use beyond the Arctic Circle. As a result, these expeditions continued to be plagued by scurvy and other deficiency diseases. At the time Robert Falcon Scott made his two expeditions to the Antarctic in the early 20th century, the prevailing medical theory was that scurvy was caused by "tainted" canned food.

In 1881, Russian surgeon Nikolai Lunin fed mice upon an artificial mixture of all the separate constituents of milk known at that time, namely the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and salts. They died, while the mice fed by milk itself developed normally. He made a conclusion that "a natural food such as milk must therefore contain besides these known principal ingredients small quantities of unknown substances essential to life" [1] However, his conclusion was rejected by other researchers who were unable to reproduce his results. One difference was that he used table sugar (sucrose), while other researchers used milk sugar (lactose) which still contained small amounts of vitamin B.

In 1905, William Fletcher discovered that eating unpolished rice instead of polished helped prevent the disease beriberi. The following year, Frederick Hopkins postulated that foods contained "accessory factors"—in addition to proteins, carbohydrates, fats, etc.—that are necessary to the human body.

The word vitamine was coined by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk in 1912. Vita in Latin is life and the -amine suffix is for amine; at the time it was thought that all vitamins were amines. The name soon became synonymous with Hopkins' "accessory factors", and by the time it was shown that not all vitamins were amines, the word was already ubiquitous. In 1920, Jack Cecil Drummond proposed that the final "e" be dropped, to deemphasize the "amine" reference, after the discovery that vitamin C had no amine component, and the name has been "vitamin" ever since.

The reason the alphabet soup of vitamins seems to skip from E to the rarely-mentioned K is that most of the "letters" were reclassified, as with fatty acids, discarded as false leads, or renamed because of their relationship to "vitamin B", which became a "complex" of vitamins. Vitamin G, Riboflavin, for example, is now known as B₂.

Throughout the early 1900s, scientists were able to isolate and identify a number of vitamins by depriving animals of them. Initially, lipid from fish oil was used to cure rickets in rats, and the fat-soluble nutrient was called "antirachitic A". The irony here is that the first "vitamin" bioactivity ever isolated, which cured rickets, was initially called vitamine A, this bioactivity is now called vitamin D, which is subject to the semantic debate that vitamin D is not truly a vitamin because it is a steroid derivative. What we now call "vitamin A" was identified in fish oil because it was inactivated by ultraviolet light. Most of what we now recognize as the water-soluble organic micronutrients were initially referred to as just one entity, "vitamin B".

Human vitamins

In humans, there are thirteen vitamins, divided into two groups, the four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) and the nine water-soluble vitamins (eight B vitamins and vitamin C).

Vitamin name	Chemical name	Solubility	Deficiency disease	Overdose	Estimated Average Minimum Daily Requirement (male, aged 19–30)
Vitamin A	Retinol	Fat	Night-blindness, Keratomalacia	7.5 mg	620 μg
Vitamin B1	Thiamine	Water	Beriberi	n/a	1000 μg
Vitamin B2 (G)	Riboflavin	Water	Ariboflavinosis	n/a	1100 μg
Vitamin B3 (PP)	Niacin	Water	Pellagra	2500 mg	12000 μg
Vitamin B5	Pantothenic acid	Water	Paresthesia	n/a	10000 μg
Vitamin B6	Pyridoxine	Water	n/a	400 mg	1100 μg
Vitamin B7 (H)	Biotin	Water	n/a	n/a	30 µg
Vitamin B9 (M)	Folic acid	Water		1 mg	320 μg
Vitamin B12	Cyanocobalamin	Water	Pernicious anemia	n/a	2 µg
Vitamin C	Ascorbic acid	Water	Scurvy	n/a	75000 μg
Vitamin D1–D4	Lamisterol, Ergocalciferol, Calciferol, Dihydrotachysterol, 7-dehydrositosterol	Fat	Rickets	1.25 mg	2 µg (for all Vitamin D)
Vitamin E	Tocopherol	Fat	n/a	33000 mg	12000 μg
Vitamin K	Naphthoquinone (not to be confused with Ketamine)	Fat	Bleeding diathesis	n/a	75 µg

Vitamin deficiency and excess

An organism can survive for some time without vitamins, although prolonged vitamin deficit results in a disease state, often painful and potentially deadly. Body stores for different vitamins can vary widely; an adult may be deficient in vitamins A or B₁₂ for a year or more before developing a deficiency condition, while vitamin B₁ stores may only last a couple of weeks.

Fat-soluble vitamins may be stored in the body and can cause toxicity when taken in excess. Water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body, with the exception of vitamin B₁₂, which is stored in the liver.

Vitamin A deficiency is the most serious vitamin problem in the world today. The World Health Organization says:

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been recognized for decades as the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness in developing countries. In addition, in children with vitamin A deficiency, the risk of dying from diarrhoea, measles, and malaria is increased by 20-24%. VAD in children also leads to poor growth. VAD in women may increase the risk of ill health and dying during pregnancy and the early postpartum period, and in severe cases may increase the risk of infant death in the first few months of life. Lactating women with VAD produce breast milk that has a low concentration of vitamin A, which is one of the major causes of VAD in young children. Vitamin A deficiency is mainly caused by inadequate intake of vitamin A and pro-vitamin A through the diet, however, frequent episodes of infections (like respiratory tract infections, tuberculosis), diarrhoea and worm infections increase the demand for vitamin A and contribute to vitamin A deficiency, especially when the intake of vitamin A is already insufficient. In addition, measles has a precipatory effect on the accelerated use of vitamin A and therefore increase the risk of vitamin A deficiency and associated blindness. Women have higher requirements of vitamin A than men due to pregnancies and breastfeeding. The prevention and treatment of vitamin A deficiency is based on a combination of measures which include dietary improvement, fortification (e.g. of oil and fats) and supplementation, especially for young children and lactating women. [2]

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Ed. Maureen Barlow Pugh et.al. 27th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000.
• Donatelle, Rebecca J. Health: The Basics. 6th ed. San Francisco: Pearson Education, Inc. 2005.
• Funk, C. and H. E. Dubin. The Vitamines. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Company, 1922.
• The History of Vitamin Discovery. Retrieved 1 Feb 2005.
• Bellis, Mary. History of Vitamins. Retrieved 1 Feb 2005.
• Challem, Jack (1997). The Past, Present and Future of Vitamins. Retrieved 1 Feb 2005.
• Leonhardt, David (2004). Vitamin A - The Glow in the Dark Vitamin. Retrieved 1 Feb 2005.
• A Brief Update on Ubiquinone (Coenzyme Q10), Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 2000; 15(2):63-68.
• Null, Gary. (1999) Get Healthy Now! with Gary Null: A Complete Guide to Prevention, Treatment and Healthy Living New York : Seven Stories Press, ISBN: 1888363975

External links

• USDA RDA chart in PDF format
• The lab which discovered the enzyme associated with PQQ
• Health Canada Dietary Reference Intakes Reference Chart for Vitamins

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