Vitamins: take them properly
prof. N. Korovina
One of important and necessary conditions of our health is the right metabolism. Vitamins and minerals influence it significantly.
Compared to proteins, fat and carbohydrates we need very few vitamins. However, the shortage of just one vitamin may become a threat to the whole organism.
According to the data of Nutrition Research Institute, the absolute majority of the population has vitamin and mineral deficiency. Everyone is aware of hazardous consequences of the deficiency. But what are they caused by?
Basic reasons for deficiency
Unfortunately, it is impossible to provide the organism with all the useful substances in necessary dosage solely due to the adequate diet (fruits, fish, etc.). Even the most balanced and varied diet will always be insufficient in terms of the contents of vitamins and minerals.
Besides, many factors may aggravate the deficiency of useful elements. For instance, smokers need 35 mg of vitamin C additionally. Due to imperfect technologies 80-90% of the B group vitamins are lost while processing corn into bread. Pollution of the environment increases consumption of vitamins antioxidants.
All this brings us to the conclusion that in present conditions a person needs to take vitamin and mineral products regularly. There are no alternatives.
Quality of vitamin and mineral complexes
At present time many of suchg products are being sold. They, practically, contain the full set of vitamins and minerals. However, sometimes it is hard to choose something definite, as most of them have similar contents product form (big tablet). Moreover, they buy raw materials for the production of polyvitamins from the same major suppliers.
The manufacturer’s authority is very high and there are no doubts about the quality of a product’s components. However, there exist a popular, but false opinion that vitamins derived synthetically or with the help of biotechnologies can not fully substitute the vitamins that people get from food. Nevertheless, artificial vitamins are more effective than natural ones thatnks to deeper purification and choosing more active forms.
In fact, the quality of vitamin and mineral complexes is determined not only by completeness of itheir contents and by the quality of raw materials used. The balance of the formulation, which effects assimilation, is of utter importance. Let’s talk about it in detail.
Interaction of components
All the vitamins and the majority of essential minerals do not perform as building material or sources of enerbgy in the organism. They play the role of activators in biochemical processes, i.e. they show their activity by means of interaction with other biologically active substances. They interact with one another as well. That’s why their presence in one and the same tablet is not always useful. As a result of chemical reactions many components become inactive already on the stage of production and storage. Besides, when they get to the gastrointestinal tract they may impede or foster one another’s assimilation.
Medicine has long time been well aware of the facts positive (synergic) and negative influence of some micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) on assimilation of the others. Vitamin C may oxidate vitamin B12 and transform it into its useless analogues. Sometimes this antagonism may show in a very unpleasant way, for example, vitamin B12 may intensify allergic reactions caused by vitamin B1.
However, sometimes vitamins and minerals do not compete, but coordinate (synergists). Vitamin D provides assimilation of calcium, which, in its turn, is necessary for the assimilation ofr vitamin B12, and vitamin C restores the activity of vitamin E.
What’s the way to avoid undesirable interaction of elements essential for the organism and reinforce favourable effects?
Increase of efficiency
It is evident that synergic substances must be taken collectively, whereas an tagonistic ones should be taken separately. The intake of antagonists should be separated in time so that by the moment the second one gets into gastrointestinal tract the first one would have assimilated. This can be achieved by dividing all the components of a vitamin nad mineral complex into several tablets. Such principle provides the increase of the product’s efficiency.
On Russian pharmaceutical market there appeared prevention complexes based on the principle of uniting synergists and separating antagonists. They contain recommended daily doses of all the vitamins and the majority of minerals, where the substances producing undesirable reactions are separated into different tablets and the ones with positive reactions are united in one tablet. The order of intake for the tablets of separated vitamin and mineral complex is not fixed, consumers may choose what they find convenient, as for the interval, it had better be observed. The 4-6 hours’ interval corresponds to the period of assimilation and guarantees that antagonists “won’t meet” and synergists “won’t part”. Actually, one can take all the tablets of a separated product at the same time. In this case it will be as good as any “one-tablet” complex with similar formulation.
Products that combine all the vitamins and minerals in one tablet are easier to produce and to use. However, the price for the “convenience” is the loss of the part of biological activity, for some of the vitamins reaching 30%. It is significant to note, that such losses are unequal and unpredictable, which means that such products can not be defined as balanced.
Increase of safety
But efficiency is not the only characteristic of a product’s quality. There’s one more crucial criterion – safety. Separated complexes meet this requirement as well. Exception of undesirable interactions considerably reduces the probability of side effects. Such products can be taken by people suffering from allergies. For those who have individual intolerance towards some substances these complexes are literally indispensable. In this case one may simply exclude the tablet with such component and take the others without rejecting vitamin and mineral preventive health care at all.
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