Vitamins are an essential part of everyday life if you want your body to function in the way it should. There are 13 different vitamins, and each one is responsible for something a little different to the next, which is why it is so important to get a little bit of each every day. You may think you have a completely balanced diet, but are you sure you’re getting all your vitamins and meeting your daily requirements?
Vitamin A
If you don’t get enough vitamin A in your diet, you might find that you suffer from dry eyes, awful night vision (even down to total blindness), dry skin, and bouts of nasty diarrhoea. Vitamin A encourages your cells to grow, which means that wounds heal faster (and therefore have a lower chance of getting infected). Vitamin A also boosts your immune system which adds to your general health and ability to fight off diseases, plus it helps to strengthen your vision. You can get vitamin A from a variety of different sources including tuna, sweet potatoes, and carrots.
Vitamin B
If you can barely stay awake during the day, even if you’ve had a good eight hours of sleep, you might be suffering from vitamin B (specifically B12) deficiency. Not only that, you’ll feel sluggish and weak, you might feel numbness, your mind could be confused, you’ll be forgetful, you’ll get dizzy, you’ll look pale, and you might get blurred vision. None of this leads to a productive daily life. To combat this, eat more dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt and so on), lean meat, shellfish, poultry, and soy products to keep yourself as healthy as possible.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a hugely important vitamin to have enough of in your diet. Without it, you could feel the signs of depression, your wounds may take longer to heal, nosebleeds occur frequently, your gums bleed, and you could develop gingivitis, you might be prone to bruising, plus you’ll have high blood pressure. This particular vitamin protects against heart disease, asthma, and even the common cold, so ensuring your vitamin C levels are where they should be is vital. The thing is you don’t need too much of it to stay healthy. You only require 85mg a day.
Vitamin D
Over time, a lack of vitamin D can cause softened bones, and its immediate effect is that it leaves you susceptible to infectious disease such as the flu (which, depending on your overall health levels, can be very serious indeed). The problem with vitamin D deficiency is that there are no clear symptoms; you’ll just end up with the diseases and conditions without realizing you were at risk. You can get yourself checked at your local doctor’s surgery if you are worried, and in the meantime, you’ll want to make sure you’re eating enough oily fish, red meat, and eggs, and of course getting enough sunlight, which is our main source of vitamin D.
