Specialist Doctor Dinh Tran Ngoc Mai, Department of Nutrition - Dietetics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, answered: Vitamins are compounds that the body cannot synthesize itself, most of which must be taken from outside through foods. Vitamins exist in the body in small amounts but play an important role in maintaining life as well as the body's vital activities.
Buying vitamin supplements yourself is not advisable if we already have a healthy, varied diet.
The functions of vitamins include building cells, being necessary for the development and maintenance of cell life, participating in the metabolism of substances, strengthening the body's immune system, and participating in regulating the activity of the heart and nervous system.
Vitamins in the body act as catalysts to help assimilate and transform food, creating energy to supply the body's activities. Vitamins have the ability to protect cells from attacks by infectious agents thanks to their properties of fighting oxidation, detoxifying and repairing damaged structures.
Common vitamins include vitamins A, D, E, K; B vitamins (B1, B5, B6, B9, B12). Each vitamin has its own role. Therefore, when a vitamin is lacking, the symptoms will be different. For example, a lack of vitamin A causes night blindness and reduced vision, a lack of vitamin D causes rickets and osteoporosis, or a lack of vitamin B12 causes anemia...
Buying vitamin supplements yourself is not advisable if we already have a healthy, varied diet.
However, there are some subjects, especially pregnant women, the elderly, cancer patients... who need to supplement certain vitamins as prescribed by a doctor.
Therefore, to know how to safely supplement vitamins, you need to consult your doctor about your underlying medical conditions and current health status to see if there are any vitamin deficiencies in order to supplement appropriately.
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