Pregnancy Blog Posts
10 August 2010
Posted in
Pregnancy
The body depends on vitamins and minerals to function; they are taken from diet and they represent major nutrients categories together with fatty acids, protein and sugars. Nutritional supplements are another sources of vitamins and minerals, but they should only be used when diet is deficient. Some products are unilateral containing only one mineral and the vitamin necessary for its absorption. Thus, magnesium comes in combination with vitamin B6 while calcium is always available with vitamin D.
All vitamins and minerals are specialized, and a balanced diet will normally provide enough for the proper body functioning. Supplementation is usually necessary fro mal-absorption and for people who have to recover after illness. A good diet is no longer enough when disease is diagnosed, but it certainly supports the treatment, and this is the case with osteoporosis. Besides diet, you should use a calcium supplement and vitamins D and C to ensure a good absorption.
A balanced combination of vitamins and minerals works fine for visual health. Antioxidants like vitamin A, C and E together with zinc and selenium improve vision, prevent macular degeneration, cataract and glaucoma formation. They are also known to improve the condition of people who suffer from the dry eye syndrome. Do not use vitamin supplements without talking to your doctor first. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies require special tests for diagnosis.
A complex combination of vitamins and minerals is used for the treatment of anemia. Yet, you cannot self-diagnose for anemia. Here are a few situations where you could go wrong with the use of vitamins and minerals without a doctor's advice.
The administration of certain vitamins and supplements are absolutely necessary or forbidden for some health conditions.
- Pregnant women should be careful with the vitamin A intake because it can cause baby malformations.
- Smokers who take vision supplements may have problems with the same vitamin A (beta-carotene)also have problems with the administration of beta-carotene (vitamin A).
- Be careful with calcium supplements if you suffer from kidney stones.
- Vitamin K interferes with blood thinning medication.
- Iron can cause constipation.
The list of problems that may accompany the random use of vitamins and minerals is much longer than this. Yet, with the above mentions, we are trying to send an alarm message to all those who self-treat and use vitamin supplements by the 'ear'.
