Essential Vitamins That Support The Body

 

  1. Vitamin A helps form and maintain healthy teeth, bones, soft tissue, mucus membranes, and skin.
  2. Vitamin B6 is also called pyridoxine. Vitamin B6 helps form red blood cells and maintain brain function. This vitamin also plays an important role in the proteins that are part of many chemical reactions in the body. The more protein you eat the more pyridoxine your body requires.
  3. Vitamin B12, like the other B vitamins, is important for metabolism. It also helps form red blood cells and maintain the central nervous system.
  4. Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is an antioxidant that promotes healthy teeth and gums. It helps the body absorb iron and maintain healthy tissue. It also promotes wound healing.
  5. Vitamin D is also known as the “sunshine vitamin,” since it is made by the body after being in the sun. Ten to 15 minutes of sunshine 3 times a week is enough to produce the body’s requirement of vitamin D for most people at most latitudes. People who do not live in sunny places may not make enough vitamin D. It is very hard to get enough vitamin D from food sources alone. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. You need calcium for the normal development and maintenance of healthy teeth and bones. It also helps maintain proper blood levels of calcium and phosphorus.
  6. Vitamin E is an antioxidant also known as tocopherol. It helps the body form red blood cells and use vitamin K.
  7. Vitamin K is not listed among the essential vitamins, but without it blood would not stick together (coagulate). Some studies suggest that it is important for bone health.
  8. Biotin is essential for the metabolism of proteins and carbohydrates, and in the production of hormones and cholesterol.
  9. Niacin is a B vitamin that helps maintain healthy skin and nerves. It also has cholesterol-lowering effects at higher doses.
  10. Folate works with vitamin B12 to help form red blood cells. It is needed for the production of DNA, which controls tissue growth and cell function. Any woman who is pregnant should be sure to get enough folate. Low levels of folate are linked to birth defects such as spina bifida.  Please not that Folate and Folic Acid are different.
  11. Pantothenic acid is essential for the metabolism of food. It also plays a role in the production of hormones and cholesterol.
  12. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) works with the other B vitamins. It is important for body growth and the production of red blood cells.
  13. Thiamine (vitamin B1) helps the body cells change carbohydrates into energy. Getting enough carbohydrates is very important during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is also essential for heart function and healthy nerve cells.

ESSENTIAL MINERALS YOUR BODY NEEDS

Sodium

Needed for proper fluid balance, nerve transmission, and muscle contraction

Chloride

Needed for proper fluid balance, stomach acid

Potassium

Needed for proper fluid balance, nerve transmission, and muscle contraction

Calcium

Important for healthy bones and teeth; helps muscles relax and contract; important in nerve functioning, blood clotting, blood pressure regulation, immune system health

Phosphorus

Important for healthy bones and teeth; found in every cell; part of the system that maintains acid-base balance

Magnesium

Found in bones; needed for making protein, muscle contraction, nerve transmission, immune system health

TRACE MINERALS YOUR BODY NEEDS

Iron

Part of a molecule (hemoglobin) found in red blood cells that carries oxygen in the body; needed for energy metabolism

Zinc

Part of many enzymes; needed for making protein and genetic material; has a function in taste perception, wound healing, normal fetal development, production of sperm, normal growth and sexual maturation, immune system health

Iodine

Found in thyroid hormone, which helps regulate growth, development, and metabolism

Selenium

Antioxidant

Copper

Part of many enzymes; needed for iron metabolism

Manganese

Part of many enzymes

Chromium

Works closely with insulin to regulate blood sugar (glucose) levels

 

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