Reading time: 3 minWhat are the benefits of multivitamins and why are they important in the winter season?
The fact that, once their role was understood, they were called “vitamins” or “amines for life” should already make us reflect on how these substances play an essential role in our organism.
What are the roles of multivitamins?
It is very difficult to say in detail as the vitamins They play ubiquitous roles in the human organism, practically taking care of "a bit of everything" or rather of making a multitude of functions function correctly.
To better understand this, we can think of our body as a vast series of closely interdependent biochemical reactions. When everything works properly, the body performs its functions and remains healthy. However, when even a single reaction malfunctions, it triggers a cascade of malfunctions in a whole series of related reactions, triggering a chain reaction that, in many cases, can disrupt some of the body's overall functions, causing actual disease.
Are vitamins really important?
To provide an answer, let's think about some very serious diseases such as scurvy, which depends solely on the lack of vitamin C with devastating consequences on all tissues dependent on collagen (for whose synthesis vitamin C is essential) or pellagra with equally devastating effects on the nervous and skin systems, dependent on the simple deficiency of niacin, a vitamin of the group B also known as vitamin PP or Pellagra Preventer.
What role do vitamins play in our body, directly and indirectly?
Vitamin C
Returning to the example of vitamin C, we see how it plays a direct role as a antioxidant, participating directly in the response chain to the oxidative stress (vitamin E, vitamin C, glutathione, etc.) and an indirect role as an enzymatic cofactor (think of the enzyme as a worker who has to do a specific job and the cofactor as the tool used by the worker) for the collagen synthesis, and these are just two of the many roles played by vitamin C.
This brief example could also be extended to many other vitamins as practically all of them play a series of essential roles, both direct and indirect.
Vitamin D
Just think of vitamin D which plays so many essential roles for the correct functioning of many components of the body, from bone metabolism to the functioning of the nervous system, so much so that it is even called hormone D.
The more knowledge about its roles in the body increases, the more its deficiency is associated with disorders or actual diseases that until recently were "unsuspected".
At this point, it should be clear that proper vitamin intake is a nutritional priority, so it's necessary to consider the vitamin content we can actually benefit from in the foods we have available. Industrial production and long-term storage have allowed for greater food availability for everyone, but they have also significantly reduced the nutritional value of many food sources, meaning it's not always possible to be sure of a good vitamin intake even with good dietary choices.
Another problem is related to individual needs, since in a family, where perhaps with variations in quantities, everyone consumes the same foods at a meal, we find a sedentary adult, an active adult, an elderly person and perhaps a child, each with specific needs which make it possible to only partially satisfy the needs of all the different members of the family.
When to take vitamins?
Last but not least to consider is also the periodicity, during the year in particular periods such as seasonal changes, it is possible that increases in demand may occur related to the need to adapt to new environmental conditions.
Considering these aspects, the nutraceutical use of vitamins, especially in specific formulations for age groups and levels of physical activity, appears particularly interesting as it can be used rationally in completing a healthy and varied diet, especially in subjects at risk for various reasons. nutritional deficiencies or in periods of the year where our body requires a greater commitment.
