A typical fish oil softgel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you’ve never taken vitamins before, it’s easy to convince yourself that you don’t need them. After all, you’ve made it this far without supplements, right? Well, sort of. You may feel like you’re doing just fine, but in reality, there are vitamins and nutrients that your body just might not get enough of.
For thousands of years, people had to tailor their diets to include essential vitamins, like the sailors that regularly snacked on fresh limes to avoid Vitamin C deficiency-related scurvy. With the heavy use of preservatives and artificial ingredients in today’s food, you could be facing deficiencies that people did before they had access to things like vitamins! By keeping a few simple things on hand, though, you can make sure that your body is always getting exactly what it needs—no limes required.
Omega 3 Fish Oil Tablets
Fish oil comes from one of two places: Fatty fish, or Omega 3 fish oil tablets. If you’re not a big fish eater, then, taking a fish oil supplement can make sure that your body is still reaping the benefits of fish oil. Fish oil is used primarily to treat high triglyceride levels, which are traditionally associated with conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Even if you don’t have heart disease or necessarily high triglycerides, taking fish oil may work as a preventative. Research into the power of fish oil continues to unearth new information, but if you ever worry about your heart’s health, this belongs in your medicine cabinet.
Prenatal Vitamins
If you’re pregnant or trying to become pregnant, prenatal vitamins help make sure that you and your baby get all of the nutrients you need. Even if you’re eating a well-balanced diet during your pregnancy, taking a prenatal vitamin ensures that you aren’t missing out on any opportunities to nourish yourself and your little one. For example, the folic acid in prenatal vitamins helps prevent spinal cord problems in the baby, while the calcium ensures that you aren’t losing too much calcium to your baby.
While some conventional wisdom suggests that taking prenatal vitamins while you aren’t pregnant can result in stronger nails and hair, that doesn’t mean you should. Taking prenatal vitamins when you aren’t pregnant can overload your body with nutrients, even if you’re taking small prenatal vitamins. For example, too much iron in your system can result in constipation, vomiting and other unpleasant side effects. If you’re worried about your nails or hair, ask your doctor about more appropriate vitamin solutions.
Multivitamins
A daily multivitamin is almost always a good idea, whether you’re man or woman, big or small. Multivitamins for women, for example, are perfect for women that suffer iron deficiencies, or want to fill in the gaps left behind by a diet. As another example, if you’re cutting back on dairy as part of a dietary change, you could be missing out on valuable calcium and vitamin D. Men’s multivitamins are similarly tailored for gender-specific needs—in this case, prostate health. Ingredients like Lycopene have been shown the support a healthy prostate, which is increasingly important with age.
Collagen Supplements
You may have heard of Hollywood stars getting collagen injections to make their skin look plumper and younger, but you can reap the benefits of increased collagen levels just by taking a collagen supplement. While collagen is found naturally in your body, BioCell Collagen II is an engineered form of this protein that your body absorbs rapidly and puts to use in a variety of ways.
Small collagen tablets give your body a protein boost that helps it both inside and out. Inside, collagen goes to work in your joints, supplementing structural components and helping relieve conditions like arthritis and joint pain. Outside, collagen helps you put your best face forward—literally! When you’re young, you have higher levels of hyaluronic acid, which gives your skin the elasticity and suppleness that makes you look young and healthy. As you get older, your hyaluronic acid stores deplete and your skin loses elasticity, leading to wrinkles and sagging skin. Taking a collagen supplement, however, can deliver a dose of hyaluronic acid back into your body, giving it the youthful elasticity that had slipped away. Whether you’re considering starting a supplement regimen for health or beauty reasons, consult your doctor about appropriate dosing.
More Vitamin Resources
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A primer on the importance of these supplements
What you should look for in a multivitamin
Well-recommended supplier of different vitamins
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