Vitamins Promoting Healthy Aging

Tip for Healthy Aging: Taking Vitamins that Promote Healthy Aging

Vitamins are an essential part of the way our bodies function and care for themselves. With a perfect diet you will rarely need vitamins. But if there are some health foods you simply won't eat, it may help to take some vitamins. It is important to pay attention to the vitamin content of the foods you eat if you take vitamins, as getting too much of anything can be unhealthy. Getting an adequate amount of nutrients, such as vitamins, is vital for your body to function at peak levels.

How You Can Find Vitamins

Vitamins are one of those things we will typically have taken care of for us if we eat a variety of foods in their most naturally edible forms. But most of us tend to eat the same basic foods over and over again, coming up short of some of our bodies' vitamin needs. To make up for these needs, you can purchase vitamin supplements in a variety of forms, from liquids to powders to pills to shots. Vitamins are so popular today that you can buy a multivitamin at just about every supermarket, department store, or drug store. It is generally a good idea to consult with your doctor before adding any sorts of supplements to your diet. It is particularly important to consult with your doctor if you are on any medications or have any medical conditions.

Vitamin Benefits

Vitamins help out in nearly every bodily process. For example, many people don't know that vitamins can help the body deal with stress. Vitamins may also be useful in controlling weight. Vitamins haven't been shown to reduce cold or flu symptoms, but they may help prevent from getting as many colds and flus. If you want to know more about vitamins, there are few people that know more about vitamins than the pharmacist. Take your list of current supplements and medications with you, as a pharmacist may be able to point out things you may be considering taking that will react to each other.

Vitamin B1

Some of the popular vitamin supplements are A, B1, B6, B12, D, E, and K. B1 isn't talked about much by itself, but it is used by your body to maintain heart health and the health of your nervous system. In fact, it is also associated with bodily energy levels and having an upbeat attitude. B1 is also associated with maintaining healthy mucous membranes.

More Vitamins

The most popular vitamin is probably Vitamin C. While it hasn't been shown to help a cold when you already have a cold, eating a diet with plenty of Vitamin C in it has been shown to be beneficial to immune function.

Vitamin E is a controversial vitamin. While taking Vitamin E supplements is associated with shorter lifespans, getting Vitamin E may be the most important of all vitamins as a part of a healthy diet. Vitamin E helps keep oxygen levels higher in the blood and reduce your heart's need for oxygen. Vitamin E is also associated with aging more slowly. Vitamin E also helps the blood as an anticoagulant assistant.

Common Symptoms of Vitamin Deficiency

In many cases people suffer for years with fatigue only to discover that just eating a healthier diet with more vitamins in it will resolve the problem. You may also experience more muscle soreness if you have a vitamin deficiency. Insomnia can result from a lack of nutrients, including those obtained or constructed by the body from sun exposure. If you live in a low-sunlight area, you may need some melatonin, for example.

To resolve the symptoms of vitamin deficiency, you may want to consult with your doctor or a nutritionist. Start with a healthy diet. For example, eat at least 9 servings of various fruits and/or vegetables every day. Avoid white breads and instead eat whole grain breads and whole grain cereals. Eat a handful of mixed nuts each day. Make sure you get some Omega 3 fatty acids each day. Your physician should be able to then do tests to see if you are still lacking any vitamins.

Vitamin E and Healthy Aging

Tip for Healthy Aging: Get Plenty of Vitamin E

While Vitamin E has gotten some negative press lately, eating as much as 200 IU (international units) of vitamin E daily has been found to be vital to good health. Vitamin E supplements usually come in the form of alpha tocopherol, but Vitamin E in foods comes in a few other forms. With Vitamin E being so vital to your health, you need to find some way or another to make sure you get adequate Vitamin E daily.

Benefits of Vitamin E for the Circulatory System

One of the proven benefits of Vitamin E is in the function of the circulatory system. In fact, having adequate Vitamin E may help the blood hold up to 40% more oxygen. In turn this oxygen helps promote healthy functioning of all of the organs where the blood flows. As a result, the immune system may also function much more effectively as a result of the action of Vitamin E in the blood.

As if those weren't enough circulatory benefits, Vitamin E also functions as an anticoagulant and a blood vessel dilator. The ability of Vitamin E to help the blood resist internal clotting can help protect the heart, brain, and lungs. The heart and other organs will receive plenty of healthy, oxygenated blood as a result of getting adequate Vitamin E in the diet. Many anti-aging experts will tell you that getting plenty of healthy blood circulation is an excellent way to slow down the aging process. So the vitality of the body can be preserved and maintained much longer, particularly the vitality of your vital organs.

The effects of Vitamin E are believed to be seen in the hemoglobin, which is an essential part of the formation of the cells in the bone marrow. Many diseases related to hemoglobin could turn out to have some correlation to Vitamin E deficiency. This would explain the link between oxygen in the blood and Vitamin E, as the hemoglobin detains oxygen in the blood. This may also be linked to the improved function of the immune system when people consume adequate amounts of Vitamin E. As a result, the person may stay healthy much later into life.

Part of the aging process can be seen in the reduced rate of formation of essential parts of the blood as we age. When Vitamin E improves blood development and flow it may help to delay the aging that would result from poor blood development and flow.

The increased ability of blood to flow may be the result of blood that is better formed and purified with the help of Vitamin E, or it may be another function of Vitamin E that hasn't been fully identified. It is for example known that many of us have decreased blood flow as we age as a result of plaques that have formed and gathered inside the circulatory system. As the blood flow is reduced by these plaques, the rate of outward signs of aging may be increased, including crowfeet, sagging tissue, and wrinkling skin. It is reasonable to assume similar effects are taking place internally to the vital organs. Vitamin E may be improving blood flow by helping break down or resist the development of saturated fats and cholesterols that gather in the blood. Hydrocarbons and peroxides are a couple of toxins known to form in the blood that are associated with accelerated aging.

Other Vitamin E Benefits

Vitamin E is associated with fewer muscle problems as well as slowing the arthritic process. There were some interesting studies done on the relationships between muscle cramps and Vitamin E recently. Leg cramps in particular have been shown to be dramatically reduced by adequate Vitamin E intake and increased by Vitamin E deficiency.