Essential Vitamins are Everywhere!
No Deficiencies Allowed!

So, what can we learn about these Essential Vitamins?

Our bodies can make four of 13 vitamins we need for optimal health. So actually, there are only nine essential vitamins

Remember "essential?" We can only get an essential nutrient from our food. Regarding vitamins, Biotin (B7), Pantothenic acid (B5), and vitamin K are made in the human intestine, normally in amounts adequate to meet the body's needs.

Vitamin D is obtained when sunlight hits our skin but usually not in sufficient quantities. The 400IU to 600IU's of vitamin D we need must come from food such as milk or orange juice and supplementation. I suppose we could say vitamin D is "sort of" one of the essential vitamins.

Vitamins are normally classified by their biological and chemical function instead of their structure. For example, there may be several chemical compounds that exhibit the same biologic activity associated with a specific vitamin.

So the letter name of a vitamin is just a generic description of a group of chemical compounds that have the same activity. The "A" in vitamin A, describes a retinal, a retinol and a several carotenoids.

As we see, vitamins have really complicated names; like A, B, C, D, E, and K.

Wait! That only adds up to 6, what happened to the other 7? Vitamin B is actually a collection of 8 separate vitamins, a complex, some of which we know better by their structural, or common, names:

Of the eight B vitamins, six are essential vitamins and two are made in our intestines.

Fat Soluble or Water Soluble...and who cares?

If you read anything about vitamins, the terms fat soluble and water soluble will quickly be encountered. The whole deal on solubility goes to the issue of absorption.

Water soluble vitamins dissolve in water and are excreted from the body fairly quickly which is why some people think taking vitamin supplements is a waste of money. Most of the vitamin goes down the toilet.

Nine of the 13 essential vitamins are water soluble so there is some truth to the "why take vitamins, you just pee them away" theory. Four vitamins are fat soluble which means that are absorbed in the intestine with the help of fats (lipids).

Sometimes we will see a vitamin product advertised as "energy vitamins". Forget it! Vitamins don't give us energy. I know, it's a fine point but what vitamins do is control chemical processes in the body that convert food to energy and help the body use that energy.

So vitamins don't give us energy but without them we won't have much energy. Make sense? Anyway, don't waste your money on high-priced "energy vitamins".

Vitamin A

Starting at the top, vitamin A is the first of the essential vitamins; fat soluble, and needed for vision and bone building. RDAs for male adults is 900 ug/day and 700 ug/day for females. Top dietary sources are liver, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, kale, butter and spinach.

Remember mom telling us that eating carrots was good for our eyes? She was right; carrots have carotene which is a precursor to the essential vitamin A. Night blindness and possibly a dry cornea results from a deficiency.

There is an upper daily limit of between 2800 and 3000 ug and overdosing on vitamin A can have serious consequences including birth defects, liver problems, osteoporosis, and pressure on the brain causing headache, nausea, vomiting, tinnitis and double vision.

It would be hard to overdose on vitamin A in a normal diet but aggressive supplementation could cause problems.

All the B vitamins are water soluble and most play an important role in energy metabolism; the breakdown of glucose. All of them are essential vitamins except B5 and B7.

B1 we know as Thiamin and is needed for proper neural function and carbohydrate metabolism. Thiamin is somewhat delicate in that heat can decompose it and sufites used in food preservatives can break its chemical bonds.

Common dietary sources are yeast, oatmeal, brown rice, whole grains, asparagus, kale and califlower. The RDA for Thiamin is 1.2 mg/day and beriberi is the result of a deficiency. This is a disease that mainly hit populations that depended on rice as a staple food, especially if the rice was "polished". Symptoms include extreme fatigue, weakness, weight loss, emotional disturbances and irregular heart beat.

B2 is Riboflavin, one of the essential vitamins, and is needed for many vital cellular processes. Good sources of B2 are eggs, milk, cheese, leafy greens, liver, mature soybeans, yeast and almonds. The RDA is 1.3 mg/day and there is no established upper limit. Riboflavin is sensitive to light and can be destroyed in bright light or sunlight.

If we get an excess of riboflavin, it is just excreted in urine. If you happen to have bright yellow urine, it's probably because of an excess of B2 in your diet.

A deficiency of B2 shows up as a sore, red throat, swelling of the mouth and throat mucus membranes, cancer of the esophagus in extreme cases, decreased red blood cell count and various skin lesions and disorders.

Deficiency causes Pellagra which manifests itself as diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis and death; the four "D"s. Overdosing on B3 can result in liver damage.

Vitamin B5 is Pantothenic acid and is one of the non-essential vitamins. It is required for metabolism and synthesis of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Small quantities of B5 are found is almost every food with more amounts present in whole grain cereals, eggs, meats and legumes.

Its RDA is 5 mg/day for adult men and a little more for women. Deficiencies in pantothenic acid are extremely rare but can produce the sensation of "pins and needles" on the skin or of a limb being "asleep". There is apparently no upper limit.

It also has a role in gene expression, the building of a protein or RNA from the information in a gene. It is widely available in most foods and especially prevalent in whole grains, meat, vegetables and nuts.

The RDA is 1.3 mg/day for both men and women. A deficiency in B6 produces anemia although deficiencies are not common. There is an upper limit of 100 mg/day above which, nerve damage can occur as well as an inability to sense the position of neighboring parts of the body.

Vitamin B7, Biotin, is another of the non-essential vitamins. If you see reference to a vitamin H, this is it. Biotin is necessary for the production of fatty acids and the metabolism of fats and amino acids.

The RDA is 30 ug(micrograms)/day and deficiencies are almost unheard of since intestinal bacteria usually produce an excess of the daily requirement. Natural food sources include eggs, meat, almonds and many others with the best being swiss chard, romaine lettuce, tomotoes and carrots.

Vitamin B9 is Folic Acid also known as vitamin M and Folacin, is essential for production and maintenance of new cells, synthesis of DNA, and evidence is suggesting that it can have a beneficial effect on stroke prevention and vascular health.

The RDA is 400 ug/day with an upper limit of 1000 ug/cay. The risk of taking too much B9 is low and the main concern is that exceeding the upper limit can mask a potential deficiency in vitamin B12. Leafy vegetables, beans, peas and fortified grain products are the chief sources of B9 in the U.S.

Vitamin B12 is Cyanocobalamin and has a major role in the functioning of the brain and nervous system; is needed for the metabolism of every cell in the body; used in the formation of blood; and required for the synthesis of DNA, fatty acids and production of energy.

It is available to us from meat, shellfish, eggs and poultry. Vegans should take care to supplement with B12. The RDA is 2.4 ug/day with no known toxicity or upper limit specified. Deficiency of B12 results in anemia from the inhibition of DNA synthesis in red blood cell production.

Vitamin C or Ascorbic acid or ascorbate, is one that most people are familiar with. It is an extremely effective antioxidant, protecting the body from the effects of free radicals (oxidative stress) and is a necessary cofactor for the biosynthesis of numerous biochemicals in the body. Vitamin C is one of the most essential of the essential vitamins.

A cofactor is a substance that needs to be present with an enzyme for a specific reaction to take place.

Natural sources of vitamin C are most fruits and vegetables especially oranges, limes and other citrus fruit. The RDA is the subject of ongoing debate but 90 mg/day is an accepted number with an upper limit of 2000 mg/day.

Scurvy is the result of a vitamin C deficiency which is the inability of the body to synthesize collagen, the protein of connective tissue. Scurvy was a sailors disease on the early sailing ships and was common during the U.S. civil war; both due to the lack of fresh fruit.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D, also known as Ergocalciferol is one of the fat-soluble essential vitamins, vital to the maintenance of major organ systems.

Specifically, it regulates the levels of calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood by promoting their absorption from food in the intestines and also promotes the reabsorption of calcium in the kidneys.

In the immune system, it promotes phagocytosis, anti-tumor activity and modulation of the immune system. There is a huge and growing interest in vitamin D as a factor in the prevention and treatment of many catastrophic diseases, cancer being focus of many studies.

Its RDA is 5 to 10 ug/day with a 50 ug/day upper limit. 1000 IU is very common in vitamin D supplements where 1000 IU equals 25 ug. Note that each vitamin has a different IU to ug conversion, so don't apply the vitamin D conversion to other vitamins.

The most well known deficiency disease is rickets, a softening of the bones in children. Natural sources are fatty fish such as salmon, tuna and others plus eggs and beef liver. Many cereals and dairy products are fortified with vitamin D.

One other important source of this vitamin is the sun. Certain ultraviolet rays will synthecize vitamin D in the skin in amounts depending on length of exposure, time of day and distance from the equator.

Vitamin E is a collective name for 8 fat-soluble compounds known as Tocopherols and Tocotrienols having great antioxidant properties. There are indications that it may act as a signaling molecule and protect neurons from damage. These two funcions make "E" one of the essential vitamins we may want to supplement.

A number of foods provide vitamin E including nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, whole grain foods, milk and green, leafy vegetables. The RDA is 15 mg/day with 1000 mg/day as the upper limit. Deficiencies are rare and the result of an excessive intake is an increased risk of congestive heart failure.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K, Menaquinone, is the last of the non-essential vitamins in that it is normally produced by bacteria in the intestines. It is fat-soluble, has an RDA of 120 ug/day with no upper limit determined. It is found in most leafy, green vegetables and some fruits.

It is needed in the synthesis of several proteins important to both coagulation and anti-coagulation. A deficiency could produce difficulty in the coagulation of blood and cause a susceptibility to bleeding.

we will leave the essential vitamins by saying we need them all. For chemical reactions to take place in the body, an enzyme and a coenzyme are both required. A coenzyme is either a vitamin or a molecule that contains a vitamin.

Thus if a vitamin is deficient or lacking in the diet, any reaction that uses that vitamin as a coenzyme cannot proceed. The result is the manifestation of a vitamin defcicency disease.

The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) are minimums. In the section on RDA's, we will take a look at how the USDA is morphing RDAs into something called Dietary Recommended Intakes (DRIs). Click here if you have a desire to see what that is all about, although unless you are a nutritionist or dietician, your time would probably be better spent matching socks.

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