Supplements can help you to get the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals on a daily basis, which is especially important as you age, or if you develop a health condition. They’re also particularly beneficial for children, teenagers, and pregnant women, but anyone from the age of two to 102 could use a helping hand in getting the nutrients they’re lacking.
Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is one such supplement that can help improve your wellness because, being an antioxidant, it protects your body from damage by free radicals. Vitamin C also helps your body to absorb iron from plant-based foods, makes the collagen protein your wounds need to start the healing process and, if that wasn’t enough, vitamin C improves your immune system. However, as vitamin C is soluble in water, your body cannot store any of it for later, which is why you need it every day.
Next, vitamin E works similarly to vitamin C, boosting your immune system and acting as an antioxidant, but it also plays a crucial role in cell interaction, widens your blood vessels and keeps your blood from clotting. Likewise, vitamin A is important for your immune system, but it has benefits for multiple functions and organs. Vitamin A improves your vision and reproduction, and enhances the function of your heart, kidneys, lungs, liver and more.
The last two on this list go hand-in-hand. Calcium is one of the main builders of your body, helping to support and harden your bones and teeth. This mineral also aids the release of hormones and enzymes, but you need a little help to absorb it. This is where vitamin D comes in, but, as very few foods contain it naturally, you need to get your vitamin D from supplements. And, if bone health wasn’t a good enough incentive, this vitamin has many functions, including helping your nerves, muscles and immune system.