Nutritional (vitamins and minerals) supplements play an essential role to your body. These substances help your body to work properly. Although, you can easily get these minimum required substances from your daily calorie intakes, but for some reasons you may need to take vitamin and mineral supplements. Accordingly, in this article, I want to discuss who needs these supplements and why these substances are essential for you.

Who Needs Dietary Supplements?

If you are normally healthy and consume a variety of nutritious foods, including vegetables, whole grains, fruits, lean meats, fish and fiber containing products, you do not need to take nutritional supplements. However, if you are unable to fulfill your daily necessities of vitamins and minerals from your daily calorie intakes, vitamin and mineral supplements may be beneficial for you to get proper nutrients.

In addition, according to mayoclinic, if you consume less than 1,600 calories per day, or you are a vegetarian and only consume meals with limited variations, you may need those extra supplements. Alternatively, age also plays another significant role in creating these requirements of supplements. If you are older than fifty years, your body may lose the ability to absorb the vitamins like B12 from your daily meals. As a result, you may need to take dietary supplements containing vitamin B complex to fulfill the nutritional requirements of your body.

On the other hand, these supplements are necessary in several other health or medical conditions. As an example, iron supplements help to overcome heavy bleeding during the menstrual period of women.

Why Vitamins and Minerals Are Essential to Your Body?

Essentially, vitamins and minerals accelerate our usual growth and development, enhance the immune system, and help our organs and cells to work appropriately. In fact, vitamins and minerals, aid to keep your body healthy and strong. According to most recent Dietary Guidelines, you need to have vitamins and minerals in your regular diet, because the deficiencies of vitamin and mineral can lead you to several nutritional disorders like osteomalacia, kwashiorkor, mental retardation, growth retardation, pellagra, goiter, anemia, rickets etc. As an example, you may know that Vitamin E is one of the required antioxidants in our body. According to Dietary Guidelines, the average required dose of vitamin E in adults is only 15 IU (International Unit) per day. However, you need to know that the Vitamin E deficiency can cause skeletal muscle, retinopathy, and haemolytic anemia like diseases. In addition, according to recent studies, the deficiency of Vitamin E also plays a key role for male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia).

Author's Bio: 

Mr. Imtiaz Ibne Alam is a Pharmacist (Bachelor in Pharmacy), and over the last 4 years, he had worked in different medical and healthcare projects. Professionally, his service experience was in pharmaceutical production, quality control and product management department. He is also a part-time freelance writer and http://medicine-reference.blogspot.com/ is his personal blog. His sole aim of writing is to highlight over different drugs, medicines, healthcare and pharmaceutical issues.