Studies also indicate that if women suffering from AIDS are given multivitamins along with the drug therapy their chances of survival increases to much longer years.
The women taking multivitamins also had fewer symptoms of later stage HIV infection, such as mouth infections, mouth ulcers, or diarrheal diseases, than did women in the other group. Similarly, the women in the multivitamin group also had significantly higher CD4+ cell counts than did women in the other groups: overall, the average CD4+ cell count was 48 cells higher in women who received multivitamins compared to those who received placebo. The HIV virus level in the blood was also modestly but significantly lower in women who received multivitamins.
These results suggest that use of multivitamins by HIV-infected women during and after pregnancy can slow the course of HIV disease, and could provide a low-cost treatment to prolong the time before they need antiretroviral therapy,”
Deficiency of vitamins and minerals in the body may result due to many reasons. Some of the causes of deficiency are given below:
- Food may not contain the adequate amount of the vitamins either for ignorance, poverty or because of destruction by too much cooking
- Vitamins are taken but not sufficiently absorbed as in nausea, vomiting, various gastrointestinal disorders, obstructive jaundice, congestive heart failure and hepatic and renal disorders.
- Increased destruction or deficient synthesis of the vitamin B complex in the intestine as when taking sulphonamides and antibiotics for long
- Increased requirements as in many infections and in pregnancy and lactation: metabolic disorders as diabetes mellitus, hyperthyroidism and taking an excess of carbohydrate.
What we eat has a profound effect on our outward appearance as well as on our physical well-being. An ideal diet should provide adequate quantities of all the nutrients essential to health and beauty.
Multivitamin supplements help us to keep our body healthy young. Multivitamins also helps us to fight against diseases. The people know multivitamins for years they’re just now beginning to gain the level of public awareness they deserve.
Why do we need multivitamin?
Multivitamins fulfill the deficiency of the poor nutritional value of many foods we eat. In order for the human body to function effectively and efficiently, it needs a daily supply of several important nutrients. The daily stress of life, fatty foods, pollution, and germs decrease these essential nutrients of from the body. It depends on us how do we replace them. We can do this by eating healthy, nutritious meals and taking quality nutritional supplements. Most people find it difficult to get the right amount of nutrients needed from their food alone. Even the people who eat healthy food fail to get the recommended daily amount of vitamins and minerals. The reason for this lack of proper nutrition? Because it’s difficult to judge exactly how many nutrients you’re getting from the food you eat. This problem is compounded by the fact that many forms of cooking actually destroy the vitamins and minerals that are in our food. This is why taking a multivitamin supplement is so important to maintaining good health.
The single best thing that we can do for our body is to eat a well balanced diet and supplement it every day with a quality multivitamin.
Multivitamins are without a doubt the single most important nutritional supplement that we can take. Nutrient supplementation for some vegetarians is a necessary step for maintaining health, but choosing the right products can be a challenge. Vegetarian diets provide enormous health benefits by reducing the risk of disease and improving well being. Despite the overall benefits, however, the chances of deficiencies of the nutrients are greater in vegetarians than omnivores.
Mineral supplements play a crucial role in our metabolic processes. They are essential in helping the body produce energy, growth, and the reproduction and health of our cells. A deficiency in even one mineral can lead to serious health problems because they often work synergistically with other minerals and also vitamins.
A good multivitamin is the foundation of health and nutrition. Following are the reasons one should be supplementing with a broad range of vitamins and minerals:
- It is difficult if not impossible to consistently eat “three square meals a day.” In addition, the quality of food in most people’s diets is declining due to modern agricultural practices and increased consumption of highly processed and refined foods.
- Myriad research reports clearly show that many supplements improve health and performance by supplying certain nutrients in amounts that are not obtainable from your diet alone.
- Intense exercise creates a need for increased levels of nutrients, particularly antioxidants.
The Recommended Dietary Allowances of vitamins – which you may be acquiring through your diet – makes no allowances for the nutrient demands imposed by strenuous exercise. Furthermore, many RDA levels are based on outdated science. Some researchers now believe that even sedentary individuals may be nutritionally deficient if ingesting only the RDA.