Vitamins And Supplements For A Healthier You
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A healthy immune system is vital these days. Learning how to boost the immune system is fairly easy and once you integrate essential vitamins and minerals into your daily routine it becomes second nature. Living in this current age of pestilence and disease, we want to do everything we can to avoid illness and so many are unaware of just how easy it is to be healthier if you boost your immune system!
Essential Vitamins
What are the essential vitamins we need and how can we get them? Info from Harvard Health Publishing:
- Vitamin A:(retinoids and carotene) recommended 10,000 IUs per day. May reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men, protect against cataracts and lung cancer, to name a few. Found in: Beef liver, eggs, fortified milk, cheese, and fish as a source of retinoids. Carotene is found in Sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, pumpkin, spinach, and turnip greens.
- Thiamin (B1) Converts food into energy and is vital for brain and nerve function. Promotes healthy skin and hair and most importantly, muscles to stay active. To quickly run down this long list from here on:
- Riboflavin (B2)
- Niacin (B3)
- Pantothenic Acid (B5)
- Pyridoxine (B6
- Cobalamin (B12)
- Biotin
- Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
- Choline
- Calciferol (Vitamin D)
- Alpha-Tocopherol (Vitamin E)
- Folic Acid
- Phylloquinone, Menadione (Vitamin K)
- Calcium- a mineral
- Chloride- a mineral
- Chromium- mineral
- Copper-mineral
- Iodine
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- MOLYBDENUM A deficiency is rare, but if there is a deficiency it would contribute to early death in an infant.
- Phosphorous
- Potassium
- Selenium
- Sodium
- sulfur
- Zinc
Fluoride is also on this list. I’m on the fence when considering fluoride and what I have discovered in my research. I do not drink water that is not filtered. I will save the fluoride debate for another day. To view the complete chart on the vitamins and minerals and their essential role in our health, please visit Harvard Health Publishing.
A Healthy Immune System
Essential vitamins and minerals play a large role in supporting and strengthening our immune system, and where do we get these essential vitamins and minerals? Mainly from our diet, yet if a diet consists of heavily processed foods or fast food products do you think you are receiving this valuable nutrition?
Food=Energy
Most of the essential vitamins listed above help to convert our food into energy, which in turn aids in healthy body weight. Does it make sense that a fast-food burger and french fries contain very little actual nutritional value and that is why a good portion of our population is overweight if not seriously obese? Even those frozen meals that claim to be healthy are in fact slowly killing us. This is a sad fact, my friends yet so easily rectified simply by cooking with whole foods and using quality supplements.
Chronic Fatigue
Do you often feel tired? Chronic fatigue is one symptom of a less than adequate diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals. Chronic Fatigue syndrome is very debilitating and should not be confused with the milder term used to define feeling tired most of the time. My own fatigue disappeared when I began following a different protocol, which you can read about in the above link, or read about it here
By eating well and using vitamins and supplements on a daily basis, we have the best defense available to ensure a healthy immune system, more energy, and less body fat to drag us down!
SUNLIGHT
Did you know that we need a certain amount of unfiltered sunlight each day to help boost our immune system? 20 minutes of sunshine is recommended. (With no sunscreen) I love relaxing at this time. A few days a week I have mornings off and step outside between 9 and 10 a.m. or in the late afternoon on other days. Avoid peak hours when the sun is strongest, especially if you burn easily.
Add vitamins and supplements, eat healthily, and get up to eight hours of quality sleep each night. Add some sunshine to your day, drink at least 6 glasses of good water to stay hydrated. I add a slice of orange or lemon to my water, or use my juicer and make ice cubes out of pure juice for delicious hydration! Until next time, make each and every day count for something!
