There are different kinds of supplements. There is the vitamin diet supplement. Some are mineral and herbal supplements. Let's look at the vitamin diet supplement to see when these may be necessary.

What types of vitamins are suitable to me?

Let's first look at a couple of the fat soluble

vitamins. These are vitamin A, D, E and K. Since they are fat soluble, they are stored in the body until they are needed.

Vitamin A has a huge job to do for our bodies. It helps our immune system fight infection, it's important for bone growth and it is important to the health of our vision and skin. We absorb vitamin A when we consume milk, eggs and cereal fortified with vitamin A. It can also be found in liver, cheese and certain produce.

What cause vitamin A deficiency?

Vitamin A deficiency is rarely seen in the United States but in developing countries replete with malnourished children, there is widespread blindness and infection as a result of a lack of Vitamin A.

Vitamin A toxicity can happen when there is a buildup of vitamin A, which rarely occurs through dietary intake but more commonly through the use of supplements as excess vitamin A is stored in the liver. This can cause birth defects and central nervous system disorders. It can also cause liver damage and surprisingly, osteoporosis.

A vitamin dietary supplement may not always be the answer we are looking for. It's important to understand what role the different vitamins play in our overall health and to understand how much of each of the vitamins our bodies need.

If we truly need a vitamin dietary supplement, it becomes something of value to our health but it can also be detrimental to our health to take too much of a good thing.

Some medical conditions make it difficult for our bodies to absorb certain vitamins so a vitamin dietary supplement certainly has an important role to play when it is truly needed.

Vitamin K is involved in the carboxylation of certain glutamate residues in proteins to form gamma-carboxyglutamate residues (abbreviated Gla-residues).

Vitamin K is found in leafy green vegetables such as spinach and lettuce; Brassica vegetables such as kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts; wheat bran; organ meats; cereals; some fruits, such as avocado, kiwifruit and bananas; meats; cow milk and other dairy products; eggs; and other soy products.

What are the deficiency of vitamin K?

Vitamin K-deficiency may occur by disturbed intestinal uptake (such as would occur in a bile duct obstruction), by therapeutic or accidental intake of vitamin K-antagonists or, very rarely, by nutritional vitamin K-deficiency. The deficiency is uncommon in healthy adults for a number of reasons:

#1 vitamin K is widespread in foods,

#2 The vitamin K cycle conserves vitamin K, and

#3 Bacteria that normally inhabit the large intestine synthesize menaquinones (vitamin K2), though it is unclear whether a significant amount is absorbed and utilized.

Vitamin K is another important vitamin for our bodies as it aids in the clotting of the blood. Yet this is another vitamin that we can get enough of in our daily diet without resorting to taking a vitamin diet supplement.

Another thing to consider: Our bodies can stand 500 times the RDA of vitamin K as long as it comes from food yet that is not the case for synthetic vitamin K. We can reach toxic levels by taking too much of this vitamin diet supplement.

We can consult our doctors to be sure we are getting the dosage of vitamins we need and to see if we might need a vitamin dietary supplement.