Vitamins - Why do we take them?

A long term study on women's health about the ability of vitamins to ward off death, cancer, or heart attacks suggests that vitamins have no bearing on the risk of these things occurring. See these recent articles:
> Vitamins: little effect on rates of disease?
> Vitamins show little benefit

However, these results are not surprising. The chronic conditions studied are influenced greatly by lifestyle habits. Exercise, diet, stress, mental and emotional states all contribute to health. Vitamins alone will not change your incidence of acquiring lifestyle diseases or warding off death. Unfortunately the public has drawn the wrong conclusion that vitamins have no benefit whatsoever. It is important to note that these studies were not designed to evaluate the benefit of vitamins; the vitamin use data was collected incidentally within a larger study. Other studies that were specifically designed to study vitamin usage have shown results for health benefit however:
> A daily multivitamin is a great nutrition insurance policy

Why would we want to take vitamins? Vitamins ensure that our body's chemical pathways have essential nutrients in plentiful supply. If we don't have the components necessary to respond chemically to our environment in the most efficient way, we will use other methods that require more energy and with less effectiveness -- causing stress on our system. Stress is a major affliction in today's world, and at the root of many chronic painful conditions. Taking food-based bioavailable vitamins is one way to reduce the amount of stress your body has to deal with on a daily basis. Not all vitamins are created equally. How vitamins are made, and the source of the components make a difference on how your body is able to utilize them.

Why not just eat better? Eating a varied and healthy diet with minimal additives and lots of water is essential for optimum health. However, a healthy approach to eating is not enough anymore. Why? The soils in the US have been depleted of nutrients over the last couple of decades which means the vegetables we grow from them are not as nutrient rich as they used to be. One of the reasons I believe we eat more than "we should" is that our bodies are looking for the nutrients that mass-produced food lacks.
> About Soil Mineral Depletion
> Nutritional Quality of Harvested Food

I suggest everyone supplement thier healthy diet with a multivitamin. When you are under stress or in pain, vitamins are even more essential. Vitamins may not keep you from dying, but they may reduce just enough stress to make your life more pleasant. More Nutrition Links
With Love, Dr. Lisa Hastings