Winter is coming and many people automatically add multivitamins to their diet. They start taking supplements on a campaign, and give their children lots of vitamin-rich sweets. It’s important to know that vitamins are essential for our bodies, especially in the colder months when fresh fruit and vegetables are in short supply, but it doesn’t matter how we take them.
Powerful vitamins
We need vitamins to maintain our health, skin, hair, nails and eyesight, especially for older people, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, smokers, or people who do heavy physical work, and adolescents. Some vitamins are absorbed through nutrients, and this is especially true for fresh fruit and vegetables, so eating them raw is highly recommended. Water-soluble vitamins cannot be stored, so we need to take them more often, and fat-absorbed vitamins can only be used if there is enough fat in our food.
A to D
Experts recommend taking more vitamin C during the winter months, as it not only boosts the immune system but also has a mild antibiotic effect. Because our bodies cannot store vitamin C, we need higher doses, especially of the slow-degrading and absorbable varieties.
Another important booster for the winter months is the B vitamin family. Vitamin B6 results in weakness, lethargy and fatigue, while a lack of vitamin B1 leads to damage to the nervous system.
Snowfall, wind and fog irritate our skin and eyes, and many people experience that their nails become more vulnerable and their fingertips can dry out and crack, o it’s important to store enough vitamin A in the liver.
Because we get much less sunshine in the winter months than in spring or summer, we are less able to produce vitamin D naturally, so it is important to supplement properly. In the absence of vitamin D, calcium cannot be properly absorbed into the bones. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to disturbances in hormone function and blood pressure, and this vitamin also helps to protect the body against infections. Vitamin D supplementation is therefore highly recommended during flu and colds.
Protect yourself against flu
There are three groups of influenza viruses: types A, B and C. The first two groups are responsible for recurring annual influenza epidemics. They are spread by droplet infection, accompanied by headache, dry cough, chills, body-wide pain, gastrointestinal symptoms and high fever, but are often accompanied by bacterial superinfection, such as otitis media, sore throat, bronchitis and pneumonia.
The package offered by the laboratory service HR-Pharma in Szeged helps to detect possible viral infections with a simple blood test:
Serology package for Influenza viral infection
Determination of vitamin levels is also available in HR-Pharma’s vitamin profile package at a discounted price. The vitamin profile package includes the determination of vitamin B and D, thyroid hormone regulation and calcium levels.