Home / Vitamins And Deficiencies
This section provides details about each of the vitamins listed to the left. It also explains the deficiency conditions.
Vitamins are broadly classified into two main types: water soluble and fat soluble.
The water soluble vitamins include C and the B group, which includes:
Water soluble vitamins are not stored efficiently in the body and need to be consumed in the daily diet to be available.
This lack of storage is a two-edged sword. It does mean that vitamin B group vitamins need to be constantly replaced but the upside of this is that overdose and toxicity are very rare.
The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K. The body does have a capacity to store, or manufacture in the case of vitamin K, these vitamins.
Again, this comes with benefits and costs. The benefit is that supplies can be a little more irregular than water soluble vitamins without causing a deficiency. The downside is that consuming too much of them can lead to overdosage and toxicity.
So, why the possibility of three types implied in the heading? Well, although people are inclined to think that science has unravelled the mysteries of nutrition and everything is known about vitamins, the truth is quite different.
Much is still to be learned about vitamins and research continues. Some substances have been identified that don't yet appear to have all of the characteristics of vitamins but are extremely like them. Perhaps it's time to simply add a third type. An example in this category is Coenzyme Q10 and details are provided about it in this section.
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