In deciding on the right amount of vitamin supplementation, the following questions need to be answered: Which vitamins? And what are vitamins anyway? Vitamins are essential micronutrients. “Essential” means that we cannot produce them ourselves. Only a handful of vitamins and minerals are classified as essential. The system of classification and the recommended quantities still represent the state of research in the late 20th century, i.e. quite some time ago.
Nowadays, highly accurate measurement techniques allow a much more nuanced profile to be drawn. And there are more and more “supersubs” from the bench that turn out to be star players. For example, the Omega 3 fatty acids, or lipoic acid... These are important “vitamins” which do not technically qualify as such. They even partially influence genetic features and repair processes within human cells; a suboptimal intake of these nutrients can increase the extent of DNA damage – a marker and a reference point for degeneration, cellular aging and cancer.
So the message is clear: it is not only what we normally refer to as vitamins that are important, but also a variety of other micronutrients.
