What Happens to Your Body When You Start Taking Vitamins?

We all try to eat balanced diets. Including various foods from different sources isn't just a way to give your body the essential nutrients it needs; it's also a great way to entertain your taste buds with flavors and textures. However, we've all had those days when things aren't ideal, and we find it more of a challenge to fill our plate with a meal that’s nutritious. There’s many reasons why it can be difficult to get every essential nutrient in our meals every day; that's when supplementation can help.

Daily supplementation helps to bridge possible nutrient shortfalls that can arise from irregular meal patterns, dietary restrictions, or other reasons. But what happens once you start taking vitamins? What do minerals do for the body? There are many things to think about when you add vitamins and minerals to your daily wellness routine, and we'll help answer these questions in this blog.

The Initial Stages of Vitamin Supplementation

What happens to your body when you start taking vitamins? Why are vitamins important for your body? Do vitamins work? Vitamins are a way to help fill in possible nutrient gaps in your diet. Because each vitamin plays an essential role in your body, supplementing with different vitamins can support your body in differing ways. By beginning to supplement, your body now has a new source of essential nutrients to use for its daily functions.

Starting with a multivitamin is an excellent foundation for a whole-body wellness routine; you provide your body nutritional support with many vitamins and minerals all at once. Vitamins aren't a one-time thing; taking them daily is the best way to support your daily nutritional needs. Our body uses and needs these essential nutrients every day, so consistency is critical to give your body ongoing support.^†

How Vitamins & Supplements Support Different Body Systems

What happens to your body when you start taking vitamins, minerals, or other dietary supplements? What are essential nutrients and how do they work in our body? Let's break down some of the ways starting to take supplements can support your body's functions.^†

#1 Digestive Support

The digestive system is essential. We've all had a day derailed by a gut that isn't happy. The gut doesn't just involve digestion; the gut microbiome is a complex system of millions of bacteria fundamental to whole-body wellness.

So how does taking digestive support supplements, well, support your digestion? Nature Made^® has two major types of digestive support supplements. These are prebiotics and probiotics. Though they share most of their letters, they're different things.^†

Probiotic Supplements are live microorganisms, beneficial bacteria, that support the preexisting good bacteria in your gut to promote digestive balance. When you take probiotics, you give your gut a dose of good bacteria to help support your digestion.^†

Prebiotic Supplements provide fiber that feeds the good bacteria in your gut. Essentially, prebiotics are a food source for probiotics. Taking prebiotics helps to nourish the beneficial bacteria in your gut.^†

Because these two supplements serve interlinked functions, it's often best to supplement with both probiotics and prebiotics simultaneously.^†

#2 Immune System Support

Our immune system is the body's first line of defense, so it makes sense to want to give it some reinforcement! Several vitamins help support our immune system, including Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E.^†

Vitamin A helps support a healthy immune system and is a skin health nutrient. The skin is part of our immune system, as it's our most significant barrier to the outside world.^†

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that supports the immune system and helps neutralize free radicals in the body. It also plays an essential role in the functioning of white blood cells.^†

Vitamin D supports immune cell function and helps regulate a healthy immune response.^†

Vitamin E supports the body's natural immune defenses as the body ages.^†

Nature Made^®'s Immune Support Supplements Collection offers several daily vitamins and supplements to help support your body's immune defenses. Our Wellblends™ Immune MAX® Gummies provide Vitamin C and D and immune support minerals Zinc and Selenium.^†

#3 Cellular Energy and Metabolic Processes

Our body requires B Vitamins for our cellular energy and metabolic processes. You can support your body's B Vitamin needs with Nature Made^® B Vitamin Supplements. We need to eat food to power our body’s functions, right? How does that food turn into cellular energy in our body?^†

The process of turning food into energy our body can use is called cellular metabolism, which creates ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), an all-purpose fuel that our cells use to perform their functions.

Nature Made^® Energy B12 Gummies provide Vitamin B12, one of the B Vitamins essential for converting food into cellular energy, to support brain cell function and help reduce fatigue for those low in Vitamin B12. Approximately 6% of older adults have a Vitamin B12 deficiency, and over 20% have low levels of B12.[1]^†

#4 Brain Health Support

We use our brains every day. You're using your brain right now to comprehend the words on the page in front of you. Want to provide your brain with the support it needs? If your brain is thinking "yes," you should probably listen to it.

Nature Made^® offers Brain Health Supplements, including B Vitamins, Choline, and DHA to support your brain's daily functions. What do each of these supplements do? Let's see!

As mentioned in the last section, B Vitamins play an essential role in cellular energy production. Our brains are incredibly complex organs, and they require a lot of cellular energy to function, so supporting the conversion of food into cellular energy helps support brain cell function.^†

Nature Made^® Choline Gummies support brain cell structure with a source of Choline, which is necessary for memory regulation, mood, muscle control, and other functions. DHA is an Omega-3 Fatty Acid often found in our diet in fatty fish, and it helps support a healthy brain.^†

#5 Heart Health Support

They say the heart wants what the heart wants. And when it comes to ingredients that support heart health, that’s CoQ10, and Omega-3 Fatty Acids EPA and DHA. CoQ10 (or Coenzyme Q10) supports cellular energy production and is found in organs with the highest energy needs.^†

The heart's pumping every second of the day, so it has some pretty high energy needs, which is why you'll find lots of CoQ10 in your heart. Check out our CoQ10 Softgels to support heart function and cellular energy production. The Omega-3 Fatty Acids EPA and DHA found in fish oil help support a healthy heart.^†

#6 Eye Health Support

If you're looking for eye support, check out Vision Based on the AREDS 2 Formula Softgels. This eye health supplement supports healthy vision. It includes the macular carotenoids Lutein and Zeaxanthin, which help support the blue light filtering function of healthy eyes, and Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Copper, and Zinc to provide antioxidant support.^†

#7 Bone Health Support

Our bones hold us up; they literally form the backbone of our daily lives. Supporting bones is simple, Nature Made^® Bone Supplements include Vitamin D, Calcium, and more. Calcium helps support healthy bone development, and Nature Made^® Calcium with Vitamin D3 Softgels pack it in with Vitamin D, which helps improve Calcium absorption.^†

Magnesium also supports bone health, and you can increase your intake of this mineral with Nature Made^® Magnesium Extra Strength Softgels.^†

Choosing the Right Vitamins for Your Needs

What vitamins should I take? Remember your health goals when choosing vitamins; if you are looking to support your cellular energy production, for example, explore our Energy Supplements Collection.^†

A multivitamin can help you bridge multiple possible nutrient gaps at once, by combining several essential vitamins and minerals into a convenient package. Many Nature Made^® Multivitamins are specifically tuned to your needs based on age, gender, and life stage.^†

Can you take too many vitamins? Yes, that’s why it’s important to understand what you are adding to your daily routine and read the suggested use label.

The best way to pick your vitamins is by consulting with your healthcare provider. Your primary care provider is best suited to help you begin or change a daily wellness routine, so always consult with them for personalized advice in constructing a vitamin routine.

Nature Made^®'s Expertise

Nature Made^® has a team of registered dietitians, experts, and scientists who help formulate our products and provide wellness advice. Nature Made^® is the #1 Pharmacist Recommended Vitamin & Supplement Brand.* Additionally, the United States Pharmacopeia tests and verifies many of our supplements.

Your Health, Your Journey: Navigating Wellness with Confidence

Taking care of yourself should be your first priority. Nature Made^® recommends thinking about your health and needs and how you can support them. Learning about how vitamins work in your body is an excellent step toward health education.

The best time to take vitamins is at the is consistently, every day, usually with a large meal and a glass of water. Always check the suggested use on the label for specific instructions.

Life and health are a constant learning experience, and we are happy to help you reflect on your health goals and how nutrition and supplementation can help you form a solid basis for your daily wellness routine. Explore Nature Made^®'s variety of supplements to find which vitamins, minerals, and nutrients might work best for you.

♦Complete because studies have shown that SAM-e helps support a healthy mood and joint comfort.^†

‡ Products containing at least 400 mg per serving of plant sterols and Stanols, eaten twice a day with meals for a daily intake of at least 800 mg as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. One serving of NM CholestOff Complete supplies 900 mg of plant sterols and stanols for a daily intake of 1800 mg.

*Based on a survey of pharmacists who recommend branded vitamins and supplements.

† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

References

1. Allen LH. How common is vitamin B-12 deficiency? Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(2):693S-6S. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26947A.