Five Important Reasons Nutrition/Vitamin Intake is Important to Your Health

Have you struggled with the after math of substance use?

Do you wake up some weeks and feel bad?

By: Dr. Teranda Knight, MS, DBH, LSSGB, IBHL, C-TMP

From fetal growth to death, nutrition and vitamin intake is essential to the proper health of society (Campisi et al., 2022). Research has indicated that whether you have physical or behavioral health concerns your overall health is driven by your nutrition (Martín-Rodríguez et al., 2024). The objective of this article is to educate on factors important to our overall health regardless of the awareness of what we assume to be good health. Every time we become afflicted with a medical, mental or substance related issue we alter the foods we eat and how often we eat.

Many of us do not like certain foods that are good for us and are not obtaining adequate nutrients without being sick with an ailment. With that said, we are less likely to be able to fight off viruses, bacteria, cancer, and other illnesses because we do not have the nutrients to build the necessary defenses we need. Taking medications on top of this can make your immune system become confused and begin to fight your body’s normal responses.

The five important reasons nutrition and vitamin intake is important to our overall health must be taken seriously. Many feel that taking this approach is refusing to obtain medical care or treatment. However, it isn’t. These reasons are more for preventative care for the medical and behavioral health concerns that can arise if you do not take better care of your bodies. We should all still go to yearly physicals and obtain the necessary blood work to make sure nothing is being missed. Feeling fine or okay does not negate that something could be going on with you.

Personally, I have learned it isn’t about weight more so having a balanced nutritional diet or vitamin intake to meet the deficient needs of the body. There are still many people dying and having health concerns that are within the national body mass index (BMI) that we have to focus on the common solution, nutrition and vitamin uptake.

1. Medications can help one thing and cause one or more other issues you did not have because your nutrition and vitamin deficiencies have not been properly addressed.

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3. Our brain works best when it has the proper hormones and nutrients to make sure the nervous system can transfer communication throughout the body to ensure everything does its duty.

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5. Deficiencies are the breaking ground to depression, cancer, hypertension, diabetes and more. When we do not get enough of important nutrients and vitamins our bodies do not know how to no longer function to manage the expulsion of waste, so it stays in our bodies and breaks down our immune system.

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7. Any foreign object we ingest including foods with hormones, pesticides, drugs, alcohol, and even prescribed or over the counter medications treat one area and deplete our nutritional or vitamin factors in another area leading to more health concerns.

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Finally, missed meals are the worst, but not just for the reasons they state they are bad for. Missing meals means missed nutrients and vitamin uptake. Therefore, without the vitamins to replace what you missed you are breaking down your immune system and opening the door to physical and mental health failures.

In conclusion, nutrition and vitamin intake and uptake is important. Did you know you could take Vitamin D to treat a deficiency and without Vitamin C your body is never absorbing the benefits of your efforts. The references provided with this article provide evidence of findings that medications, nutrition, and vitamin deficiencies in general can lead to physical and behavioral health concerns for our population. Remember what works for others may not work best for you. There are some of us out there that normal research does not always have solutions to our presenting problems. Therefore, we must take heed to preventive measures to our health.

Please reach out to have conversations on how to leverage these areas in our primary care or behavioral health care organizations with integrated processes.

Remember, if you feel as though you need to speak to a licensed professional regarding a mental health or substance crisis you can visit: https://988lifeline.org/. They have phone and chat services in various languages.

Your health is my objective! Stress is the start of many health concerns. Manage yours and get the quality medical and behavioral health care you can whether in college or in the workforce. I am here to leverage your experience to drive primary care and health care professionals to improve their approaches.

 Nutrition and Health Video

References:

1. Campisi, S. C., Khan, A., Zasowski, C., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2022). Malnutrition. Textbook of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition: A Comprehensive Guide to Practice, 609-623.

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3. Gandhi, F., Jhaveri, S., Avanthika, C., Singh, A., Jain, N., Gulraiz, A., ... & Nasir, F. (2021). Impact of vitamin D supplementation on multiple sclerosis. Cureus, 13(10).

4. Kandeger, A., Tekdemir, R., Sen, B., & Selvi, Y. (2020). Can nasal decongestants trigger a manic episode?. Dusunen Adam, 33(1), 96-98.

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6. Konuma, H. (2021). Agriculture, food security and nutrition for most vulnerable people and our new generation. In The basics of human civilization (pp. 27-36). CRC Press.

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8. Martín-Rodríguez, A., Gostian-Ropotin, L. A., Beltrán-Velasco, A. I., Belando-Pedreño, N., Simón, J. A., López-Mora, C., ... & Clemente-Suárez, V. J. (2024). Sporting Mind: The Interplay of Physical Activity and Psychological Health. Sports, 12(1), 37.

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10. Visiedo, L., Pérez, R., Rivas-Ruiz, F., Jesús Payan, J., Rey, L., Tortajada, B., & Abilés, J. (2023). Hypovitaminosis D and its relationship with nutritional status and quality of life in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Nutrición Hospitalaria, 40(1).