Donate blood to identify a deficiency of vitamins, if nothing bothers and if there is no doctor’s prescription, it is not worth it. The doctor treats not a sheet of test results, but a living person with his complaints.
Everyone assimilates vitamins in different ways, the concept of norm in this context is vague: for one person this vitamin content is deficient, for another – norm. There is no evidence that vitamin supplements can somehow help healthy people who have slightly reduced levels of vitamins in their blood.
Multivitamins are medicines. For prevention, to enhance immunity and without specific medical indications they can not be taken. Large doses of vitamins are also not useful. If the excess water-soluble vitamin comes out in the urine, then the fat-soluble ones will accumulate, and in high concentrations they will become toxic.
First, let’s define the terms. By vitamin deficiency is understood the complete absence of vitamins (or vitamin). But this condition is extremely rare, mainly in people in very poor countries. Skipping it is pretty hard. For example, with scurvy (lack of vitamin C) people lose their teeth, wounds heal poorly, gums bleed, anemia can develop. In Russia, it is customary to explain less threatening symptoms, such as drowsiness, fatigue, and bad mood, with vitamin deficiency.
At the same time, there are conditions and situations in which it is recommended to take some (!) Vitamins in addition. For example, the British National Health Service advises people living in the northern regions to drink vitamin D. Postmenopausal women usually prescribe a calcium supplement with vitamin D. Vitamins ( folic acid ), vegetarians, vegans, and people with alcohol addiction may need vitamins. and with some bowel diseases.
Vitamins, as well as nutrients, dietary fiber and minerals, must be obtained with food. Do not laugh, but nothing better than a balanced diet has not yet been invented. And do not believe all this talk that the products that are sold in supermarkets are “bad” and less useful.
On the contrary, thanks to the development of civilization, the diet of modern man has become more diverse, we eat less canned and dried foods, and on the shelves in stores all year round there are fresh vegetables and fruits. So real deficits are very rare.
And keep in mind: if you sleep little at night and rest a little, vitamins will not help cope with drowsiness and fatigue. Perhaps you do not need vitamins, but a full vacation.