Are vitamins harmful to the intestinal flora?

What are vitamins anyway?

In this blog we will look at whether vitamins are harmful to your intestinal flora. But first, what are vitamins anyway? Vitamins are very important building blocks for your body. Vitamins are the building blocks of your body. They make muscle mass, maintain everything, make energy, heal the body and more. A vitamin is a micronutrient, which means that in humans it is a nutrient of which less than 1 gram per day is absorbed through food. Vitamins are mainly nutrients that every person needs. Some creatures and plants can produce vitamins themselves, but humans must get these vitamins from outside. You do this through nutrition (food and drink). If you don't get the right vitamins, you can get sick.

But poor nutrition can also have a negative effect on the vitamins. This could cause them to kill the vitamins or stop them from working. So you have to watch out for this. Vitamins also have an impact on the intestinal flora. With this blog I will explain whether or not the following vitamins are harmful to the intestinal flora. The disc of five is a good way to ensure that you are taking the right vitamins and the right amount. These vitamins are all water soluble.

The History of Vitamins

The history of vitamins is very extensive. In 1912 the first scientists started researching food. She discovered that food contained more than 3 nutrients. This has also been done before by christiaan eijckman. He is the man who has discovered the most. These new things were later called vitamins. Casimir Funk has suggested that taking vitamins can cure some diseases.

These are the vitamins/nutrients that may or may not be harmful to the intestinal flora:

• Thiamine
• Niacin
• Pantothenic ACID
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin A
• Iron

Intestinal flora

The intestinal flora is the totality of all micro-organisms. This therefore consists of a part of the large intestine and that is therefore also affected by vitamins. This concerns all bacteria in the intestine, but also in your stomach. But don't think of plants with the name flora, because they have nothing to do with this. The function of the intestinal flora is to break down substances that cannot be broken down by themselves. The intestinal flora also ensures synthesis and therefore blood clotting. A vitamin that is important here is vitamin K.

The vitamins/Iron

B1 vitamins are generally very good for you and you will not be deficient very quickly. This will happen quickly if you start intermittent fasting. If you are deficient in vitamin B1, there are plenty of bacteria that don't need it to survive. So they become a minority, causing the other bacteria to take over. 51% of the bacterial genomes in our gut rely on B1.

B3 vitamins are very important because these vitamins are the root of all energy and life in our cells. This means that you cannot live without it. The human body is very good at making these vitamins itself, but we still need some of these vitamins from food and other sources.

People are not easily deficient in B5 vitamins, because that doesn't just happen. But still, this vitamin is one of the most important role for metabolism. The Coenzyme A it produces allows the metabolism to grow again. But if you were to take a B5 supplement it probably wouldn't do much.

You should actually get as much of B12 vitamins as possible. Because you quickly get a shortage of those B12 vitamins. This is especially if you are eating plant-based or if you are fasting a lot. 37% of the microbes are produced by the B12 vitamins. Only 86% of the microbes in our gut code for vitamin B12 in our genome 1 site. This means that you really need vitamin B12.

Vitamin A is a vitamin that you could have too much of, because of the fat and also the toxic nature of vitamin A. Even though the intestinal flora regulates quite a bit, this can be very bad. The combination of various bacteria, fatty chan acid and vitamin A helps us rebuild our intestinal wall.

Iron is not necessarily a good thing. We have too much iron in the bound state and not in the unbound state when it is usable. So you should not take too much iron. Because that will just rust. That can cause it to kill the bacteria and bad bacteria to come. The bad bacteria grow through that rust so there really are a lot of them when that happens. But you have to take things like magnesium because that has the opposite effect. That can make the stress resistance much better.

Too much iron is never good. This can lead to toxicity and overdose. Under very special circumstances, this can lead to Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. This is in the case of too much divalent iron.

Is the intestinal flora damaged?

So this touches on the question of will vitamins damage the intestinal flora? I think it will depend on the particular vitamins and the types of vitamins. Things like iron will be harmful if you take too much of it, because then it will rust of course. This makes sense if you think about it because if you leave iron outside for too long, it will also rust.

The intestinal flora can be affected by many things. This is something you could write about for ages, but we are mainly talking about the vitamins here. Vitamins are crucial to allow yourself to lead a healthy life so yes. So eat a lot of fruit, because fruits and vegetables contain a lot of good bacteria. Avoid sugar, sugar contains the opposite of fruit and vegetables and therefore contains a lot of bad bacteria. Eat more fermented products, because these contain good bacteria and help with digestion. Avoid stress and eat plenty of herbs and spices. Smoking and swallowing toothpaste can also have a bad effect on your intestinal flora. This is because the fluorine, chlorine and cadmium are very harmful.

Having a diverse gut microbiome is very helpful because you get a lot of your nutrients from there. Gut microbiome is also called gut flora, so that's why. You can get a diverse intestinal flora by eating a lot of fiber and more.

Symptoms of Deficiency

How do you know when you are deficient in vitamins or a certain type of vitamin? This differs per vitamin. With the following vitamins you get these symptoms:

With a vitamin A deficiency, you mainly get dry skin, dry eyes, poor gums and poor resistance. You can notice a Vitamin B1 deficiency with memory loss, depression and probably concentration problems. You usually see flaky skin, weaker nails and fatigue with a B2 deficiency. You almost never get a B3 deficiency, but if there is, you will recognize it by fatigue, rashes and skin inflammations. In principle, a B5 deficiency does not occur. With a B6 deficiency you are mainly confused, suffer from depression, tired and probably have an inflammation of the tongue or skin. A B8 deficiency is really too rare. You can notice a B11 deficiency with anemia, fatigue and sometimes an abnormality at birth. A vitamin B12 deficiency can be seen in anemia, fatigue and a lack of appetite.

A vitamin C deficiency can be noticed in insomnia, fatigue, bleeding gums and rheumatic complaints. You can notice a lack of an Iron with dizziness, fatigue, headache and pale skin.

What helps?

If you are deficient in B1, it is best to take cereal products to solve this. Think of wholemeal bread, piece of meat, potatoes, milk, dairy products. If you have a vitamin B3 deficiency, it is best to take cereal products just like B1. If you are deficient in the B5 vitamin, it is best to take organ meat. These are things like liver, kidneys, chicken, duck, fish, tomatoes, but also grain products.

With a B12 deficiency, it is best to take cereal products and so on, just like the other b vitamins.

In the case of an iron deficiency, it is best to eat enough meat products. These contain the most iron. Things such as whole grain products, vegetables, legumes and fruit also contain a lot of iron.

Many people who are vegan, for example, will quickly become deficient in these vitamins. This is because they do not eat much meat, grain products or dairy products. So this means that maybe they should take some supplements.

People who drink a lot of alcohol will also quickly have a shortage of the B vitamins. As a result, the intestine and stomach will absorb the vitamins less quickly.

With the use of nitrous oxide, for example, you will also have a shortage very quickly. This is because nitrous oxide stops the vitamins from working.

Iron is also found in many grain products. Things like corn flakes will help with the deficiency. But it's in most of the products you eat. Just like the other B vitamins. Especially many meats. All fruits will also contain almost every vitamin. So eat your vegetables and vitamins well and a lot.

Taking the right supplements is another thing that you should discuss with your doctor. Because with the wrong supplements things can go wrong and of course we don't want that. As explained earlier, it can be harmful to have too much of a certain type of vitamin. You can get most supplements at a vitamin / supplement store. Then you can just buy the right vitamins if you need them. Be really careful about which vitamins you buy, because this can have consequences.

Vitamins can be found in many things these days. Think for example in coffee, energy drinks, certain types of food, cornflakes and so on. This can help a lot with getting your daily vitamins. Many people therefore no longer think about vitamins or their diet. It is very important to remember this as explained above.