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How do vitamins affect immunity?
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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[ Vitamins and immunity – the right friendship
Immunity is a person's ability to resist colds and other diseases. If it is strong, we get sick much less often than with a weakened immune system. For example, immune cells fight cancer cells, destroying them. And then the risk of cancer for a person decreases.
But what do vitamins have to do with it? They are the ones that help immune cells, as well as antibodies and other substances (they are called signaling substances, they are responsible for the body's response to the pathogen) to develop correctly.
If we have a vitamin deficiency, we can get sick much more often than if we take care of our health.
How to establish normal functioning of the immune system?
You need to consult a nutritionist or even a therapist and calculate your daily requirement for vitamins, as well as the complex of vitamins and minerals necessary for your body.
This daily requirement for vitamins may not be very large for you. But without it, you can get tired faster at work, be in a bad mood, seemingly without reason. Skin and hair without the necessary vitamins are also not very healthy. To satisfy the body's need for vitamins, it is important to know that they can be taken in a complex (bought at a pharmacy) or from natural products.
What happens when there is a lack of vitamins in the body?
If the body is deficient in certain vitamins, it serves us much less and worse. Serious diseases develop when certain vitamins are lacking. So be on the lookout!
A lack of vitamin A in the body leads to problems with the production of antibodies that fight colds
Deficiency of B vitamins – B5, B9, B12 leads to weakening of the immune system, inhibition of its reactions to enemy agents and inability to resist them. Heavy food with a deficiency of B vitamins, in particular vitamin B6, also begins to be poorly digested and absorbed, which leads to a large number of toxins in the body, weakness, lethargy and fat deposits.
Vitamins of group B in combination with vitamins A, D, E help to effectively fight viruses. Their intake is an excellent prevention of viral diseases.
Vitamin C (or ascorbic acid, as we also call it) is very good in fighting infections, it gives us additional energy and vigor.
Vitamin E deficiency in the body leads to deterioration of the nervous and visual systems. Vitamin E is an excellent means for improving vision, it makes the immune system stronger, increasing resistance to colds, especially in older people.
Why take vitamins?
According to nutritionists, children whose parents give them vitamins on time and in sufficient quantities as recommended by their doctor get sick much less often and develop better. Their nervous and motor systems work much better than their peers who do not get enough vitamins. They are less likely to suffer from viral diseases and those that affect the cardiovascular system.
Mothers who actively take vitamins during pregnancy have a reduced risk of miscarriage and are more likely to give birth to healthy babies than those whose vitamin-poor diet.
In winter, during the cold season, we all tend to get sick and lie in bed due to the flu or a cold. So, if we periodically take a vitamin complex, these bedridden spells and missed work will bother us much less often. All because by taking vitamins we significantly increase the body's resistance to infections. Neither ARI nor the flu will be scary for us.
It is very important to consult a doctor about the dosages when taking vitamins. The dosage of vitamins should be chosen correctly, and the vitamins themselves should be balanced.
In addition, a properly selected composition of the vitamin complex will make it possible to reduce the risk of allergies and adverse reactions of the body to certain products and drugs.
This will provide you with exactly the result you were looking for – good health and good spirits.