vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that every cell needs. Vitamins can function like hormones or as antioxidants. Minerals are essential to important bodily functions such as producing energy, growing, and healing. Minerals are required for fluid balance, development, nervous system maintenance .Minerals and vitamins, function as coenzymes and participate in enzymatic reactions in the body.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can affect the brain many different ways. The brain begins to develop in utero, and malnutrition of the pregnant mother can affect the developing fetus. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are caused by poor diet, poor absorption, starvation, infection, and/or damage to the digestive tract. Babies born to mothers who had poor diets may have mental retardation among other problems. The brain develops rapidly for approximately 2 years after birth, and adequate nutrition is vital during this time. The effects of poor nutrition can cause a myriad of problems both immediate and later in life, however not all the problems are permanent; some may be remedied with a change in diet.
Poor nutrition can combine with environmental factors and cause problems that may be difficult to detect for scientists. Because the study of how specific nutrients affect behavior and brain development are relatively new, the affect that specific nutrients have on intelligence and mood are skeptical at best. Ethical restrictions stop scientists from restricting specific nutrients to study the effect on the brain ad behavior. Most information comes from studies done over periods of time when there was famine or starvation, and many nutrients were missing. Everyone’s body needs a different amount of each nutrient and may respond differently in the presence or absence of the nutrient.
Vitamins fall into two categories, water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble vitamins are not store by the body, while fat soluble vitamins are. Even though
Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients that every cell needs. Vitamins can function like hormones or as antioxidants. Minerals are essential to important bodily functions such as producing energy, growing, and healing. Minerals are required for fluid balance, development, nervous system maintenance .Minerals and vitamins, function as coenzymes and participate in enzymatic reactions in the body.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can affect the brain many different ways. The brain begins to develop in utero, and malnutrition of the pregnant mother can affect the developing fetus. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are caused by poor diet, poor absorption, starvation, infection, and/or damage to the digestive tract. Babies born to mothers who had poor diets may have mental retardation among other problems. The brain develops rapidly for approximately 2 years after birth, and adequate nutrition is vital during this time. The effects of poor nutrition can cause a myriad of problems both immediate and later in life, however not all the problems are permanent; some may be remedied with a change in diet.
Poor nutrition can combine with environmental factors and cause problems that may be difficult to detect for scientists. Because the study of how specific nutrients affect behavior and brain development are relatively new, the affect that specific nutrients have on intelligence and mood are skeptical at best. Ethical restrictions stop scientists from restricting specific nutrients to study the effect on the brain ad behavior. Most information comes from studies done over periods of time when there was famine or starvation, and many nutrients were missing. Everyone’s body needs a different amount of each nutrient and may respond differently in the presence or absence of the nutrient.
Vitamins fall into two categories, water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble vitamins are not store by the body, while fat soluble vitamins are. Even though