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People who are malnourished are not able to fight infection as well as people who are well nourished. This is not a surprising fact, we are all taught that we need food to live. However some people eat food, just the wrong type that offer not nutritional benefit to their health. The ability of the body to fight infection is called immunity or immune function. Some believe that supplementing food intake with vitamin and minerals will improve immune function. Although many people take vitamin and mineral supplements, it is uncertain whether these supplements have health benefits.
Studies have been done and the results are in. People with type 2 Diabetes are at higher risk of infection and so this focus group gave have of the people in the study a vitamin and mineral supplement ( two capsules a day) The other half did not take any vitamins and minerals during this study. The effects on taking a multi-vitamin will take at least a cycle of thirty days before the body shows its full benefit.
The results came back that those that did take the study reported only 2% infections over the year. However the other half reported over 70% of infections during the study. This is a very important finding do to the serious complications that diabetic face on a daily basis. Interesting to note that many diabetic have very little idea that they are in a high risk group to infection.
Having an illness is not the easiest thing to live with. However if we can control, or eliminate some of the effects of having the illness….is it not worth taking a vitamin and mineral supplement? I think that if a survey was done, and people where asked if they take a multi-vitamin to prevent future illness would it be worth it? It would be a resounding YES.
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