New Advances about the Effect of Vitamins on Human Health: Vitamins Supplements and Nutritional Aspects

Abstract

The early twentieth century was a crucial period for the identification and biological-chemical-physical characterisation of vitamins. From then until now, many studies have attempted to clarify into detail the biological role of the vitamins in humans and their direct connection with certain diseases, either in a negative way (appearance of deficiency diseases due to vitamin deficiency) or a positive way (use of vitamins to treat diseases and/or to improve human health). The aim of this work is to analyse, from an integrative point of view, the information about vitamins and their effects on human health, and to identify direct correlations between these compounds and health. The effects of vitamins supplements on diet are also explored. The analysis of the results shows that it is impossible to establish robust and universal conclusions about the benefit of vitamin supplementation on human health beyond the prevention and/or treatment of deficiency states.