Note from Carolyn:
I have seen this first hand when one of my friends started taking the Plant Enzymes and the Complete Vitamins Plus. Friends stop her in the halls to ask what has changed. She not only has more energy, but is visably healthier and able to think more clearly.
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There are a number of ways to deal with stress. One is to realize that stress places additional demands on the body in terms of energy and nutrition. Therefore, providing the body with additional nutrients such as B-vitamins and antioxidants during times of acute stress or long-term chronic stress can support the body's ability to handle stress.
Fatigue is synonymous with lethargy, tiredness, lassitude, being run down, or lack of energy. It has no standard definition shared by the lay public and the medical establishment; so many patients use it to denote related conditions such as simply a need for sleep. Fatigue may be related to an underlying medical condition, poor nutrition, stress, or it may exist independently.
A multivitamin is a preparation intended to supplement a human diet with vitamins, dietary minerals and other nutritional elements. A multivitamin/mineral supplement is defined in the United States as a supplement containing 3 or more vitamins and minerals but does not include herbs, hormones, or drugs, with each nutrient at a dose determined by the Food and Drug Administration and the maximum daily intake that will not cause a risk for adverse health effects. People with dietary imbalances may include those on restrictive diets and those who cannot or will not eat a nutritious diet.Pregnant women and elderly adults have different nutritional needs than other adults, and their physicians may indicate it would be beneficial for them to take a multivitamin.
The effects of multivitamins are usually only studied in elderly people. A recent study assessed the relationship between multivitamin supplementation and psychological functioning in healthy, non-elderly adults. Included in the study were 215 men aged 30 to 55 years who were employed full-time. The men received either a proprietary multivitamin or a placebo for 33 days. Both groups were tested at the beginning of the study and at the end with a battery of mood, stress and health questionnaires and with physical and mental tasks that included mental arithmetic. The results revealed that after 33 days the group who received the multivitamin reported significantly improved ratings of general mental health, reduced subjective stress and increased ratings of 'vigour', with a strong trend towards an overall improvement in mood. The supplementation group also performed better on the cognitive function tests. The placebo group did not report significant changes in any area that was tested. These results seem to suggest that multivitamin supplementation may improve ratings of stress, mental health and cognitive performance in adults who are otherwise healthy.
Sources:
Kennedy DO, Veasey R, Watson A, et al. Effects of high-dose B vitamin complex with vitamin C and minerals on subjective mood and performance in healthy males. Psychopharmacology. May 2010
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