Your body relies on a steady supply of macronutrients and micronutrients to maintain your brain, muscle, bone, nerves, skin, blood circulation, and immune system. Macronutrients, which include protein, fats, and carbohydrates, must be consumed in large quantities. A deficiency in any one of several micronutrients—vitamins and minerals—could result in a wide range of health problems.

 

About Micronutrients

Vitamins and minerals are collectively referred to as "micronutrients" because they are needed in small amounts.

You can't produce vitamins and minerals in your body, so you need to get them from food. To put it another way, they're called "vital" or "essential." The term "essential micronutrients" refers to nearly 30 vitamins and minerals that your body cannot produce in sufficient quantities on its own.

Heat, acid, or air may break down vitamins, and organic compounds in plants and animals. Minerals, on the other hand, are inorganic substances that can only be found in the earth or water. When you eat, you're ingesting the vitamins and minerals that plants and animals have produced or absorbed through digestion.

To get enough vitamins and minerals, it's best to eat a wide variety of foods, each containing a different concentration of micronutrients.

A balanced diet that includes all of the recommended daily allowances of vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients is essential for good health. Vitamins and minerals are necessary for a variety of bodily functions, including the development of the immune system and the brain. Certain micronutrients may also play a role in the prevention and treatment of disease, depending on their specific function.

The prevalence of true vitamin and mineral deficiency is very rare in developed countries like the United States due to the extensive supply of inexpensive food and fortification of many common foods with these nutrients. Nutrient deficiency diseases afflict people in many low-income countries even today. Many serious diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis, can be exacerbated by consuming inadequate amounts of essential vitamins, minerals, and other compounds.

 

Types of Micronutrients

Micronutrients are categorized into vitamins and minerals. Vitamins are again divided into:

• Water soluble vitamins: Water-soluble vitamins are those that can be dissolved in water. When consumed in excess, they are flushed out of the body through the urine. B vitamins and vitamin C come under this category
• Fat-soluble vitamins: Fat-soluble vitamins are not soluble in water. When paired with a source of fat, they're more easily absorbed. Your liver and fatty tissues store fat-soluble vitamins for future use after you eat them. Vitamin A, D, E, and K fall under this category.

 

Minerals are divided into

• Macrominerals: Macronutrients are needed in larger amounts to perform some vital functions in the body when compared with trace minerals. Macrominerals include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, potassium, and sulfur. 

• Trace minerals: When compared with macro minerals, trace minerals are needed in small amounts, but still enable vital functions in the body. Trace minerals include iron, manganese, copper, zinc, iodine, fluoride, and selenium. 

 

Functions of Micronutrients:

Functions of water-soluble vitamins:

 

Functions of fat-soluble vitamins

 

Functions of macrominerals

 

Functions of trace minerals

 

What happens when you don’t get enough Micronutrients?

• Chronic shortages of vitamins and minerals are harmful to many aspects of health and metabolism because they are necessary for many physiological processes in the body.
• Multiple age-related chronic diseases, including cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease, have been linked to micronutrient deficiency.

 

Health benefits associated with Micronutrients

• All the micronutrients discussed above are critical to the body's proper functioning.
• Vitamins and minerals are essential for good health, and may even help fight disease if taken in the correct amounts.
• The reason for this is that micronutrients are involved in nearly every bodily process. Additionally, some vitamins and minerals have antioxidant properties.
• Several diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's, and heart disease, have been linked to cell damage that can be prevented by antioxidants . 
• Vitamin A and C, for example, have been linked to a lower risk of some types of cancer by research . 
• Alzheimer's disease can be prevented by getting enough certain vitamins. Alzheimer's disease risk is reduced by 24 percent, 17 percent, and 12 percent if adequate vitamin E, C, and A intake are maintained in the diet .
• Some minerals also play a role in the prevention and treatment of illness.
• Selenium deficiency has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease. A 50 percent increase in serum selenium concentration was found to reduce the risk of heart disease by 24% in a review of observational studies . 
• According to the review of some studies, it was found that heart disease deaths and all other deaths can be reduced if people consume enough calcium . 
• Micronutrients, particularly those with antioxidant properties, have been shown to have a positive impact on health.
• Consuming more micronutrients than recommended, whether in food or supplement form, may have health benefits that are as yet unknown . 

 

Some common micronutrient deficiencies

Some common micronutrients affecting the general population include:

• Iron: The prevalence of iron deficiency is high in preschoolers, menstruating women, and vegetarians . 
• Calcium: The risk of calcium deficiency increases with age. Approx 22% of women and 10% of men suffer from calcium deficiency above 50 years of age . 
• Vitamin A: Women and children in developing countries often suffer from vitamin A deficiency . 
• Vitamin D: Vitamin D deficiency is caused due to lack of exposure to the sun . 
• Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 deficiency is more common among vegetarians and the elderly. Absorption of vitamin B12 decreases with increasing age . 

 

Problem due to excess vitamin intake

• Deficiencies of micronutrients are more common than micronutrient toxicities.
• Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which can be stored in your liver and fatty tissues, are most likely to cause them. It is impossible to get rid of them like water-soluble vitamins.
• Supplementing with excessive amounts of micronutrient is the most common cause of micronutrient toxicity. Toxic signs and symptoms differ from nutrient to nutrient.
• You should be aware that even if you don't experience toxic symptoms from excessive intake of certain nutrients, you could still be at risk.

 

References:

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