Vitamin
From Conservapedia
A vitamin is a chemical substance required, in very small amounts, to maintain an organism's health. They act as a catalyst in the body's chemical reaction, commonly as part of metabolism. It cannot be produced by the organism, and so must be obtained from dietary or other sources. In order for a substance to be classified as a vitamin, its deficiency must produce a specific disease. For example, ascorbic acid is a vitamin (Vitamin C) in humans because its absence produces scurvy, a lack of Vitamin D will result in rickets, and thymine is a vitamin (Vitamin B1) because its absence produces beriberi. There are exactly fourteen known human vitamins.
Some substances are vitamins in certain organisms, but not in others (for example, ascorbic acid can be produced by all mammals except guinea pigs and humans, and so is a vitamin only in those two instances.
Other substances needed to sustain life are not vitamins because they are macronutrients (for example, the essential amino acids).[1]
List of Vitamins
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B1
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B3
- Vitamin B4
- Vitamin B5
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B9
- Vitamin B10
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
References
- ↑ Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine 16th Edition by Dennis L. Kasper, Eugene Braunwald, Anthony Fauci, and Stephen Hauser, 2004
