The fact that excessive zeal in absorbing any vitamins harms the body - they know, everyone. But recently, scientists have found that consumption in high concentrations of vitamins C and E can even reduce life expectancy - by a quarter!.

FOR REFERENCE The human body does not produce and does not store the vitamin Self-reliant, but it is vital for our cells to function properly and can treat themselves. The recommended daily intake for an adult is 40 mg / day.

Vitamin E helps to maintain the structure of cells, improves their nutrition, helps the body to combat the attacks of bacteria and viruses, protects against ultraviolet radiation, prevents the formation of blood clots in the vessels and performs a lot of other important functions. The daily intake of vitamin E - for men - 4 milligrams per day, for women - 3 milligrams.

What can happen if the recommended dosages are regularly exceeded? Researchers from the University of Glasgow conducted an experiment: for 2 months, in addition to food, they gave the mice-voles vitamins C and E in a large concentration. Later, the life expectancy of this group of rodents was compared with the control. It turned out that the life of mice, which were assiduously fattened with vitamins, was 25% shorter.

Professor Colin Selman, commenting on the study, explained that in high concentrations vitamins C and E become toxic.

There are cases when in some vitamin complexes excess daily allowable doses of some components were detected 100 times, so it is much safer, according to scientists, to fill the lack of vitamins not with tablets but with food.

OPINION OF THE SPECIALIST Elena Solomatina, a nutritionist:.

An overdose of vitamins from food can really not be. Those vitamins that we get with food, they do not go as a "pure formula", but are supplemented by a number of other components. From eating, the body will never take excess vitamins, it will always take exactly as much as it needs.

But synthetic (artificial) vitamins can be dangerous if you use them thoughtlessly. In general, I always recommend, if necessary, to use exclusively vitamin-mineral complexes made of natural ingredients (Biologically active additives of proven producers) - extracts of plants, extracts from fruits, vegetables, algae and so on.

But even some "natural vitamins", for example the same cod liver oil in capsules, should be taken only after consulting a doctor, because, for example, vitamins D and E, A - fat-soluble, their "surpluses" are not so easily excreted from the body as water-soluble.

Vitamins C and E are antioxidants, and first of all we take them in order to avoid excessive damage to the body by free radicals, for the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, in general - to slow the aging process and its attendant processes. But if the doses (synthetic vitamins) are higher than the necessary norms - we simply get the opposite effect - it's true.

nedug. en.