Immunology How well are chemical vitamins absorbed by the body?

I don't know if anyone is able to eat vegetables and fruits in the amount that is needed to make up for the deficiency of vitamins and trace elements. And this deficit is constant for a number of reasons: unfavorable environmental conditions, regular stress, unbalanced nutrition. It is unlikely that the microelements missing for the body can be obtained only from the gifts of nature.

I agree that with a lack of vitamin D, you often have to take it with medication, since food and ultraviolet often do not provide the need for it

For the most part, our bodies appear to absorb synthetic forms as well as they do natural forms. The one exception seems to be vitamin E.

Btw about Vitamin E. The natural forms, called d-alpha-tocopherols, are absorbed and utilized twice as well as the synthetic forms, denoted by dl-alpha tocopherol. Source: Scientific American.

@morphism Is it not possible to synthesize natural forms artificially?

@argentum If we synthesize something, we already get a synthetic vitamin, we can only call natural one that is found in plant and animal products, or derived from them

@antony10 This is understandable, but the structure can be synthesized identical to natural

Thanks to all😊

@argentum Good comment, I agree

@argentum

A natural vitamin is a whole complex, where its molecule is combined with other beneficial substances: trace elements, enzymes, cofactors, and other vitamins. Thanks to this combination, it is better absorbed in the body. Synthetic vitamin is just one part of this combination. It is an artificially synthesized vitamin molecule and nothing else. Because of this, it is almost not absorbed.
When you take a synthetic vitamin to make up for a deficiency:
1) it is not replenished, as it passes through your body in transit and is almost not absorbed;

2) you develop a lack of other important elements that should come with it in combination.

@morphism Summarizing, they have the same structure, so the structure of the natural one includes exactly the same structure as in the artificial vitamin.

@antony10 yes, exactly

@antony10 I do not agree with you, why then do injections of vitamins? and prescribe the intake of cholecalciferol with a deficiency of endogenous vitamin D. with which it effectively copes

@argentum The fact of the matter is that we take vitamins (in tablets or injections) already in a complex where there are trace elements, enzymes and much more. A single synthetic vitamin will not give us anything, but the complex is another matter)