It can often be difficult to select the right regimen of vitamins, minerals and dietary supplements to support your health. With continual updates in information and products, consumers are often left behind. Vitamin Health Rx is your source for the best, most up-to-date clinical information and dietary supports to enhance your lifestyle. Most individuals know to take a multivitamin, but are unsure of what nutrients they will need additionally. View the top essential nutrients we think everyone should take, listed below.

1. Multivitamin:

The multivitamin is the key starting ground to any well rounded regimen. It provides your most essential of nutrients, your vitamins. Vitamins are essential cofactors for several different bodily processes. As it becomes increasingly difficult to find foods high in vitamins and minerals due to poor soil nutrient quality, a multivitamin is quickly becoming an essential not just for optimal health, but for protecting ourselves as well. It is important to select a multivitamin that is both pure and potent. By pure, I mean a multivitamin that is manufactured with high quality ingredients, and has no harmful excipients present in the final product. It is also important to maintain the dosage of the vitamins is correct. All of the doses in Life Extension brand supplements are established based on clinical research and support your optimal health. These dosages will be much higher than those found in other "traditional" over the counter multivitamins. Life Extension manufactures 2 varieties of multivitamins, the mix, and the two-per-day. The mix is a higher strength multivitamin that also requires a higher amount of commitment (in terms of dosing for optimal health). The two-per-day includes all of your basic vitamins without the added antioxidants and fruit and vegetable extracts contained in the mix. All life extension vitamins contain a healthy amount of B vitamins to ensure adequate amounts are maintained throughout the day.

2. Vitamin D3:

Vitamin D3 is a very important vitamin to optimize because of the extensive role it plays on several bodily processes including bone health, immunity and mood. You might be saying "but I take Vitamin D in my multivitamin." I think it is important here to remember that the correct dosage of Vitamin D3 has to be taken daily to optimize your blood values of Vitamin D. In order to attain optimal heath, you want to achieve and maintain a Vitamin D blood value between 50 and 80 ng/dL. For most individuals, they would have to take 5000-7000 IU daily, depending on sun exposure and differences in individual biochemistry. There are two main forms of Vitamin D available as a dietary supplement, Vitamin D3 and Vitamin D2. Vitamin D3 is derived from an animal source (in this case sheeps wool) and it normally more well absorbed (contributes to blood values more) than Vitamin D2 does. Vitamin D2 is normally from a vegetarian source, and would only be suggested as a last resort (if you are in fact a strict vegetarian). **Ask your doctor about performing a Vitamin D 25-Hydroxy test today to optimize your health!

3. CoQ10:

CoQ10, or Coenzyme Q-10, is one of the final carriers involved in creating energy for our bodies. This powerful antioxidant is a great protector of the crucial organ of the cell, the mitochondria. The mitochondria are our "powerhouses" of the cell, and are where all of our energy is created. CoQ10 is used as a final carrier in this creation of energy, and also as a protector of the very fragile mitochondria. CoQ10 levels can be measured in the blood, although there is no toxicity associated with CoQ10, and greater blood levels of CoQ10 have been associated with greater health. Not only do those who take CoQ10 note differences in their energy levels, but it has also been found to be helpful with cognitive disorders as well. The mitochondria make up about 1/3 of the weight of your heart. Therefore, taking CoQ10 can have a very positive impact on supporting heart health. CoQ10 is essential for those who may be taking statin medications. Statin medications work by inhibiting an enzyme in your body (hmg coenzyme a) which produces cholesterol, and also produces CoQ10. By doing this, CoQ10 production is limited of stopped, resulting in damage to the mitochondria, and physical symptoms such as memory loss, nerve issues, and muscle spasms. CoQ10 can be very helpful when taken with statin medications. Ask your doctor about how CoQ10 can enhance your statin cholesterol regimen and help to optimize your health.

4. Omega- 3 Fish Oil: Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be immensely helpful for a variety of reasons. They are helpful for managing inflammation, can ease platelet aggregation, can help with elevated LDL cholesterol levels, among many others. It is essential to maintain a healthy balance of omega-3 fatty acids relative to omega-6 fatty acids within the body. Omega-3 fats can be considered "healthy" fats and help to quelm inflammation, whereas omega-6 fats can be described as "unhealthy" or "bad" fats which can contribute to inflammation. Taking omega-3's on a regular basis can greatly aid with inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids also have a very positive affect on platelet aggregation. They also have an affect on LDL cholesterol to influence particle size and help positively influence LDL and HDL levels. Those who have a healthy balance of fatty acids in their body have been shown to be at a reduced risk of several different heart diseases. Optimizing your fatty acids can be a great key to optimizing your overall health and we would suggest it for everyone.

5. Probiotics:

Probiotics seem to be overlooked by many individuals as an essential dietary supplement. A probiotic means simply, "good bacteria", or one which is helpful to your body's health. We have up to 100,000 microorganisms.. per mL of the digestive tract! This means that there are plenty of bacteria (hopefully all good!) down there. The bacteria in our digestive tract have a very important infuence on both our digestive health as well as our immune system function. These bacteria are very essential in aiding us to break down nutrients, however, they also influence our immune system. This is why is it important to maintain "healthy gut flora" or "good stomach bacteria" in order to optimize both digestion and immunity. This can even mean having a very positive influence on food tolerance and skin health. Theralac is an extremely powerful probiotic in that it contains 30 billion colony forming units (most probiotics have less than 10 billion). It also has a patented delivery system which ensures that all of the bacteria make it past the harsh environment of the stomach and are delivered safely to the small intestine. Theralac uses clinical studies to ensure that all of the bacteria in the supplement work in a synergistic way in order to positively affect digestive and immune health. Theralac has a positive affect on more than 80% of individuals.