Vitamins Are Necessary

• Vitamins help you grow and be healthy, as well as help prevent disease and improve your immune system. Some even contribute to improving your energy level, making better workouts possible and thus improving your overall physical health. At the least, many people take a multivitamin each day to be certain to get all the vitamins they need.
  
  

Eating More Won't Do It

• One in every three Americans is obese, yet most people aren't getting the vitamins their bodies need from just the food they eat. Because so much of our food is processed and there is a long delay between farm and table, a lot of what we eat lacks nutrients. By taking a daily multivitamin you can be certain you are getting the vitamins your body needs to function.
  
  

Different Kinds of Vitamins

• Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) are stored in the body and used as needed, while water-soluble vitamins (C and all the Bs) must be replaced daily because any amount not used that day is flushed out in your urine.
  
  

Older People Need Vitamins, Too

• Age, as well as diet, is a factor in the need for vitamins. At around the age of 45, many people stop producing certain hormones, amino acids and other substances vital for good health. For example, taking additional calcium helps prevent osteoporosis, and taking vitamin A helps slow the onset of retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive eye condition.
  
  

Too Much Is Not Good

• Taking more vitamins than you need can be worse than not taking enough, as too high a dose of some can make you ill. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of each vitamin is established by the Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine, and to date it's the best guide to how much of any you should take.
  
  

What Brand?

• The way you take your vitamins doesn't really matter. The most reasonably priced ones are typically from a generic brand, but the key is to read the labels of all multivitamin containers to compare them. The RDA is listed for each vitamin. You can also buy bottles of individual vitamins, but that requires taking many pills daily.