Vitamins: Fast or Slow Results

Can vitamins quickly impact body functions? Or are changes manifested slowly over time?

BOTH.  By their nature, water soluble vitamins have quick actions on body functions. But, usually there are no outward signs of these quick actions unless a deficiency is present. Correcting levels with supplemental vitamins can elicit a rather quick response to normalize functions, either preventative or recovery. Fat soluble vitamins are slower acting and build up over time. With Minerals, only some offer quick responses, like zinc and iron. But, care must be exercised since excessive or toxic amounts of minerals will manifest over time into a detrimental response. Elimination of intake allows the body to recover, but if enough time has elapsed, structural damage might be present. 

Examples:

• Folic acid decreases the risk for NTDs (Neural Tube Defects) to prevent brain, nerve, and spine damage in developing fetuses during first months after conception.
• Higher amounts of Zinc are given out at clinics in Africa to children that dramatically decreases infectious disease development risk between monthly clinic visits.
• Zinc consumed a few weeks before surgery can shorten healing time of incision wounds.**
• Vitamin C participates in collagen formation to also help heal wounds as well as for many internal structures. 
• Vitamin B1 quickly reduced the risk of BeriBeri when added to dietary white rice and white flours.
• Vitamin B3, niacin, (and/or tryptophan) increased intake also from the fortified food program reduces the risk of Pellagra. (Tryptophan can be converted in the body into niacin so both have to be low for pellagra to develop) 
• Iron deficiencies result in lower blood counts and while fatigue may be the only outward sign, the blood count can quickly respond upward after consuming iron with other blood builders.
• Vitamin B6 can have a quick response on water management. It eliminates holding excess water and can go too far initiating tissue dehydration.
• Different types of Fatty acids initiate changes to cell membranes over time. Transfats are very damaging to membrane function, especially in nerve cells. ref
• Fat soluble vitamins, A,D,E,K, can have some fast functions such as blood coagulation by K, or E anti-oxidant actions on ROS, but protecting cell memebranes or changing cholesterol takes time. Generally, look for slower changes to body functions and processes. ref
• Vitamin E family has functions on many disease fronts, including breast cancer. article 
• Vitamin D is often taken for a quick response action, like fighting a cold, but that is really not how vitamin D operates. 
  • Consumed vitamin D builds up the storage form in the blood. The body converts some of the storage form into the 1000 times more active hormone form if blood calcium levels fall. The level of production for the hormone form of vitamin D is not influenced by the level of storage form until that level is extremely low. It is the hormone form of vitamin D and not the blood storage form that is responsible for most of vitamin D known actions (2,000). Consuming vitamin D today only slowly builds up the measured storage form blood levels over about 3 months. This is a long time for most vitamin life-spans. Vitamin B12 is the one water soluble vitamin exception as it lasts a long time. Much of the storage from of Vitamin D binds with a protein in the blood (VDBP) that allows it to last months for use over the winter. And, like B12, Vitamin D gets stored in fat cells for future use. Whether or not this fat storage later gets used is still controversial. What is known is that people with more fat need to consume or generate more vitamin D since some will end up going into fat storage and they will exhibit lower blood levels.
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  • Zinc has just been discovered to help stop throat cancer. ref