The 5 Best Vitamins for Increased Energy
What if you could take one pill every morning and no matter how little sleep you got, your mind and body was firing on all cylinders? What if instead of using multiple cups of coffee to “power” through your day, you could take a single vitamin and be full of energy?
Okay, so that is only possible in the movie the Limitless.
But in all seriousness, isn’t interesting how sometimes you can seem to have a near bottomless well of energy and other times it’s next to impossibleto get out of bed?
Energy is a complicated mixture of rest, nutrition, and physical and mental health. Figuring out the various activities that help you maximize your energy is an important lesson to learn. When it comes to nutrition, vitamins are an important piece of the overall pie.
In this article, well discuss which vitamins give you energy as well as what you can do to make sure you are getting enough of each vitamin in your regular diet.
These 5 Vitamins Can in Help in Different Ways to Boost Your Energy
- Vitamin B-12
When it comes to vitamins that boost energy there are two ways to go—find new-age supplements that may or may not be effective, or, go with tried and true solutions. B-12 is one of those classic vitamins, that is known to have a positive impact on energy and mood. Most importantly, B-12 deficiency is almost guaranteed to lead to lower energy levels.
Learn more about vitamin B-12 here.
- Ashwagandha
On the herbal side of the spectrum you have Ashwagandha. While still early, a number of research has been completed showing that Ashwagandha, while having minimal side affects, is linked to decreased levels of cortisol, and therefore decreased levels of stress. These lower stress levels lead to mental focus and energy.
- Citrulline
Citrulline found in watermelon and other fruits is known to increase nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide acts as a vasodilator, helping increase blood flow and circulation to a variety of muscles and therefore, combating fatigue.
- Beetroot Powder
The beetroot vegetable is high in nitrate, which similar to Citrulline above is known for helping muscle relaxation and in increasing blood flow. This decreases the amount of oxygen you need to exercise and just like its harder to get enough oxygen at high elevation, beetroot powder has the opposite effect.
- Melatonin
Melatonin has become more popular in recent years, known as an all-natural sleep aid. Since sleep is so critical to energy, melatonin can have incredibly positive effects on your overall energy levels assuming more sleep is something you need (don’t we all need a bit more sleep?).
Where can you go to get these different vitamins?
- There are a number of new online brands that are selling direct-to-consumer, personalized vitamins, which can include goals like increased energy. Our favorite is Ritual, which you can buy here or read a review of here.
- Some of the above vitamins (like Ashwagandha and Melatonin) can be purchased individually from your local pharmacy.
- Another option is to learn about what foods are rich in what vitamins. Things like Citrulline and B-12 are best ingested directly from your food.