Nutrients Webinar | Vitamin Deficiency and Benefits of Vitamin Supplementation for Human Health
Nutrients Webinar | Vitamin Deficiency and Benefits of Vitamin Supplementation for Human Health
Part of the Nutrients Webinar Series series
Vitamins, Deficiency, Recommendations, Health, Intake via Foods and Supplements, Optimal Status
Welcome from the Chair
Welcome to the Vitamin Deficiency and Benefits of Vitamin Supplementation for Human Health Webinar!
Vitamins are essential nutrients that the body needs to function properly. Intake via the diet is often inadequate compared to recommendations, and this is an issue in developing countries and also in industrialized countries for some vitamins. A person may not be aware or ‘feel’ of their poor vitamin status early-on, nor does it present any other symptoms; rather, it impacts human health later on in life (triage theory). Intake data are developed via questionnaires, presenting risks of under- or over-reporting. As such, it is more accurate to measure the status of vitamins in the body. Status data are more important because they reflect the actual situation in humans. Statistics on a suboptimal nutrient status provides individuals with information to act and address nutritional disruption.
Intake recommendations for vitamins are science-based and are often defined to avoid deficiencies; they differ for different age groups, sexes, and risk groups, for example for pregnant and lactating women, or the elderly. Intake recommendations are defined for healthy people, and in clinical conditions, there is insufficient research on vitamin depletion and deficiency, leading to inadequate treatment recommendations that do not consider the role that vitamins play in reducing the risks of diseases that require higher recommendations. An optimal nutritional status provides many health benefits. The webinar examples present cut-off points developed for deficiency, suboptimal status, and optimal vitamin status. Furthermore, biomarkers can importantly be used in this context to assess vitamin status. Finally, in the webinar examples, the benefits of optimal vitamin status for long-term health are presented.
Date: 3rd April 2025
Time: 02:00 pm CEST | 08:00 pm CST (Asia)
Webinar ID: 840 9110 1129
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Event Chair
Department of Internal Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands
Manfred Eggersdorfer studied chemistry at the Technical University Munich and earned his PhD in organic chemistry, focusing on the synthesis and characterization of unusual amino acids. After a post-doctoral position at Stanford University with Carl Djerassi, he worked on isolating sterols from marine sources for potential contraceptive use. In 1999, he joined Roche as Head of R&D Vitamins and later continued in this role at DSM, developing products and processes for vitamins, carotenoids, omega-3 LC-PUFAs, and other bioactives. In 2010, he took responsibility for Nutrition Science & Advocacy at DSM Nutritional Products, building a global network with universities and research organizations to promote optimal nutrition for health and healthy aging. After retiring in 2018, he continued contributing to the science of nutrition for well-being. Eggersdorfer held the chair for Healthy Ageing at the University Medical Center Groningen (2013–2023), where he taught nutrition to medical students. His research focuses on the impact of inadequate micronutrient intake across the life cycle, particularly regarding long-term health and aging. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and served on the Nutrition Council of Tufts University and the Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer Institute. He is currently on the Board of the Gesellschaft für Angewandte Vitaminforschung e.V. in Germany, an Honorary Member of The Oxygen Club of California, and affiliated with various organizations. Eggersdorfer has authored numerous publications on vitamins, carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids, nutraceuticals, and innovation in nutritional ingredients, and serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research and other journals.
Invited Speakers
Prof. Dr. Florian J. Schweigert is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of human and animal nutrition, academic administrator, and entrepreneur. His research focuses on nutritional biomarkers in the context of metabolic syndrome and micronutrient deficiencies, particularly in developing countries. The results of his work have been published in more than 250 scientific publications in international journals. He completed his veterinary studies at the University of Munich and was an academic fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston, US. After working as a Full Professor at the University of Leipzig, he held the Chair of Physiology and Pathophysiology of Nutrition and was Vice President for International Affairs and Fundraising at the University of Potsdam. At the European level, he has served as Chair of the European Digital UniverCity (EDUC) Alliance, is Vice President of the Turkish–German University Consortium, and is a member of a number of international academic boards. Innovative research ideas and concepts have led to the creation of several spin-off companies. As CEO, he leads BioAnalyt and QuImpact, which are dedicated to developing innovative testing systems for the food and feed industry, personalized diagnostics, and the strategic implementation of nutrition improvement programs.
Department of Internal Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands
Stephan Bakker (1963) studied medicine at Leiden University, where he graduated in 1988. In 1995, he was registered as an internist, with a sub-specialization in nephrology. From 1995 to 1999, he served as a staff member of Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam. In 1999, he was appointed as a staff member of Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the University Medical Center of Groningen. In 2002, he received his PhD degree, and in 2008 he was appointed as Associate Professor. In 2014, he was appointed as Full Professor of Internal Medicine. Bakker’s research focuses on finding potentially modifiable factors that influence renal outcome, the development of cardiovascular disease, and the quality of life in kidney transplant recipients and patients with diabetes. To do so, he builds cohort studies with underlying biobanks, wherein he investigates the association of nutritional intake and biomarkers for health status, nutritional intake, nutritional status, and environmental exposure with long-term outcomes in kidney transplant recipients, patients with diabetes, and the general population. He has supervised 70 successfully defended PhD theses, is a co-author of more than 1000 Pubmed-indexed papers, and has a Web-of-Science h-index of more than 90.
Research key words: chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, biomarkers, nutrition, environmental exposure, metabolism, inflammation.
Program
| Speaker/Presentation | Time in CEST | Time in CST (Asia) |
|
Prof. Dr. Manfred Eggersdorfer (Chair) Chair Introduction |
14:00 - 14:05 | 20:00 - 20:05 |
|
Prof. Dr. Manfred Eggersdorfer (Chair) Vitamin deficiency and impact of optimal status for health |
14:05 - 14:25 | 20:05 - 20:25 |
|
Prof. Dr. Florian Schweigert (Speaker 1) Vitamin A deficiency - a global view |
14:25 - 14:45 | 20:25 - 20:45 |
|
Prof. Dr. Stephan Bakker (Speaker 2) Vitamin deficiency in patients |
14:45 - 15:05 | 20:45 - 21:05 |
|
Q&A |
15:05 - 15:15 | 21:05 - 21:15 |
|
Prof. Dr. Manfred Eggersdorfer (Chair) Closing of Webinar |
15:15 - 15:25 | 21:15 - 21:25 |
Registration
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Certificates of attendance will be delivered to those who attend the live webinar.
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Relevant Special Issue
Assessment of Vitamin Deficiency and Benefits of Vitamin Supplementation for Human Health
Edited by Prof. Dr. Manfred Eggersdorfer
Deadline for submission: 25 April 2025
Sponsors and Partners
Organizers
Webinar Content
The webinar was hosted via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found below. In order to learn about future webinars, you can sign up to our newsletter by clicking “Subscribe” at the top of the page.
This webinar emphasized the importance of vitamin intake for proper bodily function, comparing vitamin status between industrialized and developing countries. It also highlighted the significance of clinical situations, especially for patients who have undergone surgical procedures, in influencing vitamin levels.
