Laboratory assessment of vitamin security of military service organism in the arctic zone of the Russian Federation

• Published in: Bulletin of the Russian Military Medical Academy Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 86 - 90
• Main Authors: Kirichenko, N N, Zakrevskiy, V V, Konovalova, I A, Smetanin, A V, Dar’ina, N I, Plkhkhotskaya, Zh V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 15.12.2018
• ISSN: 1682-7392; 2687-1424
• DOI: 10.17816/brmma12282

The content of vitamins A, E, D, C, B1, B2, B9 and B12 in plasma and serum of 156 servicemen serving in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the autumn and spring periods using high-performance liquid chromatography, immunochemoluminescence, fluorimetric and spectrophotometric techniques were established. The study included men aged 18 to 25 years old, somatically healthy, the service life of at least four months from the time of the call. The military personnel are comparable in terms of physical health indicators, have received the same nutrition for a long time under the conditions of the barracks, had equivalent conditions of service and physical activity for a long period of time. In the examined servicemen, the prevalence of hidden (subclinical) forms of vitamin A, E, D, C, B1, B2 B9 and B12 deficiencies were found in both the traditional spring-summer and the epidemically dangerous autumn-winter period. The idea of the seasonal “spring” nature of vitamin deficiency has been revised - at the autumn point of the study, its prevalence was no less than in the spring, although there was indeed a spring deterioration in vitamin C and B1. It was concluded that the need for constant vitamin support for military personnel in the Arctic zone, improving the diagnosis of subclinical vitamin deficiencies, mainly due to the introduction of modern methods of laboratory diagnostics. A scheme of vitamin support is proposed by alternating the intake of a multivitamin preparation and a product enriched in vitamin C for 1 month.