If you are dealing with fatigue, concentration issues, depression, anxiety, memory problems, weakness, skin issues, or other chronic symptoms, it may be time to check for B vitamin deficiencies.
What Are B Vitamins
B vitamins are a group of vitamins that are essential for our body’s cells proper and healthy functioning. They allow your body to convert food into energy and support your metabolism. They also help to create new blood cells, support brain cells, support cellular health, and maintain healthy skin among other functions.
What else Vitamins B do?
Energy and metabolism
The thyroid gland controls how quickly the body uses energy and makes proteins. Vitamin B2, helps to regulate thyroid functions, which is key for energy metabolism.
Protect the heart
Homocysteine is an aminoacid that, if not checked, can be a risk factor for heart and blood vessel disease. Folate ( vit B, B6, B12) help the body to metabolize the homocysteine.
D-stress
Stress start in your head literally and figuratively. Vitamin B5 has been called anti stress vitamin because it detoxifies the brain tissue to help relieve physical and emotional stress.
Immune system supporter.
White blood cells are your body’s defense team, so it’s important to keep them printed. Vitamin B6 assist in maintaining white blood cells so they can do they job.
Eye
Cataracts occur when the cells of the natural lens inside your eye begin to break down. Preliminary evidence suggests that Vit.B1 as a part of a B-vitamin complex, may lower risk of developing cataracts.
Beauty starts within
Great looks start from the inside. Vitamin B7 also know as Biotin is recommended for strengthened hair and nails.
Support liver detoxification
Role of Each B Vitamin:
Each B vitamin has its own role in your body and health. Let’s look at them one by one:
Vitamin B1 is also known as thiamine. It supports your adrenal function and helps to maintain a healthy nervous system. It plays a critical role in the metabolism of carbohydrates into energy and nerve transmission.
Vitamin B2 is also called riboflavin. Riboflavin is critical for your metabolic functions. It is essential for recycling glutathione, a powerful antioxidant in your body. The best form of riboflavin is riboflavin 5’-phosphate sodium (R5P) because it is activated to perform at the highest utilization rate in your body.
Symptoms of vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency include sore throat, redness and swelling of the lining of the mouth and throat, cracks or sores on the outsides of the lips and at the corners of the mouth, inflammation and redness of the tongue, and a moist, scaly skin inflammation.
Best food sources of riboflavin include: grass-fed raw cheese, almonds, grass-fed beef and lamb, salmon and other wild-caught oily fish, dark green vegetable, and pasture-raised eggs.
Vitamin B3 is also known as niacin. It is essential for energy production in your body. There are two forms of niacin: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). Both are necessary for the conversion of dietary fats, proteins, and carbohydrates for energy. Niacin is also necessary for synthesizing starches to be stored in your liver and muscles for energy.
When you are severely deficient in niacin, you develop a condition called Pellagra, which is characterized by inflamed skin, diarrhea, dementia and sores in the mouth. The areas of the skin that are exposed to friction or sun exposure are typically impacted first.
Best food sources of niacin include: tuna, wild-caught salmon, pasture-raised chicken and turkey, liver, and grass-fed beef.
Vitamin B5: Pantothenic Acid
Vitamin B5 is also known as pantothenic acid. It supports your body through the incorporation into a molecule coenzyme A (CoA) which is essential for energy metabolism and helping fats , protein, and carbohydrates being used as fuel sources.
Research has shown that vitamin B5 is critical for skin health, including reducing skin spots, redness, and other signs of aging. It is also essential for the production of sex- and stress-related hormones.
Vitamin B5 deficiency is rare, but may include symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, depression, irritability, vomiting, stomach pains, burning feet, and upper respiratory infections. While a deficiency is rare, many people have sub-clinical symptoms which lead to lower stress resilience and daytime fatigue and mental lethargy.
Best food sources of vitamin B5 include: eggs, avocados, mushrooms, oily wild-caught fish, such as trout and salmon, cabbage and grass-fed raw cheese.
Vitamin B6: Pyridoxine. Vitamin B6 helps to balance sodium and potassium levels. It also allows for healthy red blood cell production. It helps to balance hormonal changes in women and plays a critical role in your immune system function. It is also required for your nervous system and mental health. Deficiencies may lead to anemia, nerve pain, skin problems, sores in the mouth, tongue soreness, fatigue, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular issues and brain degeneration.
Best food sources of vitamin B6 include: tuna, wild-caught salmon, pasture-raised chicken, beef liver, and chickpeas
Vitamin B7: Biotin
Vitamin B7 is also known as biotin or vitamin H for its role in hair health. Vitamin B7 cannot be synthesized by human cells, but it is produced by bacteria in the body, and it is present in numerous foods.
Biotin is critical for adrenal function, a healthy nervous system, and proper metabolic processes. It is important for healthy hair, skin, and nails, and is often called the ‘beauty vitamin’ because of that. It helps to control high blood sugar and helps the growing baby during pregnancy.
Signs of overt biotin deficiency include hair loss and a characteristic scaly red rash in the face (around the eyes, nose, mouth), and in the genital area. Neurologic symptoms in adults have included depression, lethargy, hallucination, numbness and tingling of the extremities, and ataxia
Best food sources of biotin include: wild-caught fish, organ meats, nuts and seeds, and pasture-raise.
Vitamin B9 is also called folate. Its bioactive forms include folinic acid, calcium folinate, and methyl-folate. Never buy folic acid as a source of vitamin B9, as synthetic folic acid is not natural, can be toxic, and is not effective for those with MTHFR gene mutations.
Folate deficiency is one of the most common vitamin deficiencies due to intestinal disorders, food choices, food processing, and MTHFR mutations.
Best food sources of folate include: asparagus, sprouting broccoli, spinach, avocados, pasture-raised eggs, and liver.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is critical for healthy nerve function, cardiovascular function, sleep, and blood cell formation. When supplementing with vitamin B12, always use methylcobalamin, not cyanocobalamin, as methyl-cobalamin is the most bio-active form of supplemental vitamin B12.
Looking at your symptoms, diet, and lifestyle may be a good indication for vitamin B deficiencies as a starting point. However, testing is always the best way to go to spot vitamin B deficiencies and other potential health issues. Here are the tests I recommend for B vitamin levels.
B Vitamin Deficiencies
When eating a nutrient-dense diet, meeting your vitamin B needs should be possible, however, many people still need supplementation to avoid vitamin B deficiencies. Vitamin B deficiencies are quite common and may develop due to a variety of reasons including a poor diet, poor nutrient absorption, gut infections, various health conditions, and medication use. Symptoms of B vitamin deficiencies may include fatigue, weakness, confusion, memory problems, behavior changes, depression, mental health issues, pale skin, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, digestion troubles, and more.
Reasons For B Vitamin Deficiencies
You may develop B vitamin deficiencies due to a number of reasons.
Here are the top causes of B vitamin deficiencies and related symptom:
Poor Diet
Eating a poor diet can lead to a variety of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, chronic symptoms, and related health issues. If your diet is high in sugar, grains, refined and processed foods, and low in vegetables and meat, your risks of developing B vitamin deficiencies increase. Meat, organ meats, fish, eggs, dark leafy greens, mushrooms, seeds, and beans are some of the best sources of natural B vitamins. Eating a diet low in these foods makes it impossible to meet your needs.
Eating too much sugar, grains, processed foods, and other inflammatory foods increases inflammation, gut flora imbalance, and poor absorption, which can deplete your body of B vitamins and hinder your body’s ability to absorb the B vitamins that you are taking in. Eating a nutrient-dense diet is not only important for taking in plenty of vitamin B, but also necessary for optimizing absorption.
High Stress
Chronic and high stress can deplete your body of many B vitamins. Stress can be physical, mental, and emotional. Job stressors, family and relationship problems, a lack of social support, injury or illness, listening to the news, financial problems, depression, anxiety, a negative mindset, low self-esteem, moving, personal changes, and driving in traffic are all examples of common stressors people experience.
These issues become a problem when we are responding to them with fear, anger, sadness, or negativity. When high stress becomes chronic it increases inflammation, pain, and health issues, and contributes to poor digestion, poor absorption, and the depletion of vitamins and minerals, including B vitamins.
How we recognize the symptoms of stress: teeth grinding, apathy, trouble concentration, anger, anxiety, headaches, stomac problems, skin irritation, fatigue.
The effects of stress in your body
Stomach cramps, reflux and nausea, aches pain in the joint and muscles, lower bone density. In the immune system, there is reduced the ability to fight and recover from illiness, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, higher cholesterol and risk of heart attack, iron deficiency anemia.
Mood issue including: anger, depression, irritability. Lack of energy and concentration problems, slepping problem, headaches.
Mental issue: included anxiety disorders and panic attack.
Poor Stomach Acid Levels
Your body requires an acidic stomach to effectively absorb vitamin B12. Poor stomach acid levels can lower vitamin B12 absorption. Atrophic gastritic is a common condition that can affect older adults and decreases stomach acid levels contributing to vitamin B12 malabsorption and deficiency. Taking medications for acid reflux and heartburn long-term can also reduce your body’s ability to absorb vitamin B12
Gut Infections
Gut infections and poor gut flora balance can lead to vitamin B12 and other vitamin B deficiencies.
Inflammation in your gut, including inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and colitis, gut infections, and gut problems cause by medication and antibiotics can also lead to an imbalance and interfere with vitamin B12 and another vitamin B absorption accompanies by digestion issues. Tapeworms and fungi in your gut can also steal B vitamins from your body leading to deficiencies.
To reduce the risk of vitamin B deficiencies, you need to address your gut infections and you need to introduce healthy microbes, such as that are necessary for the production of certain B vitamins.
Medication usage
There are a variety of medications that may deplete B vitamin levels. Some of these medications include heartburn and acid reflux medications. If you are taking medications and dealing with vitamin B or other nutrient deficiencies, you should start to change lifestyle and to introduce vitamin B supplementation.
Genetics
Your genetics play an important role in your health and may interfere with your vitamin B levels and absorption. The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene is necessary to make the MTHFR enzyme. Genetic mutations and variations are common and MTHFR gene mutations are affecting about half of the population. The problem is that MTHFR gene mutations can lead to methylation issues increasing your risk of fatigue, sleep issues, depression and anxiety, hormonal issues, allergies, food and chemical sensitivities, histamine intolerance, and other health issues. MTHFR mutations and consequent methylation problems interfere with your body’s ability to methylate and convert B vitamins.
Testing for B Vitamins Level, which I did and recommend
Blood Work
This is a simple blood test that offers a comprehensive look at your health, to look to your homocysteine, serum folate and B12 levels.
Organic Acid Test
Is a Comprehensive organic acid test . This test can help to determine the reasons behind your fatigue, sleep issues, mood changes, depression, anxiety, digestion problems, joint pain, skin issues, and other symptoms.
This is a simple urine test that can tell us a lot about your health and possibly point us to vitamin B deficiencies as well as your mitochondrial health, gut health, glutathione levels and neurotransmitter levels.
Micronutrient Test
Lastly, Micronutrient Testing. This test provides us with a comprehensive nutritional analysis. While it can certainly spot any B vitamin deficiencies by testing for each vitamin B level, it also looks at other vitamin and mineral levels, amino/fatty acids, antioxidants, and metabolites to spot nutritional reasons behind your health issues.The quality of the supplements we use is very important
Best Supplemental B Vitamins
Taking B vitamin supplements is not enough. You have to make sure that your body can absorb and use them. Taking high-quality pre-activated forms of B vitamins is important to ensure that it integrates immediately and effectively in your body.
Take care of your body, take care of health. A healthy outside starts from the inside.
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