According to the Harvard School of Public Health, only a small percentage of American adults currently take all of their B vitamins daily from their diet. What is the effect of vitamin B on your body, and why is it risky to lack one or more vitamins?
“Vitamin B” actually refers to more than one vitamin because there are eight different B vitamins in total. If you take supplements that contain all eight B vitamins, this is called a “vitamin B complex” or “B complex” formula.
The most valuable of B vitamins is that they help convert other nutrients into energy, maintain a healthy metabolism, and support nerve function, liver function, skin health, eye health, and fetal growth/development during pregnancy.
What makes people risk of vitamin B deficiency? If you avoid eating protein-rich foods (such as fish, poultry, meat, eggs, and dairy products), green leafy vegetables, seeds, and beans/beans, your diet is more likely to lack B vitamins. If this sounds like you, in order to prevent health problems such as chronic fatigue, anemia, mood disorders, weakness, poor memory, etc., vitamin B intake must be increased.
B vitamins like vitamin B12 are essential for blood cell formation in the bone marrow and the formation of nerve sheaths and proteins. Vitamin B is also required for neurotransmitter signaling, it can help your muscles contract, allowing you to spend a day energetically. B vitamin deficiency can cause a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders because the lack of B vitamins can affect blood cell formation, neurological health, neurotransmitter function and neural processes, which can lead to anemia, numbness, weakness, dementia, and confusion.
Folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 have been found to play a role in the prevention of heart disease as well as other chronic diseases such as certain types of cancer such as colon and breast cancer. However, there is more to understand the relationship between cancer and B vitamins, so if you have cancer, be sure to consult a doctor before starting any vitamin B supplementation.
B vitamins, including folic acid, play a key role in the construction of DNA, which forms our genetic blueprint and helps us develop from conception. Cell metabolism and energy production, DNA and RNA repair in life, and the use of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats also require B vitamins, which power our body processes. Many are used as coenzymes required in various metabolic processes, such as those involving fatty acid synthesis and gluconeogenesis.
Consuming sufficient folic acid during pregnancy helps prevent fetal development of birth defects, such as spina bifida and no brain malformations. For more than three decades, researchers have known that mothers of children with spina bifida often contain lower levels of folic acid and other vitamins; therefore, all pregnant women today are encouraged to supplement folic acid during pregnancy. Folic acid is most important for fetal development in the first few weeks after conception, usually, before a woman knows she is pregnant, which is why it is a good idea to take prenatal vitamins during pregnancy.
B vitamins are needed to help produce neurotransmitters in the brain that transmit chemical signals throughout the body that affect your mood, energy, appetite, and more. Vitamin B5 also plays a role in the production of adrenal-derived sex and stress-related hormones such as cortisol.
Getting enough B vitamins from your diet and/or supplements can increase your ability to cope with stress. In fact, there is no B vitamin, because the B vitamins help the adrenal function, the body can not survive. This is why people who are chronically stressed or who are suffering from adrenal fatigue are strongly encouraged to take B vitamin complex supplements.