What Are B-Complex Vitamins?B-Complex vitamins are a mixture of eight essential B-vitamins that our bodies require on a daily basis. It was previously thought that Vitamin B was a single nutrient, but later studies proved that it was actually eight different nutrients that made up this "single" vitamin. As a result of this incorrect belief, it is commonly assumed that B-vitamins share some kind of common bond.
Actually, each of these vitamins performs a unique and separate function in the body.How Do B-Complex Vitamins Work?B-Complex vitamins consist of these eight vitamins: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Pyridoxine, Cyanocobalamin, Biotin and Folic Acid. Since each of these B-Vitamins is unique, we'll outline them separately:
- B1 - Thiamin is essential for proper carbohydrate metabolism. Also works to promote healthy nerves, improve mood, strengthen the heart, and improve heartburn.
The B vitamins are eight water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism. Historically, the B vitamins were once thought to be a single vitamin, referred to as Vitamin B (much like how people refer to Vitamin C or Vitamin D). Later research showed that they are chemically distinct vitamins that often coexist in the same foods. Supplements containing all eight B vitamins are generally referred to as a vitamin B complex. Individual B vitamin supplements are referred to by the specific name of each vitamin (e.g. B1, B2, B3).
List of B vitamins
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Vitamin B3, also Vitamin P or Vitamin PP (Niacin)
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid)
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
Vitamin B7, also Vitamin H (Biotin)
Vitamin B9, also Vitamin M and Vitamin B-c (Folic acid)
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
B vitamins deficiency
Several named vitamin deficiency diseases may result from the lack of sufficient B-vitamins. Deficiencies of other B vitamins result in symptoms that are not part of a named deficiency disease.
Vitamin
Name
Deficiency effects
Vitamin B1
Thiamine
Deficiency causes Beriberi. Symptoms of this disease of the nervous system include weight loss, emotional disturbances, Wernicke's encephalopathy (impaired sensory perception), weakness and pain in the limbs, periods of irregular heartbeat, and edema (swelling of bodily tissues). Heart failure and death may occur in advanced cases. Chronic thiamine deficiency can also cause Korsakoff's syndrome, an irreversible psychosis characterized by amnesia and confabulation.
Vitamin B2
Riboflavin
Deficiency causes Ariboflavinosis. Symptoms may include cheilosis (cracks in the lips), high sensitivity to sunlight, angular cheilitis, glossitis (inflammation of the tongue), seborrheic dermatitis or pseudo-syphilis (particularly affecting the scrotum or labia majora and the mouth), pharyngitis, hyperemia, and edema of the pharyngeal and oral mucosa.
Vitamin B3
Niacin
Deficiency, along with a deficiency of tryptophan causes Pellagra. Symptoms include aggression, dermatitis, insomnia, weakness, mental confusion, and diarrhea. In advanced cases, pellagra may lead to dementia and death.
Vitamin B5
Pantothenic acid
Deficiency can result in acne and Paresthesia, although it is uncommon.
Vitamin B6
Pyridoxine
Deficiency may lead to anemia, depression, dermatitis, high blood pressure (hypertension), water retention, and elevated levels of homocysteine.
Vitamin B7
Biotin
Deficiency does not typically cause symptoms in adults but may lead to impaired growth and neurological disorders in infants.
Vitamin B9
Folic acid
Deficiency results in elevated levels of homocysteine. Deficiency in pregnant women can lead to birth defects. Supplementation is often recommended during pregnancy. Researchers have shown that folic acid might also slow the insidious effects of age on the brain.
Vitamin B12
Cobalamin
Deficiency causes pernicious anemia, memory loss and other cognitive decline. It is most likely to occur among elderly people as absorption through the gut declines with age. In extreme (fortunately rare) cases, paralysis can result.
Related nutrients
Many of the following substances have been referred to as vitamins because they were believed to be vitamins at one time, and they are relevant to vitamin nomenclature in that the numbers that were assigned to them form "gaps" in the series of B-vitamin names. Some of them, though not essential to humans, are essential in the diets of other organisms; others have no known nutritional value. While they are non-"essential" in that they may be synthesized by the body from other starting materials, they have dietary significance. See also Orthomolecular medicine.
Vitamin B4: Adenine, a nucleobase.
Vitamin B7: "Vitamin I" of Centanni E. (1935) — also called 'Enteral factor' is a water and alcohol soluble rice-bran factor which prevents digestive disturbance in pigeons. It governs the anatomical and functional integrity of the intestinal tract. Later found in yeast. Possible candidates for this substance are inositol, niacin (nicotinic acid), and biotin. Carnitine was also claimed to be a candidate but is not soluble in alcohol.[citation needed]
Vitamin B8: adenosine monophosphate
Vitamin B10: para-aminobenzoic acid, or PABA
Vitamin B11: Pteryl-hepta-glutamic acid – Chick growth factor, which is a form of Folic acid. Later found to be one of five folates necessary for humans; (L-carnitine) is called Vitamin B11 in France[citation needed].
Vitamin B13: Orotic acid.
Vitamin B14: cell proliferant, anti-anemia, rat growth, and antitumor pterin phosphate named by Earl R. Norris (biochemist of folic acid fame). Isolated from human urine at 0.33ppm (later in blood), but later abandoned by him as further evidence did not comfirm this. He also claimed this was not Xanthopterin.
Vitamin B15 6-O-(dimethylaminoacetyl)-D-gluconic acid (Pangamic acid)
Vitamin B16 (dimethylgycine) – also known as DMG. (However Lipoic acid was discovered and named a B-Vitamin after B15 and before B17)
Vitamin B17 (Amygdalin or laetrile) – A toxic substance that can be extracted from apricot kernels. Proponents claim that it is effective in cancer treatment and prevention.
Vitamin B18 –
Vitamin B19 –
Vitamin B20 (Carnitine) –
Vitamin B21 –
Vitamin B22 – often claimed as an ingredient of Aloe vera extracts but also in many other foods. Claimed by one source to be Vitamin B12b-δ.
Vitamin Bh – another name for Biotin
Vitamin Bm ("mouse factor") – also used to designate Inositol
Vitamin Bp (Choline) –
Vitamin Bt (L-carnitine) –
Vitamin Bv – a type of B6 but not Pyridoxine
Vitamin Bw – a type of Biotin but not d-Biotin
Vitamin Bx – another name for PABA (para-Aminobenzoic acid)
Lipoic acid –
Note: B16, B17, B18, B19, B20, B21 & B22 do not appear to be animal factors but are claimed by naturopaths as human therapedic factors.
Health benefits
The B vitamins often work together to deliver a number of health benefits to the body. B vitamins have been shown to:
Support and increase the rate of metabolism
Maintain healthy skin and muscle tone
Enhance immune and nervous system function
Promote cell growth and division — including that of the red blood cells that help prevent anemia.
Together, they also help combat the symptoms and causes of stress, depression, and cardiovascular disease.
All B vitamins are water soluble, and are dispersed throughout the body. They must be replenished daily, since any excess is excreted in the urine.[citation needed]
Vitamin B sources
Vitamin B comes from a number of natural sources, including potatoes, bananas, lentils, chilli peppers, tempeh, liver, turkey, and tuna. Nutritional yeast (or brewer's yeast) and molasses are especially good sources of Vitamin B. Marmite and the iconic Australian spread Vegemite bills itself as "one of the world's richest known sources of vitamin B". As might be expected, due to its high content of brewer's yeast, beer is a good source of B vitamins,[1] although this may not be true of filtered beers.[2] However, the alcohol in beer impairs the body's ability to activate vitamins. In fact, beer is sometimes referred to as "liquid bread".[3]
Another popular means of increasing one's Vitamin B intake is through the use of dietary supplements purchased at supermarkets, health centers, or natural food stores.
B vitamins are also commonly added to energy drinks.
Symptoms of Vitamin B Deficiency and Why Vitamin Pills Are Not Enough
Before delving into the problems of vitamin B complex deficiency and its symptoms, it is first important to understand the difference between vitamins that are in pill form versus vitamins that are contained within nature’s foods. There is a world of difference — a difference between sickness and health. Vitamins just do not work like foods, and foods are what our bodies were designed to use for healing, prevention and energy. There is no substitute, and no matter how you look at it, vitamin pills are an invention of scientists, so they are prone to cause side effects, be incomplete and lack what we need to overcome our health problems.
Vitamins have been sold and marketed as the “magic bullet” for all health problems, yet food science researchers are bringing out the truth about vitamins, minerals, multivitamins and antioxidants— and it’s not an easy pill to swallow. The problem is that vitamins, when not still contained in their original food (oranges, bananas, spinach, broccoli, etc.) are merely chemicals. Our bodies do not recognize vitamins as nutrients, because they don’t work the same way as whole foods for these simple reasons:
Foods contain not just vitamins, but the co-workers (synergists) and helper nutrients that allow vitamins to work
Foods are never found in high potency, so you won’t suffer any toxic side effects that have been proven to exist with ALL vitamin pills. As one expert stated, “Foods never deliver toxic doses [of vitamins]. (Hamilton, p.205)
Vitamins are just a small part of what our bodies require for health and healing. It is very often that it is the other food properties that help us while the vitamins are secondary.
Vitamin pills need other nutrients in order to work.
For these reasons, and more, vitamin pills, despite their use and overuse, are not turning people’s health around. They are lacking the properties of real nutrition which can only come from eating nature’s real, whole, raw foods. The only supplement that someone should take, therefore, is a whole food formula WITHOUT any isolated (singular vitamin). This is an important point, because most supplements called “whole food” are combinations of real foods and isolated vitamins. You have to carefully read the labels to see. Look for these words to identify vitamin chemicals on a label:
Pyridoxine
Thiamine or thiamin
Niacin or niacinamide
Palmitate
ascorbic acid
Riboflavin
Mixed tocopherols
B12
cyanocobalamin
more
Vitamins are not foods, so instead of vitamins and minerals on a label, you should be looking for the names of foods and herbs on the label. Don’t be fooled by high milligrams, high potency, standardization or any other such terms that just do not apply to real foods from nature.
VITAMIN B COMPLEX DEFICIENCY:
MAJOR CAUSES
Vitamin B complex comprises a number of vitamins that exist as a family. They should not be taken individually. In this modern era, millions of people suffer from a deficiency of vitamin B for several reasons, chief among which are:
Stress: emotional, physical and spiritual
Processed foods in the diet: these are not real foods and so they tax the body
Refined sugar. The average person consumes at least 140 pounds of sugar a year which robs the body of its vitamin B stores
Drugs: both recreational and prescription drugs deplete vitamin B
Toxins: poisons in the environment and personal care products deplete vitamin B complex
Malnutrition. Most people are malnourished because they are not eating the right kinds of foods
Cooking. Most people do not eat enough real, raw foods, so vitamin B is killed or so depleted that people are not getting enough of it in the diet
DO YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE SYMPTOMS?
Once your body has been deprived of the vitamin B complex due to reasons stated above, it begins to show symptoms (signs) of altered, diminished or poor health. This is because the vitamin B complex (within foods, not vitamin pills) is responsible for such a wide variety of activities, including cellular differentiation, transmission of nerve electricity, health of nerve cells, heart pulse rate, muscular contraction, digestion, brain function, thought processes and energy production. Without adequate vitamin B complex from foods, you can experience one or more of any one of these symptoms:
mental problems
heart palpitations
heart arrythmias
fibrillation
indigestion
chronic fatigue
chronic exhaustion
paranoia, vague fears, fear that something dreadful is about to happen
nervousness
ADD (attention deficiency), inability to concentrate, irritability
feeling of uneasiness
thoughts of dying
easy agitation, frustration
inability to sleep (insomnia)
restlessness
tingling in hands
tingling fingers and toes
rashes
crying spells, inability to cope
soreness all over
and so much more.
CHRONIC VITAMIN B DEFICIENCY
Vitamin B deficiency can sneak up on you, because it doesn’t have to create serious health problems right away. In fact, medical researchers have discovered that very often there can be no detectable signs according to scientific instrumentation, that you are experiencing a deficiency. For example, “memory impairment due to vitamin B12 deficiency can precede blood symptoms of deficiency by years. Evidence that vitamin B12 deficiency accounts for some cognition deficits in older people comes from a study that revealed abnormal short-term memory in more than two-thirds of clients with pernicious anemia…The researchers recommend that a diagnosis of senile dementia should not be made, even in the absence of anemia, until vitamin B12 status is determined biochemically.” (Hamilton, p. 476) This means that it is possible that certain mental disorders can be directly attributable to vitamin B complex deficiency, and it is easier to first start replenishing stores of vitamin B complex than to begin treating difficult mental illnesses with drugs, therapy or psychological counseling.
When vitamin B deficiency becomes chronic (long-lasting), other problems can occur, including troubles with your adrenal system. The adrenal glands serve many purposes, but in relation to this topic, they are the back up system for making energy. When there is a chronic lack of vitamin B complex then the adrenal glands are called upon to produce quick energy by injecting certain hormones like adrenaline into your system so that you can cope with life. If this goes on for a long time, then the adrenal glands become impaired or worn out, leading to even more health problems.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOURSELF
There are a number of things you can do to prevent and overcome vitamin B complex deficiency:
1. Stop taking vitamin pills and switch over to NutriPlex Whole Food Formulas products. The three most recommended to support you are: BFood Complex, AdrenaPlex and SuperGreens PhytoFood. These products are made only of foods and not parts of foods or isolated vitamins. They won’t add to your problems the way vitamin pills can, and they are not toxic the way vitamin pills can be.
2. Stop eating refined sugar. Click here to read all about refined sugar and its bad effects from researcher Nancy Appleton, PhD.
3. Stop eating artificial ingredients. Read all labels on your foods and if there are names of chemicals, don’t eat them. (Read the author’s book, Illness Isn’t Caused by a Drug Deficiency. Switch to organic foods.
4. Reduce stress through a regular exercise program, meditation, counseling and/or hobbies
5. Stop drinking coffee; switch to organic decaffeinated coffee or organic green tea
6. Eat more vitamin B-containing foods — oats, barley, wheat bran, avocado, salmon, Brazil nuts and others.
7. Be patient. It took a while to create a vitamin B deficiency, so it takes a while to reverse the problem; with severe cases it can take a year or so, with milder cases it can take just a few days.
8. If you have a friend or relative with a mental or emotional disorder, think of the possibility of a vitamin B complex deficiency and then make suggestions for adjustments in their diet and take appropriate whole food formulas.
9. Always coordinate all of your health and treatment plans with all of your practitioners.
10. Avoid toxins in your life. This is a serious issue that causes more health problems than people commonly realize. (See the author’s book, Evil Genius in the Garden of Eden — how toxins make us sick and corporations profit from our illness).
