Vitamin B6, which also known as pyridoxine, is one the parts of Vitamin B complex. The main three forms of this vitamin are pyridoxine, pyridoxamine, and pyridoxal. While pyridoxamine and pyridoxal could be found from animal food, pyridoxine could be found only in plants and seeds.
Vitamin B6 is a water soluble that very important for your body, so that your body can function properly. But, since the Vitamin B6 is water soluble, your body couldn’t store it and it will be put in the bloodstream and then exit your body through the urine, so you need to make sure that you consume this vitamin on a daily routine to get these health benefits.
- Controlling Hormone
Vitamin B6 benefits is very essential to control various hormones in the body. Thus, Vitamin B6 can maintain the amount of hormones and you will be less likely to suffer from hormone deficiency. Also, controlling the hormones in the body means that the metabolism process could work properly and every organ can work as its usual functions.
- Prevents Cardiac Disease
Vitamin B6 is also very good to treat problems associated with fat. This vitamin will regulate the amount of fat that stacked in around human heart, which then will be beneficial to prevent you from cardiac disease. Also, Vitamin B6 will protect your kidney from any disorder, since it will prevent the formation of stone around the kidney.
In fact, there is a study that has shown the Vitamin B6, if we taking it with Vitamin B12, will help our body to reduce the levels of homocysteine. Homocysteine is one of the compounds that can cause heart disease and increase the possibility of you having a heart attack.
- Anti-Inflammatory
According to some research, Vitamin B6 might be helpful to reduce the inflammatory signs. The studies shown the connection between chronic diseases associated with inflammatory with Vitamin B6. The research evidence that the low level of Vitamin B6 in the body will make you become susceptible of having chronic diseases associated with inflammation.
- Good For Metabolism
Health Benefits of Vitamin B6 is very important for good metabolism. As already mentioned above,Vitamin B6 is a perfect source to regulate the metabolism process within our body. Vitamin B6 will help to metabolize various nutrients like fats, carbohydrates, amino acids into an energy. Thus, this vitamin, alongside with Vitamin C will be very useful to support the iron to absorb more nutrients into the body.
- Improve Immune System
Vitamin B6 is also widely known for its ability to maintain the immune system within our body. With sufficient amounts of B6 in the body, the possibility of suffering from any infection caused by virus, bacteria, or fungi will significantly decrease.
- Stimulate Enzyme Activity
Vitamin B6 will also work alongside the enzymatic system in the body, thus this vitamin would be very beneficial to ensure that every enzyme works properly as their own functions. The effects of the connections between Vitamin B6 and enzymatic system are huge, because those connection can improve the immunity in your body, as well as functioning the nervous system.
- Healthier Skin
This is probably one of the most essential benefits that the Vitamin B6 could offer to you. Vitamin B6 could improve and maintaining the health of your skin. This Vitamin will prevent your skin from many symptoms that can occur in your skin such as acne, eczema, dandruff, and dry skin. Thus, this vitamin without a doubt will boost your overall appearance and of course, your confidence. Furthermore, Vitamin B6 is also can protect you from more serious diseases related to your skin, such as psoriasis and melanoma.
- Liver Detoxification
Vitamin B6 played an important role in the removal of unwanted chemicals out of our blood. These removals of unwanted chemical compounds from our blood take place in our liver and involving two steps. The first step of this removal is to make the chemical more soluble to water to allow the second step of binding and removal, and the Vitamin B6 will be beneficial to make the chemical more water soluble. In fact, according to some studies conducted on animal, researchers found out that the liver dysfunction could be cured by feeding them the Vitamin B6 supplements.
- Production of Red Blood Cells
The sufficient amount of red blood cells in the body means that the body is also having sufficient amount of hemoglobin, because hemoglobin is a protein that contained in red blood cells. Hemoglobin played a vital role in our body as it will transport the oxygen from the lungs to the other parts of our body. In the hemoglobin, there is a molecule called heme and the production of heme need the sufficient amount of Vitamin B6 within our body. Good amount of Vitamin B6 also would be very helpful to protect our body from the rare types of anemia called sideroblastic anemias.
- Treat Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
The women who suffering the pain of pre-menstrual syndrome need to consume foods that contain high amounts of Vitamin B6 since this vitamin will alleviate the symptoms that can occur during your pre-menstrual syndrome. During the pre-menstrual syndrome, the supply of Vitamin B6 will be reduced, thus it will make you become very moody and suddenly loss the sexual appetite. So, you need to make sure that you consume foods that contain Vitamin B6 so that the symptoms of pre-menstrual period would be alleviated.
- Treat Emotional Disorder
As already mentioned above, that Vitamin B6 would be very beneficial to control and maintaining the amount of various hormones in the body. Without sufficient amounts of Vitamin B6, the hormones in the body would become unbalanced, thus it will affect your overall mood and emotional feeling. So, consuming foods with great amounts of Vitamin B6 would help you to maintain the emotional feeling inside of you because it can balancing the hormones.
- Alleviate Upset Stomach and Vomiting During Pregnancy
According to some research, Vitamin B6 would not improve the symptoms of mild or moderate nausea. In fact, The American College of Obstetric and Gynecology strongly suggested that pregnant women need to consume foods that contain rich amounts of Vitamin B6 as a first treatment of upset stomach symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. But, if the addition of Vitamin B6 still can’t alleviate the pain because of vomiting during the pregnancy, you should take Vitamin B6 plus the addition of the medication doxylamine.
- Prevent Age-Related Macular Degeneration
There is a study that totally evidences that Vitamin B6 would also be very beneficial to treat Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). AMD is one of the causes that will lead you to serious problems such as vision loss or total blindness. Based on that study, female participants were asked to consume the Vitamin B6 and combine it with Vitamin B12 and folic acid. Then, the researchers observed that their risk of having AMD was significantly reduced.
- Prevent Behavior Disorder
Vitamin B6 is also very essential to protect your children from having a behavior disorder. This behavior disorder, which is commonly called hyperkinetic cerebral dysfunction syndrome, could happen to your child because of the low level of serotonin. Some expert evidence that taking Vitamin B6 could increase the serotonin production, thus your children will be protected by this disorder.
- Healthier Brain
Vitamin B6 is the perfect source of the production of three molecules in our neurotransmitter, which are serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. Those three molecules need Vitamin B6 to synthesize. Also, when the Vitamin B6 intake in our body is insufficient, we will be more like to suffer from any damage associated with our brain and nervous system, and the most common damage is depression.
There was a research conducted in Japan evidence that the people who have lower level of Vitamin B6 in their body were more susceptible of having the depression. Other research also found the connection between the brain health and the Vitamin B6 intake, which have the result that the possibilities of the people having a depression are higher when they didn’t take enough folic acid, a nutrient that work very closely with Vitamin B6. So, from now on, taking Vitamin B6 is very helpful to maintain the health of your brain.
- Treatment for Hair Loss
Vitamin B6 is very beneficial to keep the health of your hair. By taking this vitamin, your hair will be protected from any disease that could be harmful such as dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis. Vitamin B6 is also commonly known for its ability to prevent the hair loss and also beneficial to the growth of your hair.
- Prevent Diabetes
Some researchers found out that there is a connection between taking Vitamin B6 with the treatment of diabetes. Sometimes people who are suffering from diabetes would feel the pain in the nerve called diabetic neuropathy. The symptoms are quite similar with the people with Vitamin B6 deficiency, and the study shown that the people who are suffering from diabetes have low levels of Vitamin B6 in their body. Researchers say that diabetic neuropathy could be prevented by taking 150 mg of Vitamin B6 on a regular basis.
- Curing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
This Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is the syndrome that can cause numerous pain and weakness of your hand and fingers because of the nerves at the wrist that squeezed that sometimes occur during the pregnancy. So, women are more susceptible from suffering from this syndrome. In fact, there were some studies that indicate the people who are suffering from CTS have low levels of Vitamin B6 and then when they consume about 100 mg of Vitamin B6 on a daily routine, the sign of this symptom will be diminished.
List of Foods that Contain High Amounts of Vitamin B6
Since you already know the health benefits of taking Vitamin B6, you might be wondering about what foods that contain the perfect source of Vitamin B6. Fortunately, you can add some Vitamin B6 by taking these common foods and thus, you can ensure that your body could get sufficient amount of Vitamin B6. Here is the list of the World’s Healthiest Foods rich in Vitamin B6.
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Suggestion on Storage and Processing Foods that Contain Vitamin B6
Now you already know the lists of food that regarded as the World’s Healthiest Foods rich in Vitamin B6, but to get the full advantage of the intake of Vitamin B6, you need to know the way on how to store it and process it. Here are some suggestion that you need to consider before taking foods with high amounts of Vitamin B6.
- The foods that contain high amount of Vitamin B6 are commonly fairly stable to storage. In fact, it takes approximately a year that the 25% of Vitamin B6 in various foods to be lost. Although you can store in a very long time, but many health experts still strongly suggest you to consume foods that contain Vitamin B6 as fresh as possible.
- If you want to consume the foods that contain high amount of Vitamin B6, the best way to cook it is by steam it or boil it. Some studies conducted in Brussels, Belgia confirms that boiling or steaming the foods that contain Vitamin B6 will be relatively safe and only relatively low amounts of Vitamin B6 that loss, approximately about 10%.
- To pressed the percentage of the loss amount of Vitamin B6 during the cooking session, adding some vinegar to your ingredient might be very useful to stabilize and maintain the amount of vitamins in foods because lower pH is widely known to its ability to stabilize the vitamins under the heat.
- Please do notice that although you can boil or steam it, and adding some vinegar in the cooking session, you’re strongly recommended to not let the foods exposed by the heat in a very long time, since the prolonged exposure of heat can degrade the vitamins that contained in foods.
Recommended Dose
Although the high intake of Vitamin B6 is needed to get the advantage of it for the health of your body and there are plenty of foods that you can pick as the source of Vitamin B6, we must agree that taking everything excessively, even the vitamins, would not be good for our body. So, now you need to see the recommended dose on taking Vitamin B6 below based on your gender, age, and the condition that happen to you. Please note that the amount of Vitamin B6 that shown below is the daily requirements.
- Infants, 0 – 6 months     : 0,1 mg
- Infants, 6 – 12 months    : 0,3 mg
- Children, 1 – 3 years      : 0,5 mg
- Children, 4 – 8 years      : 0,6 mg
- Children, 9 – 13 years     : 1,0 mg
- Female, 14 – 18 years     : 1,2 mg
- Male, 14 – 18 years            : 1,3 mg
- Female, 19 – 50 years     : 1,3 mg
- Male, 19 – 50 years            : 1,3 mg
- Female, 50+ years            : 1,5 mg
- Male, 50+ years         : 1,7 mg
- Pregnant Women        : 1,9 mg
- Lactating Women        : 2,0 mg
Those lists are based from the released of the National Academy of Science on a set of Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) that contained Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA).
Vitamin B6 Side Effects and Warnings
As already mentioned above, taking everything excessively is not a good thing, and Vitamin B6 is no exception as there are some side effects that might occur to you when you taking this vitamin excessively. Here are some concerns related to this vitamin.
- You shouldn’t consume Vitamin B6 higher that the recommended dose that already shown above, since taking this vitamin in a ver large dose would cause you some nerve damages and any other neurological disorders.
- Although these symptoms are very rare, but there are some symptoms related to allergies because of taking Vitamin B6 supplement.
- Although Vitamin B6 is considered as an A drug category, which means that it is very safe to consume during the pregnancy, but a very large dose of Vitamin B6 during your pregnancy could bring the harmful side effects. A very high dose of Vitamin B6 can cause the seizure on your newborn baby.
Now you already know that the Vitamin B6 is truly beneficial for your health. Thus, you really need to consume it since this vitamin is very important to your body. But, please remember that you’re not suggested to take this vitamin more than the recommended dosage or you will suffer from its side effects. Stay healthy with Vitamin B6.