Also known as pyridoxine, vitamin B6 plays an important role for the health including the brain, nervous and cardiovascular system. However, since all vitamins, including B16 are water soluble, which means it can’t be stored in the body; you need to regularly supply it to ensure you are not suffering from vitamin deficiency. To make you even more interested in restoring your vitamin, here are some health benefits of consuming vitamin B6, so you don’t want to lose it. Vitamin B6 Benefits for human body :
- Boosting Immune System
One of the benefits of vitamin B6 in your body is to help the immune system function better for protecting your body. Considering that immune system is the key for fighting the free radicals, which leads to various health problems, the boosted immune system will be needed and important to maintain your health.
- Supporting Brain Function
This is among the most important benefits of B6, to maintain the good function of your brain. So how does it work? It controls the homocysteine levels in your body, which is not only keeping your brain healthy, but also preventing heart disease.
- Controlling Behavior Disorders
Many children are suffering from ADHD and this kind of behavior disorder is mostly difficult to handle. According to some researchers, one of the causes of the ADHD is the condition of having low serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is known as the happy hormones, which can control your mood and make you feel happy. Consuming vitamin B6 can increase the serotonin level; therefore such behavior disorder can be treated. However, about its effect on treating ADHD, further researches must be conducted to make it proved and clear.
- Improving Mood
Since B6 is great in creating serotonin to the brain, this vitamin can be used to improve your mood. Moreover, it is also increasing the GABA neurotransmitters, which along with the serotonin can prevent some mood-related disorders such as depression, anxiety and pain. Those with mood disorders can feel better by consuming vitamin B6 because this will influence the neurotransmitters, resulting in increased mood and concentration.
- Maintaining Blood Vessels
Vitamin B6 is good in controlling the homocysteine levels in your body and it is beneficial for the blood vessels. The buildup of homocysteine in the blood can be reduced to maintain the blood vessels healthy. According to studies, a combination of folate and vitamin B6 can prevent or relieve blood vessels damage.
- Preventing Heart Disease
Heart disease is one of the deathly diseases that must be kept away. One of the effective solutions for keeping the heart healthy is by maintaining the blood vessels’ health. As has been mentioned above that healthy blood vessels are influenced by the level of homocysteine levels, then consuming vitamin B6 can be a great prevention. Moreover, this vitamin is also helpful in managing cholesterol and blood pressure, which are also two big causes of heart disease.
- Treating High Blood Pressure
It was said above that vitamin B6 can manage blood pressure, how it can actually do that? First, vitamin B6 reduces the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Second, it is later supporting a smooth blood flow that allows the blood transported to the required organs in the body. However, the effect in lowering blood pressure, according to some studies, is effective in people already experienced high blood pressure.
- Supporting Enzymatic Systems
Your body has some enzymatic systems that can influence the function of the other parts of the body such as the immune system and the nervous system. This vitamin can help the enzymes work better, which results in the boosted immunity and a better nervous system.
- Enhancing Metabolism
The function of vitamin B6 is also helpful in helping your body metabolize some nutrients for getting energy. Since your body needs energy from the foods eaten, then having vitamin B6 supplied is very important. However in doing this job, this vitamin needs to be supported with the other B vitamins for a maximum result.
- Providing Pregnancy Nutrients
It is required for pregnant women to consume enough vitamin B since it helps developing the infant’s brain. Morning sickness or nausea can be also treated by consuming enough vitamin B6, according to a study. Also, since many pregnant women are experiencing depression due to some pregnancy symptoms, taking vitamin B can help controlling their moods, making them feel better.
- Treating Anemia
Your body needs the production of red blood cells, but more than that, the red blood cells should be healthy as well. So, when there aren’t enough of that, anemia is possibly occurring, resulting in the feeling of fatigue and weakness. In this case, vitamin B can be used as a treatment, but must be done under professional guide for the safe and good result.
- Addressing PMS
It is a common thing when women experience unstable mood during PMS or premenstrual syndrome. This feeling might be really disturbing especially when the amount of vitamin B6 in your body is decreasing during the condition. That is also one of the reasons why you can’t control your mood. So supplying your body with enough vitamin B6 can make your PMS well handled.
- Controlling Hormone
The hormones in your body should be well controlled since it is the same thing as controlling some activities in your body.
- Treating Emotional Disorders
It has been mentioned above that vitamin B6 can help controlling the body’s hormones. One of the benefits of having them controlled is emotional disorders’ prevention, which is influenced by the balanced of hormones in your body.
- Reducing Cycloserine Side Effects
If you are suffering from tuberculosis, you need to take drugs containing cycloserine, which commonly leads to some side effects towards your body. The side effects occur caused by the cycloserine including seizures and anemia, which all of them are some conditions that can be addressed by vitamin B6.
- Preventing Anti-Psychotic Drugs Side Effects
Not only cycloserine, anti-psychotic drugs can also cause some side effects, one of them is the movement disorders. This condition can make you experience restlessness as you are unable even to just sit for a long time. Surely this would be really disturbing and vitamin B6 is said to be great in help treating this disorder, although more researches must be conducted to prove the effectiveness.
- Preventing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
If you don’t get enough vitamin B6, you can feel your wrists are tingling or painful after doing certain activities using them or also called as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So those who are frequently experiencing this condition might need to take more foods containing vitamin B6.
- Preventing Kidney Stones
Kidney stones, like its name, are a condition when stones are formed in the kidney. To prevent this disease from occurring, surely you need to stop the stones from forming. A combination of magnesium and vitamin B6 can help preventing forming stones. However it is not a kind of medical attempt, unless clear evidence exist and you can’t depend such prevention only by consuming vitamin B6.
- Preventing Pimples during Menstruation
One of the most irritating symptoms of menstruation is more than just stomach cramps, but also the pimples coming out of your face. So get ready for your menstruation period by taking enough vitamin B6 at ten days before your period for preventing the pimples popping out since the vitamin helps balancing the hormones in your body.
- Treating Mental Depression
Feeling depressed might be also caused by the low level of vitamin B6 in your body. So if you are experiencing depression, try to take some vitamin B6-rich foods to help increasing the production of serotonin, which highly affect your mood.
- Helping Normal Internal Clock
Your body has a clock that makes it know when it is to sleep or wake up. This internal clock is regulated by melatonin, which can be created by vitamin B6. With the melatonin regulated, your internal clock would be normal and your body can feel sleepy at night, energizing in the morning.
- Maintaining Eye Health
A combination of folate and vitamin B6 is said to be great for maintaining the eye health. This is also important for slowing down the occurrence of eye diseases in older people.
- Reducing Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain
Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by the inflammation in the joints or muscles, making you experience extreme pain and discomfort. Vitamin B6 can help you manage the pain from the inflammation to allow you feel more comfortable in doing your activities.
- Reducing Theophylline Side Effects
Theophylline is used to treat a condition of difficulty breathing, but it also comes with some side effects such as anxiety and nausea. By taking vitamin B6, such symptoms can be controlled because the metabolism and blood levels are more regulated.
- Reducing Sebum on the Skin
Vitamin B6 is also great for your skin’s health since it helps reducing the sebum, which is one of the causes of acne. Especially if your skin is oily, you don’t want your face to have excessive sebum, and that is why supplying your body with enough vitamin B6 is necessary.
- Helping Vitamin B12 Function
It is said that vitamin B6 helps your body uses vitamin B12 properly for the brain and inflammation. When there is not enough vitamin B6, the vitamin b12 can’t be maximally functioned since it is lacking the absorption ability.
- Preventing Cancer
Colon cancer is one of the cancer types that can be prevented using vitamin B6. However, surely you can’t prevent or treat cancer just by taking one type of vitamin. Especially for treatment, medical guidance must be requested.
Foods Rich in Vitamin B16
To help you easily get your vitamin B6 requirement supplied, you can simply include some foods rich in vitamin B6 in your daily meals to ensure you are not lacking of this vitamin, so your body can get what it needs.
- Vegetables
If you want to keep supplying your body with vitamin B6, eat more vegetables daily. All vegetables contain vitamin B6, so don’t bother to choose which one you should pick. However, if you want the ones with higher amounts and lower fats, try broccoli, spinach, asparagus, bell peppers and green peas. They are excellent options because they also come with other important vitamins.
- Wheat Germ
Wheat Germ is a great source of vitamin B6 because simply consuming 100 grams of it you can get 3 grams of vitamin B6. Use it in your breakfast and you can sometimes have whole-grain products since they are providing this vitamin too
- Buckwheat Flour
Replace your regular flour with buckwheat flour is a good idea for creating a gluten-free lifestyle. This is more than rich in fiber, but also vitamin B6 since it gives your body more than half of its required vitamin B6 intake with around 0.70 mg for every one cup.
- Chickpeas
Even if it has been mentioned above that vegetables have vitamin B6, chickpeas are more special since they can provide your body with the whole vitamin B6 daily requirement with around 1.13 mg of the vitamin from only one cup. This is a simple option since you don’t need to combine the other rich-in-B6 foods. Chickpeas alone have provided what your body needs from vitamin B6.
- Meat
Many kinds of meat including chicken, turkey and beef, are also great sources of vitamin B6. Meat is versatile since it can be included in many types of your favorite dishes or snacks. However, the amount of B6 is different from one another, depending on what meat you are eating and how you cook them.
- Bananas
This sweet and delicious fruit is also packed with vitamin B6, around 0.83 mg in every one cup. However, since bananas are also containing fat and calories, those who prefer fat-free diet might not opt for it. This is a good fruit to keep you full, tough.
- Nuts
Pistachio is considered to have the highest amount of vitamin B6, with around 1.38 mg in every one cup, even higher than chickpeas, while the other types of nuts like cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts and macadamia have lower amount.
- Seeds
Sunflower seeds have an outstanding amount of vitamin B6 since every one cup they provide around 1.88 mg. Sesame seeds, Flaxseeds and Pumpkin seeds are also packed with vitamin B6, lower than sunflower seeds.
Side Effects Taking Too Much Vitamin B6
Just because this vitamin is important for your body, doesn’t mean you can consume it too much. There are some side effects if you don’t control your intake.
- Gastrointestinal Issues. Taking too much vitamin B6 leads to some gastrointestinal problems such as heartburn, nausea and even losing appetite.
- Sunlight Oversensitivity. Your skin can be very sensitive to sunlight if you are overdosed of vitamin B6. This condition can also lead to skin rashes.
- Sensory Neuropathy. This is a condition when you are experiencing numbness, uncontrolled body movements, arms’ pain, difficulty in sensing temperature and pain and also difficulty walking.
- Medications Interfere. If you are taking certain medications, consult with your doctor to make sure whether or not consuming vitamin B6 especially in forms of supplements okay for you.
Side Effects of Vitamin B6 Deficiency
While too much is not good for your health, too low is as harmful as well. Here are some possible symptoms:
- Depression and Irritability. Since vitamin B6 influences the level of happy hormones or serotonin, lacking of this vitamin can lead to depression and irritability.
- Oral Issues. Vitamin B6 deficiency also affects your oral health including cracking lips, tongue inflammation and sore lips.
Recommended Intake
If you are not suffering from vitamin B6 deficiency, there is no need to consume this vitamin too much. According to the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, 1.3 mg is the recommended intake for adult, both men and women under 50. The need of vitamin B6 might be different for men and women above 50, children, pregnant women, people under certain drugs or medications and people with certain diseases like kidney, so the intake should be suited with your condition. It is better to take the vitamin from your daily meals, which is safer rather than taking supplements.
It is very important to note that vitamin B6 is not the only vitamin your body needs. There are many other minerals and vitamins to supply as well. So make sure you don’t depend only on one type of vitamin for preventing some diseases or conditions. Moreover, some newer and higher quality researches are still required to conduct to provide more proofs for the benefits. The benefits are all informational, not medical, so never do any medical attempts with this vitamin without professional medical advice. The main point here is, you need to get your body properly supplied with B6 since this is an important component to help some parts of your body function properly and avoid ingesting too much of it.