B Vitamins
Luke R. Bucci in Nutrition Applied to Injury Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, 2020
B vitamins are a group of diverse, structurally different compounds utilized as cofactors for cellular energy production in human intermediary metabolism. Since the discovery of B vitamins, many clinical uses have been studied, but many early reports (before the 1960s) were hampered by lack of knowledge on other nutrient roles and deficiencies, poor experimental design, and, sometimes, inadequate dosages. Conquering classical deficiency diseases such as pellagra, beriberi, and pernicious anemia resolved the importance of frank B vitamin deficiencies, but conditions where B vitamins may have pharmacological significance aside from correcting deficiency states have been less well studied. Assessment of B vitamin status still is not worthy of routine clinical use for a wide variety of reasons. Thus, clinical research using B vitamins as therapeutic agents has fallen out of favor. Nevertheless, sufficient reports on B vitamins indicate that clinical usefulness may be applied to human healing processes. In this chapter, in order to focus on the scope of this book, background information on B vitamins will be pooled and not broken down into individual vitamins until the section on clinical trials is reached.
Components of Nutrition
Christopher Cumo in Ancestral Diets and Nutrition, 2020
Nutritionists and dieticians concentrate on eight B vitamins: B1 (thiamine or thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin or nicotinic acid), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B7 (biotin), B9 (folate, folic acid, or pteroylmonoglutamic acid), and B12 (cobalamin). The omitted four are B4 (adenine), B8 (inositol), B10 (para amino benzoic acid or PABA), and B11 (salicylic acid). This book concentrates on the standard eight. B vitamins help the body derive energy from food and manufacture red blood cells. As coenzymes, B vitamins enhance enzymes, a noteworthy function given that vitamins are not proteins and so cannot be enzymes. An example of a coenzyme, vitamin B3 is part of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP), both necessary for deriving energy from foods. B vitamins are in beef, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, dark green leafy vegetables, and legumes. B-vitamin deficiencies cause diseases examined below.
Micronutrients
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy in Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Daily recommendations (RDA) for dietary vitamin B1 are: 1.2 mg/day for men, 1.1 mg/day for women, 0.9 mg/day for children from 9 to 13 years, and 0.5–0.6 mg/day for children from 1 to 8 years (3, 33). Although vitamin B1 is generally safe and nontoxic, self-supplementation of thiamine for the treatment of beriberi or other diseases due to vitamin B1 deficiency is to be avoided because of the potential for side effects and interactions with other medicines (33). Supplementation should only be taken under the supervision of a healthcare professional. Very high doses of vitamin B1 may cause stomach upset. Taking any one of the B vitamins for a long period of time can result in an imbalance of other important B vitamins. For this reason, taking a B-complex vitamin, which includes all the vitamins of group B, is better than taking any vitamin B alone. Eating natural foods rich in thiamine is the best choice to treat and prevent beriberi and other diseases due to vitamin B1 deficiency. Avoid white rice without bran and replace it by brown or normal rice. Vitamin B1 are notably found in whole grains, wheat germs, bran, brown rice, blackstrap molasses, lean pork and other meats, poultry, eggs, fish, liver, potatoes, beans, peas, nuts, and yeast (3, 9, 33–35). Dairy products, fruits, and vegetables contain smaller amounts of vitamin B1. Prolonged cooking of food can cause loss of vitamin B1. Polyphenolic compounds in coffee and tea can inactivate thiamine; high intake of these beverages could compromise thiamine nutrition (35).
Personalized treatment interventions: nonpharmacological and natural treatment strategies in Alzheimer’s disease
Published in Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2021
Marina Sagud, Lucija Tudor, Nela Pivac
B vitamins are diverse group of water-soluble vitamins included in metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, including neurotransmitters, as well as in process of DNA methylation. Beneficial effect of vitamins B on cognition in MCI and AD is possibly associated with the metabolism of homocysteine, in which vitamin B12, B6 and folic acid play major role [139–141]. It has been shown that the deficiency of these vitamins impairs the process of homocysteine transformation to methionine, resulting in accumulation of homocysteine in the body, and consequently reduction of S-adenosylmethionine, which is a major methyl donor in the process of DNA methylation. Homocysteine buildup can contribute to development of AD and cognitive damage by affecting the DNA methylation and thus enabling overexpression of genes associated with AD and its progression [139–141]. Several studies reported positive effect of vitamin B12, B6 and folate supplementation on improving MCI and AD symptoms and preventing cognitive decline, although the recommendations of the dietary supplementation dosage and average serum levels required for protective effect of these vitamins have been indecisive [134,140,142].
Relationship Between B-Vitamin Biomarkers and Dietary Intake with Apolipoprotein E є4 in Alzheimer’s Disease
Published in Journal of Nutrition in Gerontology and Geriatrics, 2019
Nathan M. D’Cunha, Ekavi N. Georgousopoulou, Lyndell Boyd, Martin Veysey, Jonathan Sturm, Bill O’Brien, Mark Lucock, Andrew J. McKune, Duane D. Mellor, Paul D. Roach, Nenad Naumovski
Nutrition can both positively and negatively influence cognition in the elderly, as evidenced by the association of B-vitamin deficiency with AD and other dementias.8,10,11 The B-vitamins include folic acid (both synthetic and natural forms), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 (including its synthetic form, cyanocobalamin) as essential precursors for coenzymes involved in the one-carbon metabolism pathway of homocysteine (Hcy), and thiol biosynthesis.12 Thiols are plasma sulfhydryl-containing amino acids (Hcy, cysteine [Cys], cysteinyl-glycine [CysGly], and glutathione [GSH]) that play a vital role in cardiovascular health and cognition.13,14 Elevated Hcy levels were identified as a strong predictor of incident AD,8 while adequate dietary intake of folate and vitamin B12 (B12) plays a major role in the methylation and transsulfuration pathways and contribute to the maintenance of reduced Hcy levels.15 Hence, Hcy, folate, and B12 have been identified as important blood-based biomarkers of nutritional status and AD risk.8,10
Dietary Intake of Nutrients Involved in One-Carbon Metabolism and Risk of Gastric Cancer: A Prospective Study
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2019
Pierre-Antoine Dugué, Julie K. Bassett, Maree T. Brinkman, Melissa C. Southey, Jihoon E. Joo, Ee Ming Wong, Roger L. Milne, Dallas R. English, Graham G. Giles, Alex Boussioutas, Hazel Mitchell, Allison M. Hodge
In a recent meta-analysis, “prudent/healthy” diets, rich in fruit and vegetables, were associated with reduced risk of gastric cancer compared with “Western/unhealthy” patterns (12); similarly, the Mediterranean diet score was inversely associated with gastric cancer incidence (13). B vitamins are found in a range of animal- and plant-based foods including whole grains, green vegetables, legumes, meat, and fish but are not naturally occurring in processed foods (3). Thus, additional adjustment for dietary quality when assessing associations between B vitamins and gastric cancer may be important. Helicobacter pylori is the cause of most gastric cancer cases, through a sequence of gastric lesions from chronic gastritis, gastric atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia to gastric adenocarcinoma (14). Gastritis can cause symptoms that might result in dietary changes in response to these.