B Vitamins Benefits

The Many Benefits of B Vitamins

B-complex vitamins are the Rodney Dangerfield of nutritional supplements—they don’t get no respect. But B vitamins are vital multi-taskers—they are involved in everything from cognitive function and mood to energy production and heart health. All multivitamins contain a smattering of B vitamins, so what else do you need to know?

Actually, there’s a lot of research, especially on folic acid, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6. Here are 10 reasons why you should be taking these three vitamins—and at dosages higher than what you’re likely taking now.

1. Stay Mentally Sharp

We lose about two percent of our brain volume every decade as we get older. Although this is a normal part of aging, accelerated atrophy is linked with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 reduce levels of homocysteine, a toxic amino acid linked with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

In a placebo-controlled study, scientists from the University of Oxford gave older volunteers with mild memory problems high doses of these vitamins. Repeat MRIs two years later revealed marked reductions in brain atrophy in the participants who had taken B vitamins. Those whose initial homocysteine levels were highest reaped the greatest benefits—their rate of atrophy was half that of the placebo group. The vitamin takers also scored higher on tests of cognitive function.

2. Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

An elevated level of homocysteine is also a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Excess homocysteine spills out of the cells and into the bloodstream, where it damages the arteries, setting the stage for atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque in the arteries).

According to Harvard researchers, a high blood level of homocysteine more than triples the risk of heart attack. It also dramatically increases the likelihood of having a stroke and has been linked to other conditions caused by atherosclerosis, such as erectile dysfunction, retinopathy, peripheral vascular disease, and kidney disease.

3. Keep Your Bones Strong

Everybody knows that calcium and vitamin D protect against osteoporosis and fractures. However, Harvard researchers discovered significant links between elevated levels of homocysteine and risk of hip fracture in postmenopausal women. How do you lower homocysteine? B-complex vitamins.

4. Preserve Your Vision

Another Harvard team found that these vitamins also protect the eyes. In a placebo-controlled trial, women who took daily folic acid, B6, and B12 supplements had a reduced risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. In addition, several studies involving thousands of people have found that long-term use of B-complex vitamins, along with vitamins A, C, and E, and carotenoids (particularly lutein and zeaxanthin), reduces risk of cataracts.

5. Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

Elevated homocysteine also damages your cells' DNA, which means it contributes not only to heart disease and Alzheimer's, but several types of cancer. In a study involving more than 5,000 women who took folic acid, B6, and B12 daily for about seven years, those over age 65 had a 38 percent decrease in risk of breast cancer and a 25 percent reduction of other invasive cancers.

Researchers believe that folic acid exerts its protective effect by preventing errors in DNA replication and by helping to regenerate methionine, a vital component in DNA synthesis. They also point out that both vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 are vital cofactors required for folic acid to “do its job”.

6. Boost Your Energy

Vitamin B12 is an excellent energy booster. This nutrient is a key player in the burning of fats and carbohydrates for energy, the formation of healthy red blood cells, and the maintenance of the myelin sheaths that protect nerves. Because of these diverse roles, a deficiency of vitamin B12 can cause symptoms ranging from mild fatigue to severe exhaustion.

Sadly, physicians often chalk this up to the inevitable effects of aging, not recognizing that their patients suffer from a treatable nutritional deficiency. We offer B12 and magnesium injections at the clinic, and they’re so energizing that some patients learn how to self-inject so they can continue them at home. High doses of oral B12 also improve energy, especially in people who have low levels to begin with.

7. Lift Your Mood

The dynamic trio of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 also improves mood. These nutrients play an indirect but critical role in the formation of serotonin and other neurotransmitters, and deficiencies—as well as high levels of homocysteine—are linked with mood disorders. Although B-complex vitamins are not a stand-alone treatment for depression, they’re an important adjunct.

8. Stave Off Allergies and Asthma

A research team at Johns Hopkins has discovered that individuals with the lowest blood levels of folate (folic acid) are at a significantly increased risk of skin and respiratory allergies, wheezing, and asthma.

9. Get a Handle on Migraines

Researchers from “Down Under” have discovered that people who have migraines with aura are more likely to have mutations in a gene that leads to elevated levels of homocysteine. When they gave these migraine sufferers high doses of folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 for six months, their homocysteine levels fell by 39 percent and their migraine disability scores were cut in half.

10. Live Longer?

Telomeres are protective structures on the ends of chromosomes that shorten every time a cell divides. Their length is a marker of aging—as cells get older, telomeres get shorter. A recent National Institutes of Health study found that individuals who took daily multivitamins or vitamin B12 supplements had longer telomeres.

Why Stop at 10?

Let’s throw in a handful of other benefits of these versatile vitamins. Folic acid protects against neural tube birth defects and pregnancy complications, and, in very high doses, has been shown to dramatically reduce damage to the heart following a heart attack. Vitamin B12 has been used to improve Bell’s palsy, diabetic neuropathy, infertility in men, and, when used topically, eczema. Vitamin B6 is an excellent therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger, a painful condition that affects the tendons in the hand. And pyridoxamine, a highly bioactive form of vitamin B6, is a potent therapy for kidney failure and heart disease.

Managing homocysteine levels, and thus enhancing many aspects of health, is as easy as getting enough of the nutrients that detoxify this damaging compound.

Dosage Recommendations

How much should you take? Forget about the RDAs. As an example, the RDA of B12 for adults is just 2.4 mcg per day. Dutch researchers found that normalizing a mild B12 deficiency, however, required between 647 and 1,032 mcg—300–500 times more than the RDA!

Here are my recommended minimum daily doses for healthy people: folic acid 800 mcg, vitamin B12 150 mcg, and vitamin B6 75 mg.

People with high homocysteine levels or any of the conditions mentioned above may take up to 6,000 mcg of folic acid, 2,000 mcg of vitamin B12, and 125 mg of B6. (Neurological conditions tend to respond better to the methylcobalamin form of vitamin B12.)

These vitamins are safe and well tolerated. However, very high doses of B6 may cause nerve damage.