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Silver
Bulletin
e-News
Magazine
Section 1: Archives
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Introduction To How B Vitamins
Work
We've all stared at the cereal
box label during breakfast and wondered what words like riboflavin,
folic acid and pyridoxine mean. Has your mom ever reminded you
to eat a balanced diet and "make sure you eat your greens"?
The words on your cereal box and your mother's good advice both
involve vitamin B. The B vitamins are a group of eight individual
vitamins, often referred to as the B-complex vitamins. In this
article, we will take a look at how the B vitamins work so you
can begin to understand why Kellogg's and your mother made sure
you included these essential vitamins in your diet. We'll also
look at some of the more serious conditions that can result
from B vitamin deficiencies.
What Exactly Are Vitamins
and What Do They Do For Us?
The word vitamin is derived from a combination of words -- vital
amine -- and was conceived by Polish chemist Casimir Funk in
1912. Funk isolated vitamin B1, or thiamine, from rice. This
was determined to be one of the vitamins that prevented beriberi,
a deficiency disease marked by inflammatory or degenerative
changes of the nerves, digestive system and heart.
If you read What are vitamins and
how do they work?, you know that vitamins are organic (carbon
containing) molecules that mainly function as catalysts for
reactions within the body. A catalyst is a substance that allows
a chemical reaction to occur using less energy and less time
than it would take under normal conditions. If these catalysts
are missing, as in a vitamin deficiency, normal body functions
can break down and render a person susceptible to disease.
The body requires vitamins in tiny
amounts (hundredths of a gram in many cases). We get vitamins
from these three primary sources:
-Foods
-Beverages
-Our bodies -- Vitamin K and some of the B vitamins are produced
by bacteria within our intestines, and vitamin D is formed with
the help of ultraviolet radiation, or sunshine, on the skin.
Vitamins are either fat-soluble or water-soluble. The fat-soluble
vitamins can be remembered with the mnemonic (memory aid) ADEK,
for the vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins accumulate within
the fat stores of the body and within the liver. Fat-soluble
vitamins, when taken in large amounts, can become toxic. Water-soluble
vitamins include vitamin C and the B vitamins. Water-soluble
vitamins taken in excess are excreted in the urine but are sometimes
associated with toxicity. Both the B vitamins and vitamin C
are also stored in the liver.
The B-complex vitamins are actually
a group of eight vitamins, which include thiamine (B1), riboflavin
(B2), niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid (B9), cyanocobalamin
(B12), pantothenic acid and biotin. These vitamins are essential
for:
-The breakdown of carbohydrates into glucose (this provides
energy for the body)
-The breakdown of fats and proteins (which aids the normal functioning
of the nervous -system)
-Muscle tone in the stomach and intestinal tract
-Skin
-Hair
-Eyes
-Mouth
-Liver
-Some doctors and nutritionists suggest taking the B-complex
vitamins as a group for overall good health. However, most agree
that the best way to get our B vitamins is naturally -- through
the foods we eat!
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