Are you currently experiencing tingling in your hands and feet? Are you constantly tired, always irritable or having trouble concentrating? The feelings that you may be experiencing could be attributed to not enough vitamin B6 in your diet.
Vitamin B6, in conjunction with the other B vitamins, help convert the food you eat into energy. By itself, vitamin B6 has many other uses that are essential to maintaining a healthy body and healthy brain.
What Is Vitamin B6?
Vitamin B6 or Pyridoxine is one of the eight water-soluble B vitamins that specifically plays an imperative role in keeping the brain and nervous system functioning properly. This vitamin is so essential that it even triggered the growth of the first living organisms on earth. According to the University of Illinois, vitamin B6 may have helped the development of Earth’s first oxygen-producing organisms billions of years ago.
If vitamin B6 can help the development of the first organisms on earth, you can reap the health developing benefits of this vitamin as well.
Benefits of Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is important for a variety of reasons including digestive tracts, heart health and a whole lot of other bodily functions as well.
Boosts Cognitive Function
One of the amazing things about vitamin B6 is that it naturally boosts your cognitive function. It’s essential for the proper brain development in children and functions for all ages.
Vitamin B6 helps the body produce hormones like serotonin, which regulates mood and norepinephrine to help our bodies cope with stress. These are the reasons why vitamin B6 is suggested for behavior disorders including ADHD in children.
Detoxifies the Liver
Vitamin B6 plays a vital role in removing unwanted chemicals from the body, which is why it is recommended for patients who suffer from liver diseases to treat chronic liver dysfunction.
Protects the Heart
This vitamin helps maintain good cholesterol and blood pressure levels to prevent many types of heart disorders. It also helps regulate homocysteine levels in the blood because too much of this amino acid can lead to a heart attack.
Treats Anemia
If your body starts to produce an unusual amount of red blood cells, you will start to develop the symptoms associated with anemia. Vitamin B6 is needed to create hemoglobin in the blood to help regulate those red blood cells and relieve you from anemia-related symptoms.
Aside from the above benefits, vitamin B6 also possesses the following benefits:
- Prevents diabetes
- Helps protect your eyes
- Relieves mood swings
- Helps with hair loss
- Promotes healthy skin
- Treats nausea associated with pregnancy
- Helps relieve carpal tunnel syndrome
Considering all the health advantages that vitamin B6 provides, wouldn’t you want to make sure you’re getting enough of this essential vitamin in your diet? Follow the tips below to ensure that you’re getting your daily intake.
Foods High in Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is readily available in natural food sources and supplements. If you choose to use natural sources to receive your daily intake, these following foods have naturally high B6 levels.
- Turkey breast
- Grass-fed beef
- Tuna
- Pistachio nuts
- Pinto beans
- Avocado
- Chicken breast
- Sunflower seeds
- Sesame seeds
- Chickpeas
- Amaranth
Side Effects of Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 proposes a multitude of benefits to improve overall wellbeing. Nevertheless, it is always important that you speak to your doctor first for a recommended diet and supplements with the correct dosage.
- High dosages of vitamin B6 can lead to neurological damage.
- Allergic reactions may occur in rare cases.
