Vitamin B6 and its benefits
Vitamin B6 , also called pyridoxine , is essential for your body. Although it's water-soluble and doesn't stay in our bodies for long once we consume it, we can sometimes experience a deficiency in certain conditions. Eating the right foods and taking supplements will help you stay healthier. Learn all about this vitamin and its properties.
What is vitamin B6 used for?
We'll tell you what vitamin B6 is for and why it's so essential for a strong and healthy body. A deficiency can have a variety of causes and can lead to numerous diseases and infections, as it directly affects the production of your immune system.
Maintaining an adequate level of B6 in your body provides all the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Learn about its properties and why you need to maintain a proper diet that includes this vitamin.
Vitamin B6 and its health benefits
Consuming vitamin B6 has numerous benefits for your body. When your body experiences a deficiency, you may experience various very negative symptoms, such as depression, stress, irritability, increased mouth ulcers, and even generalized neuropathic pain.
It's very common for people with kidney or liver problems to experience a greater deficiency of this vitamin. Furthermore, when your body is deficient in B6 , it also tends to experience deficiencies in other vitamins, usually those that make up the B complex (folic acid or vitamin B9 and vitamin B12).
In itself, vitamin B6 and its properties help your body function properly, since:
- It helps strengthen the immune system by helping to build defenses, preventing recurring diseases and infections.
- It combats anemia by allowing your body to produce enough hemoglobin so that red blood cells can carry oxygen through it.
- Thanks to hemoglobin, your neurological functions remain normal, as the brain maintains proper oxygenation.
- Regulates blood glucose.
- It helps break down proteins, which are essential for cellular processes. By eating more protein, you're also increasing the amount of vitamin B6 in your body.
- During pregnancy, taking it as a supplement prevents symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
- It may reduce premenstrual symptoms, according to some preliminary studies.
Learn about foods with vitamin B6
If you follow a proper diet , you don't necessarily have to suffer from a deficiency in this vitamin, although, as we mentioned, some health problems could make its absorption difficult.
Foods rich in vitamin B6 that you can include in your regular diet include fish, such as salmon and tuna, red meat, poultry, legumes (chickpeas, beans, etc.), whole grains, cereals, nuts, and more.
You can also turn to fortified foods that contain this vitamin, such as some types of bread and even cereals. It's recommended to consume 1.3 milligrams of this vitamin daily.