A deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1) causes a disease called Beri-beri from a Sinhalese phrase meaning "I cannot, I cannot." Symptoms of Beri-beri include severe weakness and exhaustion thus the descriptive name.
Pellagra is a condition caused by niacin (vitamin B-3) deficiency causing various symptoms including weakness and lassitude.
I’ve talked a lot about the process of energy generation in the cells where your food is broken down into simple molecules like glucose and energy is generated in your cells. This complicated process going on all the time within your cells to release energy for all your conscious and unconscious processes wouldn’t be possible without the B-complex vitamins. Without enough B-vitamins your body can’t function. And if you have CFS you know what it actually feels like not to function, you know and are living the phrase “I cannot, I cannot.”
The B-vitamins that are most important for your cellular energy production are thiamine, niacin, pantothenic acid and riboflavin. Riboflavin is easy to get as it’s in all milk products, which cover a multitude of dietary sins for many of us. Pantothenic acid is part of all of the cells created so is simply found in some amount all food. And when I refer to food I mean food I don’t mean Doritos, Pop-tarts, Cap'n Crunch, Big Macs, or bottled Ranch dressing because I don’t consider any of them to be food.
B-complex (and other) vitamin deficiencies weaken immunity which is why we have so much immune dysfunction related illness today. We’re not eating food, when I say we I mean we as a whole of society, because I eat food and it looks like (when looking at my poll that I have here) there’s other people out there that also eat food. But the medical community and the FDA happen to believe that vitamin deficiencies are extinct in our modern civilization. The FDA doesn’t believe for example that we need to have B-vitamin information on food nutrition labels. Not necessary in their opinion because we’ve simply whipped the problem of vitamin deficiencies particularly vitamin B.
But if you’ve been paying attention to the wellness community information instead of government information and if you’ve been dissatisfied with the improvement or lack of improvement you’ve gotten from modern medicine then maybe you’ve decided like me to make up your own mind about such things as nutrition, supplements, and vitamins. There have been many people with CFS who’ve experienced huge improvements when taking more than the RDA of certain vitamins.
The current RDA for B12 in Europe for example is 1 micrograms for adults, while the US dietary reference intake (DRI) is 2.4 micrograms. But according to research published in the January 2006 issue of the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 83, pp. 52-58) in order to correct all vitamin B12-related variables a RDA of 6 micrograms is needed. So it looks like everyone is just estimating right now and no one really knows for sure yet. And the RDA is for normal healthy people eating a balanced whole food diet.
And you know there is a sort of "one size fits all" approach to medicine. So no matter if you're a 90 pound woman or a 165 pound woman of a certain age range (or men, the requirements are different for men and women and differ according to age ranges) your recommended requirements are the same.
So why if you’re eating a real whole food diet and doing everything right would you need to take more than the recommended amounts? Well first off if you’re sick you’re a cellularly injured person. So you need to give your cells more material to work with. Your cells are damaged and depleted, they’re in overdrive and they need help to heal. According to the CDC some of the unproven therapies for CFS include chelation therapy, megadose vitamins, and immune boosters. But what is ON their list for proven therapies (are there proven therapies?), what does that mean? Does it mean that someone with deep pockets who has funded CFS research hasn’t proved that vitamins can benefit someone who is weak and sick?
When you think of research and what’s in the literature always remember that research requires funding, so the outcome of ALL research needs to be money generating to someone, most likely the someone is the person whose wallet or stock portfolio is connected to the research. Otherwise it would have to be done by someone who has no interest in making money, someone who is 100% altruistic, and so far in my life I’ve never met a scientist, doctor, or researcher who fits that description. And as a medical researcher myself I have seen “data” that’s in support of hypothesis that is simply ludicrous and I’ve also been privy to what researchers call “beating the data” or that whatever you need to support you can find it in the literature if you look hard enough while excluding what’s convenient for your research outcome. So enough of that soap box I think you got my point.
Let’s take a look at the B vitamins; eight water-soluble vitamins that all have a vital role in cell metabolism. Each of the B vitamins are of in themselves chemically distinct vitamins. They often coexist in foods and supplements that contain all eight are referred to as a vitamin B complex. Or by themselves each of the B vitamins are referred to by the specific name of each vitamin as follows:
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
- Vitamin B3 (niacin, includes nicotinic acid and nicotinamide)
- Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
- Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine)
- Vitamin B7 (biotin), also known as vitamin H
- Vitamin B9 (folic acid), also, vitamin M
- Vitamin B12 (various cobalamins; commonly cyanocobalamin in vitamin supplements)
The following are no longer classified as vitamins because they are synthesized by the human body.
Vitamin B4 (adenine, DNA metabolite)
Vitamin B8 (myo-inositol, adenylic acid, DNA metabolite)
There are several vitamin deficiency diseases BUT deficiencies of other B vitamins result in symptoms that are not classified in themselves as a deficiency disease. So fatigue or depression aren't classified as a deficiency disease even though they may be treated and cured so to speak by vitamin supplementation.
Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency causes beriberi with nervous system symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, Wernicke's encephalopathy (impaired sensory perception), weakness and pain in the limbs, periods of irregular heartbeat, and edema (swelling of bodily tissues) and in advanced cases heart failure and death. Chronic thiamine deficiency may lead to Korsakoff's syndrome, an irreversible psychosis characterized by amnesia and confabulation.
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency causes ariboflavinosis with symptoms that may include cheilosis (cracks in the lips), high sensitivity to sunlight, angular cheilitis, glossitis (inflammation of the tongue), seborrheic dermatitis or pseudo-syphilis (particularly affecting the scrotum or labia majora and the mouth), pharyngitis, hyperemia, and edema of the pharyngeal and oral mucosa.
Vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency together with a deficiency of tryptophan causes pellagra with symptoms including aggression, dermatitis, insomnia, weakness, mental confusion, and diarrhea. Advanced pellagra may lead to dementia and death.
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) deficiency can manifest in acne and paresthesia but this deficiency is not common.
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) deficiency causes anemia, depression, dermatitis, high blood pressure (hypertension), water retention, and elevated levels of homocysteine.
Vitamin B7 (biotin) deficiency may lead to impaired growth and neurological disorders in infants.
Vitamin B9 (folic acid) deficiency results in a macrocytic anemia (abnormally large red blood cells), and elevated levels of homocysteine. Folic acid supplements are important for pregnant women to avoid birth defects. Folic acid might also slow effects of aging on the brain.
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency causes macrocytic anemia, elevated homocysteine, peripheral neuropathy, memory loss and other cognitive deficits. Elderly people often have absorption problems in their GI tract and the autoimmune disease pernicious anemia is also due to the inability to absorb vitamin B12. This deficiency may also manifest as mania and psychosis. Severe deficiency may result in paralysis.
There’s a whole bunch of other substances that have been referred to as vitamins, believed to be vitamins at one time, and assigned numbers for the "gaps" in the series of B-vitamin names. Some aren’t essential to humans but to other organisms and others have no known nutritional value.
Together the B vitamins are necessary for various health benefits to the body including:
- Metabolism
- Healthy skin and muscle tone
- Immune and nervous system function
- Cell growth and division
- Reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer when obtained from food
- Dealing with stress, prevention and treatment of depression, and cardiovascular disease
So here's a thought to ponder, you need the B vitamins for all of the above, but doctors don't "believe" in treating such things as immune system problems like CFS with vitamins because CFS isn't a vitamin deficiency disease. Or is it partially? Doesn't overwhelming stress contribute to CFS? Isn't Vitamin B depleted in the body from stress? ETC.!
B vitamins are water soluble and must be replenished daily, since any excess is excreted in the urine. But although B12 (cobalamin) is water soluble it is found stored in the liver.
Vitamin B sources include potatoes, whole grains, bananas, lentils, Chile peppers, Tempeh, liver oil, liver, turkey, tuna, Nutritional yeast (or brewer's yeast) and molasses.
The B-12 vitamin is not available from plant products, so this deficiency is a concern for vegans.
Vitamin B can be delivered by injection to reverse deficiencies. Or you can take dietary supplements in pills.
B complex consists of 11 vitamin B factors that work together for metabolic functions, including glucose metabolism, stabilization of brain chemistry, and inactivation of estrogen. You need it for energy and vitality. B vitamins are easily lost in urine and
are depleted by stress, by eating a crap diet, drinking coffee, soft drinks, or anything with caffeine. Fatigue and depression are symptoms of depletion of B vitamins.
Some of the more common and really brilliant marketing strategies are those for energy drinks and vitamin waters particularly those containing vitamins, sugar, and caffeine. Vitamins aren't instantly converted into energy, even though they're necessary for energy production so advertising energy boosting energy waters is misleading. B vitamins are depleted by the use of caffeine, and the use of sugar and caffeine tricks you into believing you’re getting an energy kick but the reality is that both are addicting and health damaging stimulants and have no place in a healing diet. Both sugar and caffeine are incredibly hard on the adrenal glands for one and that's a system that's really damaged by stress in CFS and other chronic illnesses.
Folic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B6), and vitamin B12 all prevent anemia and fatigue because they’re necessary for normal growth and maturation of red blood cells.
Vitamin B6 is also vital to relieve and prevent fatigue particularly when it’s related to infections caused by bacteria, viruses, candida, or from allergies. You need B6 for a healthy immune response, for the production of antibodies by white blood cells and the production of T-cell lymphocytes by the thymus, and to enhance the activity of the T-cells to combat infectious agents. B6 helps prevent and treat PMS related mood swings, fatigue, food cravings, and fluid retention. It’s necessary for glucose metabolism and prostaglandin synthesis, hormones synthesized from certain essential vegetable and fish oils that regulate many important physiological functions. These essential fats need B6 to be converted to prostaglandins. Prostaglandin deficiency negatively affects brain chemistry and mood and worsens fatigue.
Recently I mentioned that birth control pills and synthetic HRT may be a trigger for CFS and this is because these hormones cause vitamin B6 deficiency. Depression and fatigue can also be due to a B6 deficiency. B-complex vitamins are usually found together in beans and whole grains together with supplements if you’re sick.
Your gynecologist may give you birth control pills for symptoms of PMS and your psychiatrist may give you anti-depressants for depression but he/she wouldn't ever consider giving you Vitamin B supplements...go figure! You need vitamins and other nutrients, exercise, and sleep to make hormones in the body, but rather than give you a prescription for that (take a whole food diet, some exercise, 8 hours of sleep every night, and vitamins and call me in the morning) they give you some laboratory produced synthetic chemical. And they say it "may not benefit everyone," while the prescription I just wrote out DOES BENEFIT EVERYONE!
You can take a B-50, B-75, or B-100 supplement daily, or take one B complex a day, or one with meals. You can also supplement with B12 sub-lingual tablets or B-12 injections for the treatment of CFS. B-12 metabolism at the cellular level might be abnormal in persons with CFS. Some think this is due to reduced transport of vitamin B across the cell membrane or enzyme abnormalities that prevent the breakdown of B within the cell. B-12 injections might improve the energy and well-being in a majority of CFS patients. Talk to your doctor or try taking the sub-lingual B12 that you can find in health food stores.
I’m not going to give a definite dose here for anyone because everyone’s disease and state of health is different.
Orthomolecular CFS treatment consists of taking large doses of supplements under the supervision of a doctor. Never mega-dose on any vitamin without consulting your doctor and especially if you’re not eating a balanced real whole food diet. Vitamins by themselves without the synergistic components found in foods that are necessary for bodily processes are both dangerous and a waste of money.
Vitamin B12 is considered safe and non-toxic.
Taking any one of the B complex vitamins by itself can result in an imbalance of other important B vitamins so you need to take a B complex vitamin with any single B vitamin.
Don’t use B12 supplements without first talking to your medical-care provider if you’re taking medications.
These are my opinions and conclusions based on my education, research, and personal experience.
PS. I don't take anything stimulating including Vitamin B in the afternoon because I find it messes with my sleep.
1 Comment
A deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1) causes a disease called Beri-beri from a Sinhalese phrase meaning "I cannot, I cannot." Symptoms of Beri-beri include severe weakness and exhaustion thus the descriptive name.
Pellagra is a condition caused by niacin (vitamin B-3) deficiency causing various symptoms including weakness and lassitude.
I’ve talked a lot about the process of energy generation in the cells where your food is broken down into simple molecules like glucose and energy is generated in your cells. This complicated process going on all the time within your cells to release energy for all your conscious and unconscious processes wouldn’t be possible without the B-complex vitamins. Without enough B-vitamins your body can’t function. And if you have CFS you know what it actually feels like not to function, you know and are living the phrase “I cannot, I cannot.”
The B-vitamins that are most important for your cellular energy production are thiamine, niacin, pantothenic acid and riboflavin. Riboflavin is easy to get as it’s in all milk products, which cover a multitude of dietary sins for many of us. Pantothenic acid is part of all of the cells created so is simply found in some amount all food. And when I refer to food I mean food I don’t mean Doritos, Pop-tarts, Cap'n Crunch, Big Macs, or bottled Ranch dressing because I don’t consider any of them to be food.
B-complex (and other) vitamin deficiencies weaken immunity which is why we have so much immune dysfunction related illness today. We’re not eating food, when I say we I mean we as a whole of society, because I eat food and it looks like (when looking at my poll that I have here) there’s other people out there that also eat food. But the medical community and the FDA happen to believe that vitamin deficiencies are extinct in our modern civilization. The FDA doesn’t believe for example that we need to have B-vitamin information on food nutrition labels. Not necessary in their opinion because we’ve simply whipped the problem of vitamin deficiencies particularly vitamin B.
But if you’ve been paying attention to the wellness community information instead of government information and if you’ve been dissatisfied with the improvement or lack of improvement you’ve gotten from modern medicine then maybe you’ve decided like me to make up your own mind about such things as nutrition, supplements, and vitamins. There have been many people with CFS who’ve experienced huge improvements when taking more than the RDA of certain vitamins.
The current RDA for B12 in Europe for example is 1 micrograms for adults, while the US dietary reference intake (DRI) is 2.4 micrograms. But according to research published in the January 2006 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 83, pp. 52-58) in order to correct all vitamin B12-related variables a RDA of 6 micrograms is needed. So it looks like everyone is just estimating right now and no one really knows for sure yet. And the RDA is for normal healthy people eating a balanced whole food diet.
And you know there is a sort of "one size fits all" approach to medicine. So no matter if you're a 90 pound woman or a 165 pound woman of a certain age range (or men, the requirements are different for men and women and differ according to age ranges) your recommended requirements are the same.
So why if you’re eating a real whole food diet and doing everything right would you need to take more than the recommended amounts? Well first off if you’re sick you’re a cellularly injured person. So you need to give your cells more material to work with. Your cells are damaged and depleted, they’re in overdrive and they need help to heal. According to the CDC some of the unproven therapies for CFS include chelation therapy, megadose vitamins, and immune boosters. But what is ON their list for proven therapies (are there proven therapies?), what does that mean? Does it mean that someone with deep pockets who has funded CFS research hasn’t proved that vitamins can benefit someone who is weak and sick?
When you think of research and what’s in the literature always remember that research requires funding, so the outcome of ALL research needs to be money generating to someone, most likely the someone is the person whose wallet or stock portfolio is connected to the research. Otherwise it would have to be done by someone who has no interest in making money, someone who is 100% altruistic, and so far in my life I’ve never met a scientist, doctor, or researcher who fits that description. And as a medical researcher myself I have seen “data” that’s in support of hypothesis that is simply ludicrous and I’ve also been privy to what researchers call “beating the data” or that whatever you need to support you can find it in the literature if you look hard enough while excluding what’s convenient for your research outcome. So enough of that soap box I think you got my point.
Let’s take a look at the B vitamins; eight water-soluble vitamins that all have a vital role in cell metabolism. Each of the B vitamins are of in themselves chemically distinct vitamins. They often coexist in foods and supplements that contain all eight are referred to as a vitamin B complex. Or by themselves each of the B vitamins are referred to by the specific name of each vitamin as follows:
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
- Vitamin B3 (niacin, includes nicotinic acid and nicotinamide)
- Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
- Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine)
- Vitamin B7 (biotin), also known as vitamin H
- Vitamin B9 (folic acid), also, vitamin M
- Vitamin B12 (various cobalamins; commonly cyanocobalamin in vitamin supplements)
The following are no longer classified as vitamins because they are synthesized by the human body.Vitamin B4 (adenine, DNA metabolite)
Vitamin B8 (myo-inositol, adenylic acid, DNA metabolite)
There are several vitamin deficiency diseases BUT deficiencies of other B vitamins result in symptoms that are not classified in themselves as a deficiency disease. So fatigue or depression aren't classified as a deficiency disease even though they may be treated and cured so to speak by vitamin supplementation.
Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency causes beriberi with nervous system symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, Wernicke's encephalopathy (impaired sensory perception), weakness and pain in the limbs, periods of irregular heartbeat, and edema (swelling of bodily tissues) and in advanced cases heart failure and death. Chronic thiamine deficiency may lead to Korsakoff's syndrome, an irreversible psychosis characterized by amnesia and confabulation.
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency causes ariboflavinosis with symptoms that may include cheilosis (cracks in the lips), high sensitivity to sunlight, angular cheilitis, glossitis (inflammation of the tongue), seborrheic dermatitis or pseudo-syphilis (particularly affecting the scrotum or labia majora and the mouth), pharyngitis, hyperemia, and edema of the pharyngeal and oral mucosa.
Vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency together with a deficiency of tryptophan causes pellagra with symptoms including aggression, dermatitis, insomnia, weakness, mental confusion, and diarrhea. Advanced pellagra may lead to dementia and death.
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) deficiency can manifest in acne and paresthesia but this deficiency is not common.
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) deficiency causes anemia, depression, dermatitis, high blood pressure (hypertension), water retention, and elevated levels of homocysteine.
Vitamin B7 (biotin) deficiency may lead to impaired growth and neurological disorders in infants.
Vitamin B9 (folic acid) deficiency results in a macrocytic anemia (abnormally large red blood cells), and elevated levels of homocysteine. Folic acid supplements are important for pregnant women to avoid birth defects. Folic acid might also slow effects of aging on the brain.
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency causes macrocytic anemia, elevated homocysteine, peripheral neuropathy, memory loss and other cognitive deficits. Elderly people often have absorption problems in their GI tract and the autoimmune disease pernicious anemia is also due to the inability to absorb vitamin B12. This deficiency may also manifest as mania and psychosis. Severe deficiency may result in paralysis.
There’s a whole bunch of other substances that have been referred to as vitamins, believed to be vitamins at one time, and assigned numbers for the "gaps" in the series of B-vitamin names. Some aren’t essential to humans but to other organisms and others have no known nutritional value.
Together the B vitamins are necessary for various health benefits to the body including:
- Metabolism
- Healthy skin and muscle tone
- Immune and nervous system function
- Cell growth and division
- Reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer when obtained from food
- Dealing with stress, prevention and treatment of depression, and cardiovascular disease
So here's a thought to ponder, you need the B vitamins for all of the above, but doctors don't "believe" in treating such things as immune system problems like CFS with vitamins because CFS isn't a vitamin deficiency disease. Or is it partially? Doesn't overwhelming stress contribute to CFS? Isn't Vitamin B depleted in the body from stress? ETC.!B vitamins are water soluble and must be replenished daily, since any excess is excreted in the urine. But although B12 (cobalamin) is water soluble it is found stored in the liver.
Vitamin B sources include potatoes, whole grains, bananas, lentils, Chile peppers, Tempeh, liver oil, liver, turkey, tuna, Nutritional yeast (or brewer's yeast) and molasses.
The B-12 vitamin is not available from plant products, so this deficiency is a concern for vegans.
Vitamin B can be delivered by injection to reverse deficiencies. Or you can take dietary supplements in pills.
B complex consists of 11 vitamin B factors that work together for metabolic functions, including glucose metabolism, stabilization of brain chemistry, and inactivation of estrogen. You need it for energy and vitality. B vitamins are easily lost in urine and are depleted by stress, by eating a crap diet, drinking coffee, soft drinks, or anything with caffeine. Fatigue and depression are symptoms of depletion of B vitamins.
Some of the more common and really brilliant marketing strategies are those for energy drinks and vitamin waters particularly those containing vitamins, sugar, and caffeine. Vitamins aren't instantly converted into energy, even though they're necessary for energy production so advertising energy boosting energy waters is misleading. B vitamins are depleted by the use of caffeine, and the use of sugar and caffeine tricks you into believing you’re getting an energy kick but the reality is that both are addicting and health damaging stimulants and have no place in a healing diet. Both sugar and caffeine are incredibly hard on the adrenal glands for one and that's a system that's really damaged by stress in CFS and other chronic illnesses.
Folic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B6), and vitamin B12 all prevent anemia and fatigue because they’re necessary for normal growth and maturation of red blood cells.
Vitamin B6 is also vital to relieve and prevent fatigue particularly when it’s related to infections caused by bacteria, viruses, candida, or from allergies. You need B6 for a healthy immune response, for the production of antibodies by white blood cells and the production of T-cell lymphocytes by the thymus, and to enhance the activity of the T-cells to combat infectious agents. B6 helps prevent and treat PMS related mood swings, fatigue, food cravings, and fluid retention. It’s necessary for glucose metabolism and prostaglandin synthesis, hormones synthesized from certain essential vegetable and fish oils that regulate many important physiological functions. These essential fats need B6 to be converted to prostaglandins. Prostaglandin deficiency negatively affects brain chemistry and mood and worsens fatigue.
Recently I mentioned that birth control pills and synthetic HRT may be a trigger for CFS and this is because these hormones cause vitamin B6 deficiency. Depression and fatigue can also be due to a B6 deficiency. B-complex vitamins are usually found together in beans and whole grains together with supplements if you’re sick.
Your gynecologist may give you birth control pills for symptoms of PMS and your psychiatrist may give you anti-depressants for depression but he/she wouldn't ever consider giving you Vitamin B supplements...go figure! You need vitamins and other nutrients, exercise, and sleep to make hormones in the body, but rather than give you a prescription for that (take a whole food diet, some exercise, 8 hours of sleep every night, and vitamins and call me in the morning) they give you some laboratory produced synthetic chemical. And they say it "may not benefit everyone," while the prescription I just wrote out DOES BENEFIT EVERYONE!
You can take a B-50, B-75, or B-100 supplement daily, or take one B complex a day, or one with meals. You can also supplement with B12 sub-lingual tablets or B-12 injections for the treatment of CFS. B-12 metabolism at the cellular level might be abnormal in persons with CFS. Some think this is due to reduced transport of vitamin B across the cell membrane or enzyme abnormalities that prevent the breakdown of B within the cell. B-12 injections might improve the energy and well-being in a majority of CFS patients. Talk to your doctor or try taking the sub-lingual B12 that you can find in health food stores.
I’m not going to give a definite dose here for anyone because everyone’s disease and state of health is different. Orthomolecular CFS treatment consists of taking large doses of supplements under the supervision of a doctor.
Never mega-dose on any vitamin without consulting your doctor and especially if you’re not eating a balanced real whole food diet. Vitamins by themselves without the synergistic components found in foods that are necessary for bodily processes are both dangerous and a waste of money.
Vitamin B12 is considered safe and non-toxic.
Taking any one of the B complex vitamins by itself can result in an imbalance of other important B vitamins so you need to take a B complex vitamin with any single B vitamin.
Don’t use B12 supplements without first talking to your medical-care provider if you’re taking medications.
These are my opinions and conclusions based on my education, research, and personal experience.
PS. I don't take anything stimulating including Vitamin B in the afternoon because I find it messes with my sleep.