Many women are deficient in vitamin B6. Find out why this vitamin is so important.
Timestamps
0:00 Vitamin B6 and women
0:22 Why vitamin B6 is important
2:02 Foods rich in vitamin B6
2:12 Symptoms of a vitamin B6 deficiency in females
3:18 Share your success story!
Let’s talk about the importance of vitamin B6 in females. 32% of women are deficient in vitamin B6. I want to increase your awareness of this issue and what happens when you’re deficient in vitamin B6.
Vitamin B6 is involved in over 140 different enzyme reactions. It also acts as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Vitamin B6 is a helper compound that allows other chemical reactions to work. If you’re having certain problems, you may just need vitamin B6 because it’s involved in so many different chemical reactions.
There are three main things vitamin B6 does:
1. It’s involved in protein, fat, and carb metabolization
2. It’s involved in the red blood cell
3. It’s essential for making neurotransmitters
Normally, a person has hundreds of different microbes in the gut that make B vitamins. But, these microbes don’t make vitamin B6 in large amounts. Your microbiome actually needs nutrients from your diet to function. We also get many of our nutrients from the microbiome. If you’re not getting enough nutrients from your diet, that may affect your microbiome. A lack of microbiome can affect the nutrients they give you.
Foods that are high in vitamin B6:
• Tuna
• Turkey
• Beef
• Chicken
• Salmon
• Sunflower seeds
• Spinach
Symptoms of a vitamin B6 deficiency in females:
1. PMS symptoms including anxiety, depression, and irritability (one study suggests that taking vitamin B6 can reduce these symptoms by 69% and that adding magnesium may help even more)
2. Nausea, or morning sickness and vomiting while pregnant (ginger may also help)
3. Breast cancer (the risk may reduce with enough B6)
4. Fluid retention
5. Carpal tunnel syndrome (especially during pregnancy)
Dr. Eric Berg
08/31/2023
