The 8 B Vitamins And How They Affect The Brain

Health experts always tell you to take your vitamins, but they rarely go into the specifics of what that means. And for this reason, most of us settle for taking a multivitamin every day and hoping that it gives us what we need. But everyone’s bodies are different and multivitamins will rarely target everything you need.

This is why I believe it’s important to know about all the vitamins, what they do, and make informed decisions about which vitamins we might need more of. And since nutrition is such an important part of managing epilepsy, I’ve begun to research even more about vitamins to try to Rach gain seizure control.

Today I’d like to talk about the group of B vitamins, because there’s a lot more than meets the eye! Let’s start with the most basic question…

How Many B Vitamins Are There? 

What Do Each Of The B Vitamins Do?

Although they’re all in the same family, each B vitamin has its own task to complete in your body. I’ll quickly cover what each vitamin in this family does for everyone, and then I’ll go into detail on how certain B vitamins can help people with epilepsy.

Thiamin -

Vitamin B1 has a few main roles. It helps break down carbohydrate molecules from food into sugar that is then used to fuel your body, it produces fatty acids, it synthesizes select hormones, and it helps to create a few specific neurotransmitters.

Riboflavin -

Vitamin B2 produces energy within the body and helps to break down fats, drugs, and steroid hormones; but it also has the unique job of converting other B vitamins. It converts tryptophan into niacin (B3), and it converts pyridoxine (B6) into a necessary coenzyme.

Niacin -

Vitamin B3 actually doesn’t do much itself, but it’s converted by the body into a powerful coenzyme that’s usually referred to as NAD. NAD is part of over 400 separate enzymes that help the body in various ways including the cellular expression of DNA, cellular communication, cellular metabolic processes, and changing the energy found in various foods to forms used by the body.

Pantothenic Acid -

Vitamin B5 doesn’t have as many specific tasks as other members of the B vitamin family, but it’s still important in various bodily functions. It’s carried around by red blood cells and helps in the creation of coenzymes, proteins, and fats.

Pyridoxine -

Vitamin B6 affects over 100 enzyme reactions that perform actions like breaking down carbs and fats, metabolizing amino acids, as well as aiding in brain development and immune functions.

Biotin -

Vitamin B7 is important for three main reasons. It helps with cellular communications. It plays a role in regulated DNA. And it breaks down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Some people believe that biotin actually helps you have healthier hair, nails, and skin but there’s not a lot of scientific evidence about those benefits yet.

Folate -

Vitamin B9 is known to lower the risk of birth defects in babies if the mother has high enough levels before and during pregnancy, but it also has non-pregnancy related benefits such as the metabolizing of vitamins and amino acids, healthy cellular division, and replication of DNA.

B12  -

Vitamin B12 is useful to your body in many ways. It helps in the creation of new red blood cells, the synthesizing of DNA, the metabolizing fat and protein, and various neurological functions.

B Vitamins That Affect Epilepsy -

Obviously all the B vitamins are important to your body, whether or not you have epilepsy, so you never want to have a deficiency in any of them. But there’s only one B vitamin deficiency that has been proven to cause or contribute to seizures, according to Epilepsy Foundation’s website, and that is a vitamin B6 deficiency.

Typically this doesn’t affect older children or adults, and it seems to only be a real problem with infants that are having seizures.

If a doctor suspects there may be a vitamin B6 deficiency then they’ll attach an IV to the baby during the EEG that will give the baby some of the vitamin. If the seizure activity improves then they’ll know it has something to do with a vitamin B6 deficiency and will treat them accordingly.

But even though B vitamins haven’t been scientifically linked to epilepsy treatments often, you can see by reading about what they do that they play an important role in overall brain health. And I think that’s important for everyone, especially if you have a brain related disorder like epilepsy.

So if you’re as convinced as me, let’s take a look at how you can make sure you’re giving your body enough B vitamins.

How To Get Enough B Vitamins

As with most vitamins, you can either up your intake by eating foods that contain them or you can take supplements if you feel that you’re still not getting enough for your body. Supplements can be bought over the counter, or prescribed by a doctor. Diet is a bit more complicated.

And since there are eight different B vitamins, you’re unlikely to get all of them from just one food. So to make it a bit simpler, here’s a list of three foods rich in each B vitamin! You might even notice some crossover foods that take care of multiple B vitamins.

I really hope you enjoyed this brief summary of the B vitamins. It’s truly an important vitamin family and I think it’s worth making sure our bodies have enough of it, especially if there’s reason to suspect a deficiency.

If you’ve had an experience with a B vitamin deficiency or, on a more epilepsy related note, if you’ve noticed that certain B vitamins do improve your seizure control then please let me know in the comments!