VITAMIN B5

VITAMIN B5

Vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid and pantothenate, is vital to living a healthy life. Like all B complex vitamins, B5 helps the body convert food into energy. B5 is naturally found in many food sources. "Pantothenic," in fact, means "from everywhere," because the vitamin is available in so many food sources. 

Vitamin B5 plays a pivotal role in the breakdown of fats, carbohydrates and proteins for providing energy to the cells. It is also required for the production of red blood cells, steroids, neurotransmitters and stress related hormones. It helps in maintaining a healthy digestive tract and also assists the body in making an optimal use of vitamin B2.

In order to synthesize cholesterol, the body makes use of pantothenic acid and thus this vitamin finds its use even in the production of cholesterol. In this regard, several studies have been carried out to see whether pantothenic (a derivative of pantothenic acid) can be used for lowering blood cholesterol levels in the body.

 Vitamin B5 Deficiency

The deficiency symptoms of Vitamin B5 are similar to other B vitamin deficiencies. The symptoms include:

1. decreased levels of energy, which in turn leads to irritability, depression, apathy and undue fatigue
2. neurological disturbances such as paresthesia (burning feet syndrome), muscle cramps, tingling sensation in the hands, cardiac distress and numbness
3. hypoglycemia
4. decreased serum potassium levels
5. restlessness
6. upper respiratory tract infections
7. malaise
8. sleep apnea
9. nausea
10. vomiting
11. abdominal cramps
12. decreased immunity, which makes the host body susceptible to frequent infections

Deficiency symptoms not treated in time can lead to debilitating conditions such as hepatic encephalopathy and adrenal insufficiency.

 Sources of Vitamin B5

1. animal meats
2. whole grains
3. milk and milk products
4. vegetables such as broccoli, avocados, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and kale
5. peanuts
6. soyabeans
7. wheat germ
8. legumes
9. cereals
10. split peas
11. sunflower seeds
12. lentils
13. egg yolk
14. organ meats, beef, salmon, chicken, duck, lobster and turkey

It needs to be understood here that most of vitamin B5 is lost during processing. Hence, whole unprocessed food grains, fresh vegetables and meats have more quantities of this vitamin than frozen and canned food products.

Need of vitamin B5?

Vitamin B5 has many important functions. These include:

1. converting food into glucose
2. synthesizing cholesterol
3. forming sex and stress-related hormones
4. forming red blood cells

As with all B vitamins, pantothenic acid helps the body break down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins so that our bodies can use them for energy and rebuilding tissues, muscles, and organs.

RDA

As the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) felt the existing scientific evidence was insufficient to calculate a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin B5, they set an AI for pantothenic acid in 1998, based on estimated dietary intakes in healthy population groups (12): 

Life Stage	Age	Males: (mg/day)	Females: (mg/day)
Infants	0–6 months	1.7	1.7
Infants	7–12 months	1.8	1.8
Children	1–3 years	2	2
Children	4–8 years	3	3
Children	9–13 years	4	4
Adolescents	14–18 years	5	5
Adults	19 years and older	5	5
Pregnancy	all ages	-	6
Breast-feeding	all ages	-	7