Since excess water-soluble vitamins are eliminated through the urine, they need to be replenished more often than fat-soluble vitamins. The following nine water-soluble vitamins are known to be essential for health.
1. Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps in energy production.
- Supports energy production.
- Helps normal growth.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Fatigue, irritability, cognitive impairment, pins-and-needles sensation and numbness of legs, constipation, beri-beri.
Good Natural Sources:
Organ meats, pork, legumes, whole grains, eggs, poultry, fish.
Thiamine is part of the coenzyme, thiamine pyrophosphate. Thiamine pyrophosphate works as an essential cofactor for five enzymes involved in glucose, amino acid, and lipid metabolism. It is important for the growth, development, and function of the cells in the body. Thiamine has a short half-life, so people require a continuous supply of it from the diet or supplement.
2. Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps in energy metabolism and in tissue formation.
- Helps to maintain healthy mucous membranes.
- Helps to maintain normal red blood cells.
- Helps to maintain normal metabolism of iron.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients and helps in tissue formation.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Cracking of lips and corners of mouth, inflamed tongue, sensitivity to light, loss of visual acuity, cataracts, anemia, seborrheic dermatitis, fatigue, poor appetite.
Good Natural Sources:
Liver, dairy products, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, legumes, spinach.
The word “flavin” comes from the Latin term “flavus” which means yellow. As a water-soluble vitamin, excess riboflavin that is not absorbed by the body will be excreted through the urine. It is why people find that urine temporarily turns a bright yellow colour several hours after taking it.
Riboflavin is an essential part of two coenzymes, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. These coenzymes play major roles in energy production; cellular function, growth, and development; and metabolism of fats, drugs, and steroids.
3. Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps normal growth and development.
- Helps in energy metabolism and tissue formation.
- A factor in the maintenance of good health and normal growth and development
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Apprehension, irritability, depression, weakness, memory loss, pellagra (dermatitis, dementia, diarrhea).
Good Natural Sources:
Organ meats, meat, poultry, fish, legumes, dairy products, eggs, whole grains.
Niacin is the generic name for nicotinic acid, niacinamide, and related derivatives. Niacin is required for brain and nervous system function and is important for DNA repair and cell differentiation.
Niacin is converted in the body into coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which can be further converted into coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). NAD is required for enzymes involved in essential cellular functions, such as the maintenance of genome integrity, control of gene expression, and cellular communication. NADP enables the synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids, and plays a important role in maintaining cellular antioxidant function.
4. Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid)
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps in energy metabolism and in tissue formation.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients and helps in tissue formation.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Numbness and burning of the hands and feet, headache, extreme tiredness, irritability, restlessness, sleeping problems, stomach pain, heartburn, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.
Good Natural Sources:
Organ meats, milk, fish, poultry, eggs, whole grains, legumes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, avocados, cauliflower.
Like the other B vitamins, pantothenic acid plays a vital role in metabolism and energy production. Besides, pantothenic acid plays an important role in fatty acid synthesis and degradation, and the production of hormones.
5. Vitamin B6
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps in energy metabolism and in tissue formation.
- Helps to form red blood cells.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Depression, glucose intolerance, anemia, impaired nerve function, cracks in the corners of the mouth, eczema.
Good Natural Sources:
Wheat germ, whole grains, bananas, potatoes, salmon, herring, liver, meat, poultry, eggs.
The body needs vitamin B6 for more than 100 enzyme reactions involved in metabolism. Vitamin B6 is also involved in brain development during pregnancy and infancy as well as immune function and hemoglobin formation.
6. Biotin
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps to maintain healthy hair, nail, mucous membranes and/or skin.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Hair loss; red scaly rash around eyes, nose, mouth, and genital area; depression; lethargy; hallucination; numbness and tingling in extremities.
Good Natural Sources:
Meat, fish, eggs, organ meats, Seeds and nuts, sweet potatoes, spinach, broccoli.
Biotin serves as a coenzyme for five carboxylase enzymes, which are involved in the metabolism of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Biotin also plays key roles in histone modifications, gene regulation, and cell signaling.
7. Vitamin B9 (Folate)
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps to form red blood cells.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
- Products providing 400 µg or more of folate per day:
- Helps to reduce the risk of neural tube defects when taken daily at least three months prior to becoming pregnant and during early pregnancy.
- Helps to support normal early fetal development (brain and spinal cord).
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Anemia, irritability, weakness, insomnia, depression, poor growth, diarrhea, gingivitis, memory problems, loss of appetite, fatigue, shortness of breath.
Good Natural Sources:
Dark green leafy vegetables, liver, legumes, asparagus, broccoli, wheat germ, whole grains.
Folate (also known as folacin or folic acid) is needed for DNA and other genetic material synthesis, cell division, and amino acid metabolism. For this reason, folate is especially important during pregnancy for normal fetal development. It is essential to the development of the spine, brain and skull of the fetus during early pregnancy. Folate also aids in the formation of red blood cells.
8. Vitamin B12
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps to form red blood cells.
- Helps in the normal function of the immune system.
- Helps in energy metabolism in the body.
- Helps to maintain healthy metabolism.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Impaired nervous system function, cognitive impairment, pernicious anemia.
Good Natural Sources:
Liver, kidney, beef, herring, mackerel, eggs, fish, cheese.
Vitamin B12 is required for proper red blood cell formation, neurological function, and DNA synthesis. There are two steps required for the body to absorb vitamin B12 from food. First, hydrochloric acid and enzymes in the stomach separate vitamin B12 from the protein to which vitamin B12 is attached. After this, free vitamin B12 combines with intrinsic factor, a protein made by the stomach, and then is absorbed by the body. Therefore, it is hard for many elderly people to absorb vitamin B12 from food, because they do not have enough hydrochloric acid in their stomach. They are recommended to get vitamin B12 from fortified foods or dietary supplements. Because the synthetic vitamin B12 is already in free form, and thus do not require the separation step with hydrochloric acid.
Only animal foods have vitamin B12 naturally. Therefore, vegetarians and vegans are more likely to become depleted in vitamin B12. When pregnant women and women who breastfeed their babies are strict vegetarians or vegans, their babies might also not get enough vitamin B12.
9. Vitamin C
Specific uses or purposes:
- Helps in the development and maintenance of bones, cartilage, teeth and/or gums.
- Helps in the development and maintenance of bones, cartilage, teeth and/or gums and in connective tissue formation.
- Helps in connective tissue formation.
- Helps in wound healing.
- Helps in wound healing and connective tissue formation.
- Source of/An antioxidant for the maintenance of good health.
- Antioxidant for good health.
- Source of/An antioxidant that helps fight/protect (cell) against/reduce (the oxidative effect of/the oxidative damage caused by/cell damage caused by) free radicals.
- Helps in collagen formation to maintain healthy bones, cartilage, teeth and/or gums.
- Helps (to) maintain/support immune function.
- Helps with immune function.
- Helps to maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients.
Symptoms of Deficiency:
Bleeding gums, easy bruising, fragile bones, poor wound healing, susceptibility to infection, hysteria, depression.
Good Natural Sources:
Fruits and vegetables, especially Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, parsley, tomatoes, sweet peppers, watercress, black currants, oranges, lemons, strawberries.
Vitamin C assists in the formation of the protein collagen, an essential component of teeth, bones, skin, tendons, and blood vessels. Additionally, vitamin C increases the absorption of iron from plant-based foods and helps the immune system work properly to protect the body from disease.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C protects cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that are naturally produced in the cells during normal cellular function. Additionally, cigarette smoke, air pollution, and ultraviolet light from the sun are the common environmental sources of free radicals.