We don't hear much about Vitamin B 5 or pantothenic acid. However, it's important to your health and wholeness in a wide variety of ways. Without it, you will have difficulty digesting and getting the good from protein, carbs or carbohydrates as well as fats. That touches all of the real food that you eat.

Every food or nutrient has a huge repertoire of things it does in and for the body. They all break down into natural chemicals. The body recognizes these but does not always know what to do with the synthetic ones in processed foods. It will try to detox them, but some get stored in fat. That can create toxic reactions down the road.

B 5 helps break down the foods you eat into simple forms that the body will use. Specifically, each organ or gland uses all nutrients in ways tailored to its own special needs. So, your heart may use a particular food in one way, while your lungs may use it in a different way. Both benefit the body as a whole.

It's called the "anti-stress vitamin" which means it plays a significant role in brain function. It helps make an important neurotransmitter that sends messages throughout your whole body.

This is a nutrient the body can't make on its own, so it has to have the raw materials from food or from supplements. Foods containing B 5 are, beef, chicken, eggs, wild salmon (not farm raised), Rainbow trout, and liver (calf, but chicken liver is higher), dairy products, mushrooms (shiitake, & white), sweet potatoes, avocado, endive, lentils, mung beans, green peas, raw apples, carrots, tomatoes and peanuts plus Marmite which is a yeast extract spread.

How would you know if you're deficient? Here are some symptoms: brain fog, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, muscle pain (or spasms), irritability, depression, great fatigue, low energy, weakness, tingling in hands, fingers and feet, skin problems as infections, as dry skin or breakouts, or poor immunity.

You can see that if you're seriously short on B 5 it will affect all kinds of body parts. As I've mentioned before, the B family should be taken together for best results. They work together like a team in your body. If you're short on Vitamin D3, it can contribute to a shortage of B 5. Certain medications can also lessen B 5's effectiveness (Doxycycline is one).

Let's look at some more benefits from B5. It will lower inflammation in the body. This means there is less toxic buildup in the body and therefore, less pain and discomfort. The pineal gland needs B 5 to manufacture melatonin which may be one reason why shortage leads to sleep disturbances.

The adrenals need B 5 to help it manufacture cortisol. This is one reason why energy levels may be low. Deficiency will increase your body's reaction to stress, blood pressure and blood sugar may be affected. If you want a better memory, take care to feed your adrenals the nutrients they need. Low B 5 makes it harder to recall information and makes it more difficult to have healthy emotional responses. In other words, a shortage may make a person more prone to anger outbursts and general crankiness. That could be said of several of the B complex family members. All the more reason to take them together, likely in a supplement form.

Since B5 needs Vitamin D3 in order to work well, if there's a shortage on this important combo, it's likely to thin the bones, especially in seniors.

By the way, some cereals indicate in the ingredient list that all kinds of vitamins are added. They then cook the cereals or extrude (force it through tiny template holes) the slurry under high heat and intense pressure. All of the B vitamins are heat-sensitive. So, if you depend on nutrients being added to foods that are subjected to cooking, the B vitamins and others will have their benefits cooked right out of them before they even hit the package, much less your stomach.

Your body needs B 5 daily. So look for ways to include some of the foods that are high in this nutrient and stay healthy.

Nancy Pidutti, PhD (NHH), nurse, Chaplain.

Reference: ods.od.nih.gov "Pantothenic Acid."
https://www.healthline.com   "What is Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid?"