Often, I meet with women who are “spot checking” their B’s. What I mean by that is that they’re taking a B12 because someone said they needed it for energy – or they’re taking a B6 because it’s good for hormones, or they’re stressed…. fill in the blank.

The best thing to do with B vitamins is this:  Take the whole complex!
Brands that I like are AOR, Pure Lab, and Shaklee.  There are many good brands, these are a few that I have tried.  

B’s work in tandem with one another so taking one and not the entire complex may not do you the good you’re hoping for. 

Taking a complex on the other hand, could make you unstoppable!             

 B’s are excellent for cellular health, (remember that you can’t be healthy if your cells are not healthy) for mood management, for cardiovascular health, for energy levels, for hormone balance, for brain function, cholesterol production (the good kind) and more.  One of the biggest things about b vitamins is that they help to manage homocysteine levels in the body. This is important because when we’re stressed, and/or we make poor dietary choices like over consuming animal products, our homocysteine levels skyrocket.  This can lead to cardiovascular disease and in some cases, even sudden death.   

Niacin is a B vitamin whose deficiency has been linked to Alzheimer’s and severe mood disorders such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar disease.  If this is of interest to you, you’ll be able to find some research on Dr. Mercola’s website and on pubmed.  You’ll also be able to find books on orthomolecular treatment of disease that are fascinating.  

If you’ve been supplementing and your b levels are still not coming into balance, it could be related to your gut health.  If you’re not making intrinsic factor in your gut, you won’t be able to use B vitamins at all so it’s important to focus on the health of your gut always.  Some things that you can do to support a healthy gut are to add digestive enzymes with meals, (message me to find out my favourite, most effective brand) eating probiotic foods and supplementing with probiotics, and consuming bone broth and other healing foods.  You’ll also want to reduce any foods that are aggravating your belly. 

 Remember that you’ll want to take your B vitamins in the morning as they will give you energy and you don’t want to be up cleaning your house at 3 am!

You may or may not need to supplement with B vitamins. It’s worth looking into, especially if you’re undergoing a lot of stress and/or you are a big meat eater.

Anytime that I’m under more stress than usual, I up my B supplementation just to be safe.  Foods that contain B vitamins include dark leafy greens, healthy grains, and egg yolks.  Many packaged foods like cereals are fortified with B vitamins, although that doesn’t make them a healthy choice!