Vitamin C

• Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) increases the body’s resistance to infectious diseases, regulates reductive-oxidative processes, carbohydrate exchange, blood coagulation and the regeneration of tissues.
• Vitamin C is an antioxidant that protects the eyes, heart, and circulatory systems against free radicals.
• Ascorbic acid is required for collagen synthesis and has a structural role in bone, cartilage and teeth.
• Vitamin C may help decrease total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as increase HDL levels.
• Vitamin C may protect against cardiovascular disease.
• As a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C may help to fight cancer by protecting healthy cells from free-radical damage and inhibiting the proliferation of cancerous cells.
• Vitamin C may be useful as an immune stimulator and modulator.

Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)

• Thiamin works with the other B vitamins to change protein, carbohydrate, and fat to energy.
• It is especially vital for changing carbohydrates to energy.
• It is a key factor in the healthy functioning of all the body’s cells, especially the nerves.
• It is also essential for the functioning of the heart, muscles, and nervous system. As a coenzyme, thiamin plays a key role in energy production, conversion of glucose to fat. Every cell of the body requires vitamin B1 to form the fuel the body runs on — ATP.
• Nerve cells require vitamin B1 in order to function normally.
• Thiamin is needed for the metabolism of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. It is especially involved in carbohydrate metabolism in the brain.
• Thiamin may be used to support nerve health, and minimize numbness and tingling, helping to protect against this condition.
• Thiamine aids the nervous system and is essential for the functioning of important enzymes. These enzymes have vital roles in the processes that make energy available in the body.
• Thiamine is essential for the transmission of certain types of nerve signal between the brain and the spinal cord.
• Depression, poor memory, muscle weakness and stiffness, nerve tingling, burning sensation and numbness, tiredness, headache, loss of appetite and nausea are some of the symptoms and signs of its deficiency.

Vitamin B6

• Vitamin B6 supports more vital bodily functions than any other vitamin.
• Vitamin B6 allows the amino acids to be synthesized, broken down and absorbed.
• The forming of histamine, serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline are dependent on vitamin B6.
• Vitamin B6 is required for the production of serotonin and helps to maintain healthy immune system functions, to protect the heart from cholesterol deposits, and to prevent kidney stone formation.
• Vitamin B6 is indicated for the treatment of anemia, neurologic disturbances, seborrhoeic dermatitis, and cheilosis.
• In combination with folic acid and vitamin B12, vitamin B6 lowers homocysteine levels which is an amino acid linked to heart disease and stroke, and possibly other diseases as well, such as osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Pyridoxine is required for the balancing of hormonal changes in women as well as assisting the immune system and the growth of new cells.
• Vitamin B6 may be helpful in some women with premenstrual disorder, also known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and may be useful in some cases of gestational diabetes and for protection against metabolic imbalances associated with the use of some oral contraceptives.
• Vitamin B6 promotes iron excretion and this has been used as a rationale for treatment in iron storage diseases.

Vitamin B12

• Vitamin B12′s main functions are in the formation of red blood cells and the maintenence of a healthy nervous system.
• Vitamin B12 is an especially important vitamin for maintaining healthy nerve cells and it aids in the production of DNA and RNA, the body’s genetic material. Cyanocobalamin works to promote normal growth and development, helps with certain types of nerve damage, and treats pernicious anemia.
• Nerves are surrounded by an insulating fatty sheath comprised of a complex protein called myelin. B12 plays a vital role in the metabolism of fatty acids essential for the maintainence of myelin. Prolonged B12 deficiency can lead to nerve degeneration and irreversible neurological damage.
• Vitamin B12 is essential for the proper production of blood platelets and red and white blood cells, the manufacture of vital substances needed for cell function, and the metabolism of nutrients necessary for cell growth.
• It participates in a variety of cellular reactions to release energy from carbohydrates, fats and protein.
• Vitamin B12 helps maintain the myelin sheath that insulates nerve fibres from each other. People with vitamin B12 deficiency show irregular destruction of the myelin sheaths, which eventually causes paralysis and death.
• Vitamin B12 levels decrease with age and various measures of cognitive impairment are associated with reduced B12 status.
• The most important use of vitamin B12 is to treat the symptoms of pernicious anemia.
• Vitamin B9 (folate) and vitamin B12 are critical to the health of the nervous system and to a process that clears homocysteine from the blood.
• Vitamins B12, B6, and B9 (folate) work closely together to control blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine.
• Elevated plasma homocysteine concentrations are considered to be a risk factor for vascular disease and birth defects such as neural tube defects.