Vitamin B Complex: the "Mind Vitamin"
or, How Nutrition Impacts Our Sense of Wellbeing
Since most don't understand how or why what we eat directly affects our health, let me share a little story... Back in '80's when my life partner was studying for his nursing degree, one of his textbooks caught my fancy, a nutrition textbook - at the time the study of nutrition was required of all nurses, but not for doctors (i don't know if the latter has changed...)
The author(s) of this long lost text shared an anecdote from the ealy 1900's about how a developing interest in the "new" science of nutrition had serious impact on one hospital and its mentally ill patients. Considered cutting edge for its time, the facility hired a full-time nutritionist to their staff. This pioneering employee promptly put all the patients on the same daily vitamin regimen. Patients began to get better and go home until ultimately, the hospital closed entirely.
Her 'miracle drug'? Vitamin B complex ... you see, B-complex is considered a 'mind' vitamin because it's the only one to impact our sense of well-being - but it's also very fragile, not stored by the body, and easily destroyed by stress ... hence, most Americans run on empty with this vitamin.
The Complete Book of Vitamins (Rodale Press, 1977 edition only) contains a handy and concise chart titled "Vitamins at a Glance." Along with headings like food sources and daily amount needed one column is titled "Preventive and/or Therapeutic Applications," meaning what a vitamin can heal/cure/support as well as what the lack of any given vitamin can lead to.
Quoting a partial list from the chart of conditions/issues associated with B-vitamin deficiency thereof: night blindness, hearing loss, cholesterol buildup, depression, aging symptoms, atherosclerosis, fatigue, osteosporosis, diabetes, heart disease, senility of aging, psoriasis/eczema, mental illness, hypertension
Additionally another column titled "Major Activity in the Body" delineates the function of vitamin B complex: protein synthesis, bone growth, healthy skin, collagen formation, heart tissue repair, nerve health, regulates heart beat, mental health, RNA/DNA synthesis, liver functioning
With all that said, the answer to the initial question: how is nutrition important? is rather obvious, isn't it? Put simply, vitamins and minerals are the basis of both health and disease, depending on whether we're looking at sufficiency or deficiency. It is no secret that the American diet is harmfully deficient, from the nutritional inadequacies and poisons in junk food, to the misguidance of GMOs, to the damaging effects of environmental toxins and personal stress...
But as our nutritionist friend above demonstrated, all is not lost ... one step at a time, and here's the first step: if you're already taking a good multi-vitamin, kudos to you, especially if you're already supplementing with vitamin B complex - for nutritional neophytes: get on a good multi-vitamin and supplement with B complex -- to those unsure of how to spot a good vitamin from a rip-off, contact NHT, and she'll be happy to point you in the right direction
