There is no healthy body without a healthy mind. Did you know you can improve your mental performance through your diet? Vitamin B12 is one of the nutrients essential in regulating your mental processes. The B vitamin complex acts as co-factors in many biochemical pathways in the central nervous system. Without them, the production and regulation of biomolecules that affect your mood, emotions, sleep patterns, and appetite are adversely affected.
Currently, research shows, stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses deplete B vitamins, worsening these conditions. Additionally, B vitamins and minerals also decrease with age - this explains why the elderly are more prone to mental disorders. Genetics, diet, and the environment are also crucial in triggering and sustaining mental illness.
You are a by-product of nature and nurture. Your mind is influenced by your genetic material and learned behavior from family and the society around you. It is the reason researchers factor in culture and beliefs in assessing and treating mental conditions. Nurture influences how you process and react to stress. It also has a stronghold on behavior. On the other hand, nature dictates your vulnerability and resilience to mental illness.
Why Are B Vitamins Important?
B vitamins are co-enzymes in all energy-producing reactions in your body. Your nervous system consumes a lot of energy - meaning its operations require daily intake of the B vitamin complex. Additionally, B vitamins are essential in synthesizing nerves, neurotransmitters, and biomolecules that regulate mood and emotions. B vitamins are also significant in the transmission of nerve impulses. Deficiencies in these vitamins manifest as depression, paranoia, delusions, poor cognition, and memory loss.
It is vital to note that B vitamin deficiency will also be accompanied by other symptoms unrelated to your mental health and will resolve with sufficient dietary inclusion. For instance, lack of enough vitamin B12 causes tingling sensations (pins and needles) and numbness in your extremities. Other symptoms include joint pain, angular cheilitis (a small cut on the sides of your lips), walking difficulty, anemia, tiredness, weakness, and dizziness.
How Vitamin B12 Helps Your Mental Health
Cognitive Function
Cognition is the term used to describe how you gain, process, and understand knowledge. It encompasses your reasoning, perception, memory recollection, deduction, and problem-solving abilities. A study found a correlation between the level of Vitamin B12 in the blood and cognitive performance. In deficiencies, symptoms exhibited include inattention, forgetfulness, diminished problem-solving ability, and indecision.
Although most studies show the importance of vitamin B12 in cognitive function, there is inconclusive evidence relating its absence to cognitive decline. Simply put, vitamin B12 is essential in cognition. Its levels are low in patients with mental conditions like dementia, Alzheimer's, and so forth. However, administering high vitamin B12 doses does not resolve these ailments, indicating the conditions are multifaceted. Nevertheless, this vitamin is still crucial in maintaining and improving cognition.
Mood
Vitamin B12 is needed to synthesize DNA in all body cells and aid in neurological functions. Therefore, it is not a surprise that deficiency results in neurological and psychiatric problems. Vitamin B12 is essential in maintaining the integrity of your nerves' myelin sheath.
Myelin is the protective layer surrounding your nerves. It is significant for nerve transmission. Even a little deficiency of the vitamins causes that familiar tingling sensation in your hands and feet. Disruptions in nerve transmission eventually affect neuronal pathways mediating over mood and emotions.
One way vitamin B12 affects your mood is in the regulation of homocysteine. The vitamin's role in the homocysteine-methionine cycle is crucial. Even its deficiency is measured using homocysteine serum concentration levels.
Additionally, high levels of homocysteine interfere with nerve transmission and result in mental decline and cognitive dysfunction. Notably, mood disorders are characterized by the accumulation of homocysteine as evidenced by vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease in older adults.
High homocysteine concentrations also reduce the red blood cells turnover in the blood, which, in turn, causes pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia interferes with mood and cognition.
Vitamin B12 and folate donate their methyl group in the conversion of homocysteine to methionine. Methionine is vital in brain methylation reactions. Monoamines - dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline - are examples of molecules that go through this methylation reaction. Monoamines are crucial in inhibiting the stress response and stress biomolecules, sustaining happy moods, and regulating appetite and rest.
The Stress Response
The way the body performs its functions is fascinating. In the presence of danger or stress, it initiates the fight or flight response. All this begins in the amygdala, a region in your brain known as the stress response center. The amygdala also attaches meaning to your thoughts, remembers, and makes emotional associations to your thoughts. Thus, a dysfunctional amygdala will send you into an emotional frenzy.
The amygdala interprets all sensory information from your eyes, skin, taste, touch, and emotions. Once it detects stress, it sends distress signals to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system.
Part of the sympathetic nervous system's action is stimulating the adrenal glands to release stress biomolecules like adrenaline and cortisol. The all-to-familiar adrenaline rush is a consequence of the stress response. Your heart pumps faster, your breathing rate increases, and alertness augments.
All these physiological changes help your body defend itself. For instance, increased breathing provides more oxygen for your muscles to make energy. Heart racing raises the rate of circulation for quick oxygen transportation to your muscles. The shaking and twitching come from the sudden surge of muscular energy, which causes rapid contraction and expansion.
The unsettling feeling like you want to hurl or diarrhea is the stress hormones' endeavor to empty your digestive tract so that all the energy is focused on defense. Even your lack of breath or hyperventilation is from the shallow breaths your lungs take to raise the inhalation rate. However, this interferes with exhaling causing carbon IV oxide to increase in your bloodstream - that is why you feel like your heart is bursting off your chest.
All these changes occur in a blink of an eye, enabling you to instantly hold back from going into oncoming traffic or get your hand off a hot pan. While this response is necessary, things take a turn for the worst when it is not regulated. Monoamines have a vital role in this regulation.
Monoamines to the Rescue
When your homocysteine levels are high, monoamine levels and functioning deteriorates. Meaning, the fight or flight mechanism activation is maintained, leaving you perpetually anxious for no apparent reason. You also get irritated and stressed. Your appetite diminishes or increases depending on your genetic makeup. Some people binge eat when stressed while others avoid food entirely. Living in an unceasing anxiety state triggers depression and other severe mood disorders.
Dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline are feel-good biomolecules. They counter the stress response and keep stress biomolecules at bay. They also let you relax and increase happiness. In the absence or decreased levels of monoamines, mood disorders and phobias become prevalent. Excessive cleaning, fear of germs, obsession with neatness are indicative of low monoamine levels.
Vitamin B12 - along with folate - regulates homocysteine to ensure monoamines concentrations remain constant and your nerves function at optimum. All these help you regulate your mood.
Medication
While vitamin B12 is not a cure for depression, research shows it improves outcomes when taken along with depression medication. Consult your therapist for any dietary recommendations or changes. Your counseling psychology knows the effect of the medicine you are taking and its impact on your health.
Foods with VItamin B12
Most vitamin B12 foods are animal sources. If you are consuming a vegan diet, you have to include vitamin B12 supplements in your diet. Excellent sources of this vitamin include eggs, beef, liver, chicken, milk, cheese, and fortified foods.
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