Vitamin B2

Category: Natural chemicals

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a water soluble vitamin in the vitamin B group. It is required by the body for cellular respiration and has a key role in maintaining health in humans and animals. In humans it plays a key role in energy metabolism, and for the metabolism of fats, ketone bodies, carbohydrates, and proteins.  The largest number of vitamins, the B complex vitamins, function as enzyme cofactors (coenzymes) or the precursors for them; coenzymes help enzymes in their work as catalysts in metabolism. 

It also has a role in a number of new medical procedures one of which is in healing corneal damage.  Another very promising line of research is in using Riboflavin/Vitamin B2 and UV light as a pathogen remover in blood.  A device known as Mirasol® Pathogen Reduction Technology System for PR treatment of whole blood, has initially been marked out as a means of improving blood transfusion safety. 

Given that considerable disease stems from pathogens that use the blood supply as their means of spreading, this technology also offers hope as a means of actually curing disease.  A great number of cancers, for example, are caused by pathogens; and chemotherapy which destroys the cancerous cells, only serves to release the pathogens into the blood supply where they spread elsewhere.  Mirasol may be able to prevent this spread.

Riboflavin deficiency

Riboflavin deficiency is known as ariboflavinosis.  Riboflavin is continuously excreted in the urine of healthy individuals, making deficiency relatively common when dietary intake is insufficient.   Mild deficiencies can exceed 50% of the population in Third World countries and in refugee situations.

Symptoms

If you are not getting enough riboflavin you get cracked and red lips, inflammation of the lining of mouth and tongue, mouth ulcers, cracks at the corners of the mouth (angular cheilitis), and a sore throat. A deficiency may also cause dry and scaling skin, fluid in the mucous membranes, and iron-deficiency anaemia. The eyes may also become bloodshot, itchy, watery and sensitive to bright light. Another symptom is “scrotal dermatitis”. One clinical trial found that riboflavin appears to be useful in helping to treat migraine , there is thus the possibility that some migraines may be triggered by riboflavin deficiencies.

Deficiency of riboflavin during pregnancy can result in birth defects including congenital heart defects and limb deformities.

 If we thus turn this on its head, since a deficiency of riboflavin can cause dermatitis, anaemia, migraines and so on, then riboflavin rich foods should help with their treatment.

In other animals, riboflavin deficiency results in lack of growth, failure to thrive, and eventual death. Riboflavin deficiency in dogs, for example, results in growth failure, weakness, ataxia, and inability to stand. The animals collapse, become comatose, and die. During the deficiency state, dermatitis develops together with hair loss. Other signs include corneal opacity, lenticular cataracts, hemorrhagic adrenals, fatty degeneration of the kidney and liver, and inflammation of the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract.

Post-mortem studies in rhesus monkeys fed a riboflavin-deficient diet revealed about one-third the normal amount of riboflavin was present in the liver, which is the main storage organ for riboflavin in mammals. Riboflavin deficiency in birds results in low egg hatch rates

Causes

Existing disease or physical states - the elderly, people with eating disorders, and those with HIV, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, chronic heart disease and liver disease are especially susceptible to riboflavin deficiencies.  Alcoholism can cause deficiency.  Deficiency may be a result of conditions that affect absorption in the intestine, the body not being able to use the vitamin, or an increase in the excretion of the vitamin from the body.

Pharmaceuticals - Women taking oral contraceptives, are particularly susceptible to deficiency.  A number of other pharmaceuticals are also known to cause Riboflavin deficiency.  Probenecid, for example, also sold under the brand name Probalan, can cause deficiency.  It is a medication that increases uric acid excretion in the urine and is primarily used in treating gout and hyperuricemia.

Statins have been linked with Riboflavin deficiency [source eHealthme], as has Ergocalciferol, used as a dietary supplement and Niaspan which is Niacin used as a supplement or fortifier on foods.

Diet – aside from the very obvious dietary cause, The Celiac Disease Foundation points out that a gluten-free diet may be low in riboflavin (and other nutrients) as wholegrain or enriched wheat flour and wheat foods (bread, pasta, cereals, etc.) is a major dietary contribution to total riboflavin intake.   In the U.S., starting in the 1940s, flour, corn meal and rice have been fortified with B vitamins as a means of restoring some of what is lost in milling, bleaching and other processing.

Riboflavin overdose

According to Wikipedia, in humans, there is no evidence for riboflavin toxicity produced by excessive intakes,

 “in part because it has lower water solubility than other B vitamins, because absorption becomes less efficient as doses increase, and because what exceeds the absorption is excreted via the kidneys into urine. Even when 400 mg of riboflavin per day was given orally to subjects in one study for three months to investigate the efficacy of riboflavin in the prevention of migraine headache, no short-term side effects were reported. Although toxic doses can be administered by injection, any excess at nutritionally relevant doses is excreted in the urine, imparting a bright yellow colour when in large quantities.” 

Food sources for Riboflavin

You don't need a pill to take riboflavin it is found in many foodstuffs, some examples of which are:.

• Dairy products
• Brassicas
• Offal – such as liver and kidneys are exceptionally rich sources of this vitamin
• Beans
• Brewers yeast and its by products – Vegemite, Marmite and beer are exceptionally rich in this vitamin
• Mushrooms
• Nuts – especially almonds
• Bran – and any wholegrain foods such as wholegrain rice or wholegrain bread. The milling of cereals results in considerable loss (up to 60%) of vitamin B2
• Eggs

The following list was extracted from the USDA Nutrients database.  The extration can only give you an idea, as the database separates out numerous cuts of meat and sources, meaning the resulting list is pages long.  Overall Riboflavin is present in Offal, Game meats,  Marmite and Vegemite, Seaweed, Shellfish and oily fish, Full fat cheese, some sorts of mushrooms, nuts and tahini, eggs, and Red meat,

Related observations

Healing observations

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