Let it "B" - B Vitamins for Energy, Brain & Mood

by Joy Wang | May 11, 2018

Do you try your best with all the responsibilities on your plate from work, family, friends, and even your own growth?  Many of us can relate.  Even when we're trying our best, there are times when we feel sluggish, blue-ish in our mood, and foggy in our memory, which makes it hard to concentrate and get things done.  

Many factors affect our physical, mental and emotional states, but one critical thing that links with all of these health states is a group of micro-nutrients called B vitamins. Vitamins Bs play a critically important role to turn food into energy that fuels all aspects of our body’s metabolism through a series of biochemical reactions. They are not only important to support our physical activities, but also largely affect our brain performance and mood state.

A well-balanced diet incorporating all food groups of protein, healthy fat, complex carbs, and vitamins & minerals, should be a good source of the daily values of B vitamins. In reality, this type of diet is difficult to achieve in a world where the quality of food is compromised with chemical additives and processing. Furthermore, individual’s lifestyles vary as people may have dietary restrictions such as a vegan diet; people consume excessive alcohol, take medications,  or just have too much stress and anxiety…

These scenarios can all negatively affect the absorption of Vitamin Bs from food sources and cause B vitamin deficiency. As a result, it’s necessary to take Vitamin B supplements as one way to supplement potential vitamin B deficiency and optimize your performances at all levels.  

It also helps to understand how different types of “energy boost” work with your body. A quick “pick me up” of coffee or Red Bull can give you an immediate kick, but it wears out in a short time frame and leads to the feeling of “crashing and burning”. Whereas B vitamins work through complex biochemical reactions that improve nutrients' metabolism and absorption, to achieve a full fledge improvement on your physical and mental health over time.

Many studies have shown that taking vitamin B supplements on a daily basis over a prolonged period of time helps improve energy, vitality, metabolism, cognitive performance, and emotional mood state.

That’s why we formulated sho ENERGY+ with clinically effective doses of B vitamins plus Matcha to boost your physical, mental and emotional energies, in one small Spheri-Gel that you can click and go, wherever you need to be. Its particularly designed to be vegetarian and vegan friendly so that anyone who needs vitamin B supplementation can benefit from taking sho ENERGY+.

Who can benefit from the regular use of sho ENERGY+?

There are many factors that affect your energy, mood, and brain performance, and you should always consult your physicians for your serious health concerns, but the following areas may indicate potential B vitamin deficiency, and a daily dose of shoENERGY+ may help lift up your energy and spirit, to help you be at your best self.

• Fatigue, low energy, poor sleep
• Concerns of low red blood cells, poor iron absorption, blood circulation and a tendency of anemia
• Frequent use of alcohol, antacid, antibiotics, and other medications
• Certain diets with a low level of animal protein intake such as vegetarianism and vegan
• A processed food diet e.g. frequent fast food eaters
• Women in childbearing age
• Imbalanced mental state of stress, anxiety and depression
• Concerns with poor cognitive performance such as memory and concentration deterioration.
• Frequent travelers who want a simple, portable daily energy boost that is quick and sustainable
• People with high hemocysteine levels

What is Vitamin B good for?

Many studies have shown the benefits of vitamin Bs, especially B6, B12 and folate, in relation to our physical and cognitive performances, including the preventative effects of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Sho ENERGY+ was created and formulated with these scientific researches in mind. To keep individual's brain performance and metabolism to the best levels, sho ENERGY+ has a clinically effective higher doses of B12, B6, Folic Acid, B2 and B1, along with a potent antioxidant, calming agent of Matcha / green tea extract, to provide you with a versatile, quick and sustained energy support on a daily basis.

Vitamin B12,  or cobalamin, is called the “energy” vitamin, as it helps overcome fatigue and exhaustion. It helps maintain a healthy nervous system and the red blood cells. B12 can only be obtained from eating animal protein, and people that are vegetarian or vegan can benefit from regular B12 supplementation. 

Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine, helps the nervous system and red blood cells that control your metabolism. This vitamin is considered a “brain vitamin”. It works with neurotransmitters like serotonin, helping to maintain a healthy mental stage. This vitamin is essential for movement, memory, energy and blood flow.

Vitamin B9, or Folate, is best known for the development of a fetal brain and nervous system making this supplement essential for women at childbearing age. Research has shown folic acid’s benefits in cognitive performances and metabolic functions. Folic acid helps keep homocysteine levels at a normal range, as research shows that too much homocysteine in the blood has a negative effect on one’s health.

Vitamin B2, or riboflavin, supports cellular processes while helping the body metabolize fats and carbohydrates. It act as an antioxidant, helping to create a healthy metabolism. The top foods rich in vitamin B2 include liver from beef, chicken and veal, seaweed, mollusks, and organ meats.

Vitamin B1, or thiamine, helps keep the nervous system healthy, while helping convert glucose into energy. It also helps with cardiovascular function and supports energy levels and a healthy metabolism. Top food sources for B1 include nutritional yeast, seaweed, sunflower seeds and macadamia nuts.

What clinical studies support sho ENERGY+'s dosage strength of B vitamins?

These are a series of clinical studies (there are many more) that have shown B vitamin benefits in the improvement effects in energy, brain performance and mood state with the regular supplementation of B vitamins, and sho ENERGY+ is particularly formulated to provide you with the potent dosing strength that is packed in small, easy to swallow Spheri-Gels, where you can easily titrate up or down (e.g. 2 or 4 clicks a day) to fit your health and performance needs.

• B-vitamin supplementation (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg daily), among users with high homocysteine level (a risk factor linked with heart disease), was shown to slow the shrinkage of brain volume and brain function degeneration that are associated with cognitive decline^[1].
• Folic acid supplementation at 800ug daily for 3 years significantly improved certain cognitive functions that tend to decline with age, especially in the areas of memory, information processing speed, and sensorimotor speed^[2].
• Improvement of memory, especially long term memory, was observed when 20mg of B6 was taken daily for 3 months by older aged males .
• Long-term supplementation of 400 μg Folic Acid + 100 μg vitamin B-12 on a daily basis promotes improvement in cognitive functioning after 24 months, particularly in immediate and delayed memory performance^[3].
• The combination of Vitamin B1, B2, and B6 at 10mg each daily for 4 weeks has shown improvement in cognitive functions and mood, especially depression among the elderly age group^[4].
• Supplementation of thiamine B1 at 10 mg per day has shown signs of improvement in quality of life, in the areas of sleep, and energy^[5].
• And another study on female university students showed that taking B1 supplements^[6] is associated with the relief of PMS symptoms.
• Riboflavin B2 plays an important role in the red blood cell formation and assists in iron absorption. It has been shown that B2 supplementation improved the hemoglobin level in young women with anemia^[7].

Hope this post helps you better understand how vitamin B supplementation can let you “B” – optimize your physical, mental and emotional performances so that you can be your best self!

In our next post, we will discuss in detail how the “+” of Matcha / Green Tea Extract in sho ENERGY+ not only adds antioxidant effects but also provides calmness and focus so that you can get things done with improved physical and mental energy!

Leave a comment or ask a question, and we are happy to hear from you!

Joy and the sho team

^[1] Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 4; 110(23): 9523–9528. Published online 2013 May 20. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1301816110 Preventing Alzheimer’s disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment Gwenaëlle Douaud,a,b,1 Helga Refsum,b,c,d Celeste A. de Jager,c Robin Jacoby,e Thomas E. Nichols,a,f,g Stephen M. Smith,a and A. David Smithb,c

^[2] Lancet. 2007 Jan 20;369(9557):208-16. Effect of 3-year folic acid supplementation on cognitive function in older adults in the FACIT trial: a randomised, double blind, controlled trial. Durga J1, van Boxtel MP, Schouten EG, Kok FJ, Jolles J, Katan MB, Verhoef P.

^[3] Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Jan;95(1):194-203. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.110.007799. Epub 2011 Dec 14. Oral folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplementation to prevent cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms--the Beyond Ageing Project: a randomized controlled trial. Walker JG1, Batterham PJ, Mackinnon AJ, Jorm AF, Hickie I, Fenech M, Kljakovic M, Crisp D, Christensen H

^[4] J Am Coll Nutr. 1992 Apr;11(2):159-63. Brief communication. Vitamin B1, B2, and B6 augmentation of tricyclic antidepressant treatment in geriatric depression with cognitive dysfunction. Bell IR1, Edman JS, Morrow FD, Marby DW, Perrone G, Kayne HL, Greenwald M, Cole JO.

^[5] Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Oct;66(4):925-8. The response to treatment of subclinical thiamine deficiency in the elderly. Wilkinson TJ1, Hanger HC, Elmslie J, George PM, Sainsbury R.

^[6] Glob J Health Sci. 2014 Jul 29;6(6):144-53. doi: 10.5539/gjhs.v6n6p144. The effects of vitamin B1 on ameliorating the premenstrual syndrome symptoms. Abdollahifard S1, Rahmanian Koshkaki A, Moazamiyanfar R.

^[7] Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jun;93(6):1274-84. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.110.008409. Epub 2011 Apr 27. Correcting a marginal riboflavin deficiency improves hematologic status in young women in the United Kingdom (RIBOFEM). Powers HJ1, Hill MH, Mushtaq S, Dainty JR, Majsak-Newman G, Williams EA

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Posted in deficiency, health, healthy, nutrition, shonutrition, simple, supplements, vegan, vegetarian, vitamin b, vitamins

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