What Does Vitamin B5 Do?

Vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid, is one of the most important vitamins for human life. It’s necessary for making blood cells, and it helps you convert the food you eat into energy.

Vitamin B5, or pantothenic acid and pantothenate, is vital to living a healthy life. Like all B complex vitamins, B5 helps the body convert food into energy. B5 is naturally found in many food sources. "Pantothenic," in fact, means "from everywhere," because the vitamin is available in so many food sources.

Benefits

Vitamin B5 provides a multitude of benefits to the human body. It is found in living cells as a coenzyme A (CoA), which is vital to numerous chemical reactions, according to a study published in the journal Vitamins and Hormones.

Vitamin B5 is one of eight B vitamins. All B vitamins help you convert the protein, carbohydrates, and fats you eat into energy.

B vitamins turn carbohydrates into glucose, which is the fuel that produces energy. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, B vitamins also help the body use fat and protein and are also important for maintaining a healthy nervous system, eyes, skin, hair and liver.

Pantothenic acid is typically used in combination with other B vitamins in the form of a vitamin B complex formulation," said Health Experts. The other vitamins in the vitamin B complex are vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin), and folic acid.

Pantothenic acid is used in treating and preventing pantothenic acid help in skin problems, hair loss, dandruff, depression, nerve damage, eye infections among others.

B5 helps to:

• healthy skin, hair, and eyes

• proper functioning of the nervous system and liver

• healthy digestive tract

• making red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body

• making sex and stress-related hormones in the adrenal glands

• Create red blood cells

• Maintain a healthy digestive tract

• Process other vitamins, particularly B2 (riboflavin)

• Synthesize cholesterol

Vitamin B5, taken as a supplement, has also been found to help with lowering cholesterol. In a 2011 study published in the journal Nutrition Research, researchers at the Princeton Longevity Center in New Jersey found that supplements of pantethine, a derivative of vitamin B5, reduced total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in subjects with low-to-moderate cardiovascular risk.

Sources of vitamin B5

Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) is available in a variety of foods, usually present as coenzyme A (CoA) or phosphopantetheine (20). Liver and kidney, yeast, egg yolk, broccoli, peanuts, fish, shellfish, chicken, milk, yogurt, legumes, mushrooms, avocado, and sweet potatoes are good sources of vitamin B5 (20, 21).

Whole grains are major sources of pantothenic acid, but processing and refining grains may result in a 35% to 75% loss (21). Freezing and canning of foods result in similar losses (12).

The best way to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin B5 is to eat a healthy, balanced diet every day.

Vitamin B5 is an easy vitamin to incorporate into a good diet. It’s found in most vegetables, including:

• broccoli

• members of the cabbage family

• white and sweet potatoes

• whole-grain cereals

• mushrooms

• nuts

• beans

• peas

• lentils

• meats

• poultry

• dairy products

• eggs

Deficiency

A deficiency of B5 is very uncommon. No diseases have been linked to a deficiency of B5 and cells do not seem to be affected by a deficiency. To replenish a lack of pantothenic acid, cells may be equipped to conserve their pantothenate content by possibly recycling pantothenate obtained from other degrading molecules, according to a 1991 article in Vitamins and Hormones.

Experts recommend daily intakes of vitamin B5 recommend:

• Infants 0-6 months – 1.7 milligrams (mg) per day

• Infants 7-12 months – 1.8 mg per day

• Children 1 -3 years – 2 mg per day

• Children 4-8 years – 3 mg per day

• Children 9-13 years – 4 mg per day

• Males and females 14 years and over – 5 mg per day

• Pregnant women – 6 mg per day

• Breastfeeding women – 7 mg per day

• Vitamin B5 is soluble in water and is excreted in urine. Our bodies do not store it, and we need to consume it every day to replenish supplies.