Nov. 27 2021 | vitamins

What Is Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) Good For?

By Tyler Woodward

Vitamin B5, also known as pantothenic acid, is one of the 8 B Vitamins. Similar to the other 8 B Vitamins, Vitamin B5 is an essential component in energy production.

What Is Pantothenic Acid?:

Pantothenic acid is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning that it dissolves in water, so it will be found in the water contained within cells or blood. Pantothenic acid is one of the most abundant vitamins in the world and is found in nearly every food in some quantity. Vitamin B5 was discovered in 1933 by Dr. R.J. Williams, who appropriately named the vitamin, pantothenic from the Greek origin word “pantos” meaning “everywhere”.

Read More: The Importance Of Micronutrients

Roles Of Vitamin B5:

Energy Metabolism:

Pantothenic acid and its derivatives are essential for the production of Coenzyme A. Coenzyme A is what allows for the sugar (as glucose), fatty acids and amino acids to be used as fuel in the cells. Coenzyme is responsible for converting fatty acids and pyruvate (derived from glucose or amino acids) into Acetyl CoA, which can then enter into the Krebs cycle and be converted down the line into usable energy as ATP.

Long story short, if you don’t have enough of Vitamin B5 your cells will not be able to convert all of your food into energy. A severe deficiency in Vitamin B5 is very rare due to its abundance in food, but in WWII a number of soldiers undergoing severe malnutrition experienced painful burning and tingling in their feet which was relieved by B5 supplementation.

Steroid Production:

Coenzyme A also plays an important role in anabolic process (building) like the production of cholesterol and the steroid hormones. Cholesterol is the precursor to all of the steroid hormones in the body including:

Testosterone
Progesterone
Estrogen
DHT
Cortisol
Pregnenolone
Aldosterone
Vitamin D

Without enough pantothenic acid (B5), your body’s ability to produce enough Coenzyme A will be limited and therefore its ability to produce cholesterol and the steroid hormones will be limited.

Interestingly, a few studies have found that supplementation of pantethine, a byproduct of Vitamin B5 significantly lowered LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The scientists believe that the most likely mechanism of which is due to an increase in activity of the Coenzyme A in the cell causing the cells to uptake more cholesterol and triglycerides to be used as fuel.

Vitamin B5 is also necessary for…

To say the least, pantothenic acid is extremely important and it is extremely vital to consume enough of in your diet.

How Much Pantothenic Acid Do You Need?:

The FDA recommends that adults consume 5 mg of vitamin B5 daily, but according to some nutrition experts this is likely not enough to satisfy our body’s full requirements. Everyone will need a slightly different amount of Vitamin B5 based on their biochemistry with some people needing no more than 5mg while others may need more than 10-20X as much.

Best Dietary Sources Of Pantothenic Acid:

Some of the foods with the highest amount of pantothenic acid are:

Daily B contains the recommended daily intake of all 8 B vitamins. By doing this you ensure you're consuming enough of each of the B vitamins and all of the additional vitamins consumed in your diet become icing on the cake. Click here to try out Daily B for yourself risk-free today!

Conclusion:

My goal in writing this article, as always, is to provide you with logically-based principles that you can use to form your own conclusions regarding any information you may come across within this subject. I really hope you found this article interesting and if you have anything to add to this article, or any comments or criticism, feel free to reach out to me on our facebook groups or on Instagram @tylerwoodward_fit. Also, please feel free to share this article with anyone that might be interested.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time… be good

~Tyler Woodward

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vitamins