*I am not a licensed medical doctor or nutritionist. Consult with your Physician for all adjustments to your diet and medical care to fit YOUR uique health needs*
This is for informational purposes only.... information derived from researched data on WebMD.
Vitamins play a vital role in mental health. The absence of some vitamins and nutrients in your diet could lead to some mental health issues. That's why it's important to know the types of vitamins linked to mental health and how they affect the human brain.
Vitamins. Vitamins are types of nutrients found in food. There are 13 types of vitamins including:
Vitamin A
The B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, B6, B12, and folate)
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin K
Vitamin E
Various mental health conditions could have adverse effects on your lifestyle. Among them is depression, a condition that is associated with a lack of some vitamins. It is the most common mental health condition. Statistics show that more than 19 million Americans — nearly 8% of the U.S. population — have experienced depression.
Vitamin B contributes to the complexity of depressive symptoms.
Low levels of folate have been linked to depression. Vitamins supplements such as folic acid (a synthetic form of folate also known as vitamin B9).
Vitamin B1(thiamin) and mental health. Mental health problems such as memory loss, anxiety, depression, irritability, and insomnia are also associated with deficiencies in vitamin B1. The brain uses this vitamin to help convert glucose or blood sugar into energy. This means that without it, the brain may not have enough energy to function normally. Lack of enough vitamins may also lead to fatigue, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with active mood disorder and depression. Further investigations point out that vitamin D is important and is used during brain development. Vitamin D can be gotten naturally from the sun, inadequacy of vitamin D has been positively linked to mental problems.
While this is just a snapshot, this could be a good start of examining your eating habits as it may relate to your mental health.
Take a look at your plate. What are you missing? What could you use a bit more of?
How can you attend to your mental health by what you eat?
SOURCES:
American Psychiatric Association: "What Is Depression?"
Behavioral Nutrition: "B Vitamins and Mental Health."
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust: "Vitamins."
Harvard Health Publishing: "Natural Supplements for Mental Health - Harvard Health"
National Center for Biotechnology Information: "Understanding Nutrition, Depression and Mental Illnesses," "Vitamin D and Depression: Where Is All the Sunshine?"
National Institutes of Health: "Risk of Vitamin B12 Deficiency."
National Library of Medicine: "The Effects of Vitamin B in Depression."