10 May 2011
According to a new UK study improving riboflavin status increases circulating red blood cell numbers and hemoglobin concentrations for young women.
In the randomized controlled trial, 119 healthy women, aged between 19 and 25 years, were assigned to receive a supplement with 2 mg or 4 mg riboflavin or placebo for eight weeks (1). The study results showed that the use of the riboflavin supplement elicited a significant improvement in riboflavin blood concentration with a dose response. In turn, improving riboflavin status led to an increase in the number of circulating red blood cells and hemoglobin concentrations: the poorer the riboflavin status at the beginning of the study, the greater the beneficial effect with supplementation. Dietary iron intake and iron absorption did not change during the study.
According to the researchers these results indicate that poor riboflavin status among this group of women impaired iron handling and improving their riboflavin status would lead to an increase in hemoglobin, independent of any change in dietary iron. The mechanisms by which riboflavin status influences blood characteristics are uncertain. It has been suggested that an improved riboflavin status may increase the mobilization of the body’s own stores of iron. The scientists concluded that these findings are also relevant for other age groups for which high prevalence of riboflavin deficiency has been reported, including in adolescents and the elderly. While overt riboflavin deficiency is rare in developed countries because it is found in many foodstuffs, and wheat flour is often fortified with riboflavin, an insufficient vitamin B2 status (without obvious symptoms) however may be widespread. Furthermore, current recommendations for marginal deficiency cut-offs may need to be revised.
Riboflavin deficiency is endemic in many populations with diets low in meat and dairy products. More surprisingly, a high prevalence of riboflavin deficiency was reported in various apparently healthy population groups in affluent countries, including the United States, France, and the United Kingdom (2–4). Recent National Diet and Nutrition Surveys of the UK have revealed a high prevalence of riboflavin deficiency in 41% of free-living elderly people (5) and in 95% of adolescent girls (6).
4 February 2013
Increased consumption of foods containing beta-carotene and lutein in particular may help prevent or delay the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggests a new US study.
5 April 2013
According to a new review, data from dietary intake surveys indicate that vitamin inadequacy is widespread among healthy, elderly people, even those in affluent Western countries.
1 July 2014
It has long been known that vitamin K, which is involved as a coenzyme in the production of coagulation factors, is essential to the regulation of blood coagulation. But vitamin K also fulfils an important role in the activation of certain enzymes which, together with vitamin D, regulate metabolism and can combat the hardening of soft tissues such as blood vessels and help slow bone demineralization. In recent years interest in this vitamin has grown considerably following the discovery of other potentially health-promoting properties. Attention centers on research into the function of vitamin-K-dependent enzymes (Gla proteins), which are found in bones and teeth as well as in blood vessel linings, the brain and other soft tissues, where they appear to regulate cell division and cell differentiation, among other things. Studies indicate that a sufficient intake of vitamin K could help prevent the occurrence of atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, insulin resistance and inflammation of the joints, and above all could protect against the age-related loss of cognitive abilities.
