Introduction
Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a type of water-soluble vitamin. It’s what helps your body breakdown fats, proteins, and carbohydrates to produce energy while allowing your body to use oxygen.
Moreover, vitamin B2 plays a key role in numerous essential functions of your body, including keeping your metabolism healthy. Likewise, the essential vitamin helps maintain and protect blood cell health, as well as prevent cellular damage by acting as a natural antioxidant in your body.
You need vitamin B2 for growth and overall good health. The lack of it can lead to many medical conditions such as the following:
A decline in your growth
Digestive difficulties
Anemia
Slow metabolism
Skin issues
Fatigue
Mood changes
Nerve damage
Eye conditions like fatigue and light sensitivity
Sore throat
Sores and cracks around your mouth
For these reasons, it’s vital that your body has sufficient levels of riboflavin to properly function. On top of that, you’ll also enjoy a plethora of health benefits that include the following:
Riboflavin is crucial in your metabolism. It’s what your body requires to turn the energy like proteins, fats, and carbs, in all the food you eat into ATP. This is the type of energy that your body utilizes for the digestive, brain, nerve, and even hormone function.
Vitamin B2 keeps your metabolism healthy, which, in turn, ensures that the macro-nutrients in your diets are properly utilized to provide you with energy throughout the day. It’ll also make sure that every system in your body is functioning healthily.
Promotes Healthy Vision
If you want your eyes and eyesight to remain healthy, it’s necessary to include enough vitamin B2 in your diet. Our eyes have glutathione, which is a vital antioxidant that the vitamin protects. Therefore, consuming spinach, milk, almonds, lamb, and other foods enriched with vitamin B2 can reduce your chances of acquiring glaucoma, cataract, and other eye diseases.
Alleviates Headaches And Migraines
If you tend to suffer from headaches or migraines a lot, your doctor may prescribe you with a vitamin B2 supplement. Studies have shown that riboflavin can help in lessening the intensity and frequency of these ailments. So taking vitamin B2 will not only shorten or reduce the intensity of your symptoms, but it can help prevent it as well.
Helps Stop Cancer On Its Tracks
One of the purposes of riboflavin in your body is that it acts as an antioxidant. This means that it will protect your healthy cells from free radical damages while encouraging healthy cell reproduction.
Your body contains free radicals. These substances are harmful and can attack your healthy DNA cells, which causes the reproduction of mutated cells, or what we commonly know as cancer.
Moreover, riboflavin can help keep the lining of your digestive system in top condition by improving nutrient absorption. Hence, this will enable other oxidants and nutrients in your body to accomplish their task of keeping your immune system stronger.
According to research, vitamin B2 is particularly effective in defending your body from cancers of the colon, cervix, prostate, rectal, and esophageal.
Deflects Anemia
Insufficient red blood cells can lead to anemia. It’s crucial to have the right levels of red blood as it’s what carries oxygen throughout your body and into your organs and tissues.
Riboflavin plays a major part in the production of your red blood cells. Therefore, if you have vitamin B2 deficiency, you may likely suffer from anemia or sickle cell anemia. What this means is that your body’s tissues and organs are not getting sufficient oxygen, causing you to feel symptoms like shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, weakness, and extreme fatigue.
Increases Your Body’s Ability To Absorb Nutrients
Another reason your body needs a healthy dose of riboflavin is to help it properly absorb and utilize every nutrient from the foods you eat. As mentioned, vitamin B2 promotes a healthy lining in your digestive system. And a digestive system with a good lining is necessary for the absorption of nutrients into your bloodstream.
Also, riboflavin plays a role in converting folate and vitamin B6 into forms that your body can utilize. Likewise, it’s a crucial element when your body is processing iron. On top of that, the essential nutrient can decrease the levels of homocysteine in your body. Too much homocysteine, which is a type of amino acid, can cause your arteries to harden and narrow, as well as your blood to clot.
Promotes Healthy Pregnancy
Riboflavin is one of the most essential nutrients to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Studies have shown that if you have vitamin B2 deficiency during your pregnancy, you’re more likely to develop preeclampsia. This condition is very dangerous to any pregnant women since it can cause high blood pressure. What’s more, any mother to be who lacks riboflavin can suffer from several other health conditions, including anemia, which may affect the baby.
Enhances The Health Of Your Skin And Hair
Your body is overflowing with collagen that helps make up your skin, hair, and even nails. But as you mature, your body produces less and less collagen. The collagen your body produces as you age decreases. As a result, your skin will become less elastic and thin, which causes all those fine lines and wrinkles.
Riboflavin is known to support the health of your skin and hair by helping maintain your collagen levels up. This can prevent brittle hair and early signs of aging. Also, you can say goodbye to sore and cracked lips since it can revere skin inflammation.
Keeps Your Nervous System Healthy
All types of B vitamins, including riboflavin, is necessary to support the health and function of your nervous system. As mentioned above, vitamin B2 aids in transforming vitamin B6 into something your body can use. And one of its purposes is to produce neurotransmitters that send signals from one nerve cell to the other.
Thereby, without riboflavin means that you will lack the essential vitamin to support nerve health. This makes it even more vital for you to get the right amount of vitamin B2 in your diet to encourage other essential vitamins in your body to function properly.
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