Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid Benefit & Side Effects
Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid and Wound Healing
Taking pantothenic acid orally and application of pantothenol ointment to the skin have been shown to accelerate the closure of skin wounds and increase the strength of scar tissue in animals. Adding calcium-D-pantothenate to cultured human skin cells given an artificial wound increased the number of migrating skin cells and their speed of migration, effects likely to accelerate wound healing.
Pantothenic Acid and High Cholesterol
A pantothenic acid derivative called pantethine has been reported by a number of investigators to have a cholesterol lowering effect. The research is still in the early stages, but it seems that pantethine can lower your overall cholesterol and triglycerides - if your levels are high to begin with. Pantethine was also found to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels in diabetic patients on hemodialysis without adverse side effects. The research is promising, because even really large doses of pantethine have no side effects, this makes it especially attractive for hemodialysis patients because of the increased risk of drug toxicity in patients with renal (kidney) failure.
Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid Deficiency & Symptoms
For humans, there are no proven symptoms that exist for pantothenic acid deficiency. The rare Vitamin B5 deficient symptoms only occur on animals / pets. Dogs with pantothenic acid deficiency developed low blood glucose, rapid breathing and heart rates, and convulsions. Chickens developed skin irritation, feather abnormalities, and spinal nerve damage associated with the degeneration of the myelin sheath.
However, lack of one B vitamin usually means lack of other B nutrients. Pantothenic acid is usually given with other B vitamins. Once again, take a B-complex multi-vitamin supplement is strongly recommended for everyone.
Who are likely to be deficient in Pantothenic Acid?
Deficiency in Pantothenic Acid is very rare today. Most of the foods we intake daily have some forms of Pantothenic Acid in it. However, the following food sources contains the richest amount of vitamin B5:
Blue Cheese, Chicken, Eggs, Liver, Lobster, Milk, Oranges, Peanuts, Soybeans, Sunflower Seeds and Whole-grain Products.
Although most people do get enough Pantothenic Acid from their daily diet, there are still groups of people who may have lower levels of pantothenic acid levels:
Women that are pregnant or breastfeeding
People more than 55 years of age with general vitamin B deficiencies
People with inadequate caloric or nutritional dietary intake
People with increased nutritional requirements, mostly are athletes and people who participate in vigorous physical activities
People with a chronic wasting illness, such as malignancies, pancreatic insufficiency, cirrhosis of the liver, spruce etc...
People under stress for a long time
People who has recently undergone surgery
Note: studies have indicated that second hand smokers are likely to be deficient in all vitamins especially Vitamin C, B-complex Vitamins and Vitamin E. It is recommended for people in the above categories to take a B-complex multi-vitamin package instead of Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid alone.
Vitamin B5 Pantothenic Acid RDA
The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine felt the existing scientific evidence was insufficient to calculate an RDA for pantothenic acid, so they set an adequate intake level (AI). The AI for pantothenic acid was based on estimated dietary intakes in healthy population groups.
Adequate Intake for dietary vitamin B5 are listed below.
