Neurotropic B vitamins, thiamine (B1), pyridoxine (B6), and cobalamin (B12), protect nerves against damaging environmental influences. These vitamins are helpful in treating neurological disorders such as neuropathy, neuralgia, and neuritis.
These vitamins maintain the neuronal health in different ways:
· Vitamin B1 plays a pivotal role in nerve regeneration, acting as an antioxidant. In nerve cells, it facilitates the usage of carbohydrates for energy production, protects them against oxidative stress, and normalizes pain sensation.
· Vitamin B6 plays a key role in neurotransmitter synthesis (e.g., GABA and serotonin), inhibits neurotoxic glutamate release, and restores sensory nerve function.
· Vitamin B12 maintains myelin (myelin is a sheath-like substance that forms an insulating and protective coating around nerve fibers and is vital to the normal functioning of the nervous system). It holds a nerve-regenerating role and promotes nerve cell survival, and remyelination.
Deficiency of these B vitamins can be involved in developing neurological disorders.
Supplementation that includes vitamins B1, B6, and B12 can be successfully used to repair damaged peripheral nervous system.
Clinical evidence of a regenerative function of vitamins showed that treatment with vitamins B1, B6, and B12 in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome and sciatica nerve inflammation reduced clinical symptoms.
A combination of vitamins B1, B6, and B12 restores sensory nerve function and accelerates nerve regeneration. All three B vitamins may create the necessary environmental conditions for successful nerve regeneration via individual modes of action.