B ALL YOU WERE MEANT TO BE

Do your eyes sometimes feel gritty as though sand particles grated under the lids? (and you weren't out in the wind.) Are your eyes bloodshot at times for no known reason? Do you fight depression and frequently feel tired? Do you occasionally get cracks at the corners of your mouth or find your lips cracking and peeling?

If you've lived with these symptoms and are resigned to them, it could be that you have a chronic deficiency of riboflavin (vitamin B2).

Riboflavin is essential for health, normal living, growth and tissue repair, and fat and protein metabolism. Yet, many people, if tested today, would likely show marginal body levels with a host of minor symptoms pointing toward more difficult future problems. Adele Davis, long ago, felt it was the most widespread deficiency in America, and that was in the '60s.

In case you wonder about that, in 1970 the Department of Health conducted a Ten State Survey and found many people were deficient in riboflavin. Based on today's American diet, if a national survey were conducted, the findings would be even more serious and longer lasting.

Prisoners of war during the 1940s were severely malnourished. Follow-up research thirty-six years later showed unrepaired nerve damage. Without realizing the consequences, many people go on deprivation diets to control their weight and wonder why they feel so awful. They probably haven't connected cause and effect. They may continue until they develop terrible anxiety, depression, and fatigue, then desperately hunt for a potion or tablet to fix the problem.

Even people who are concerned about health and nutrition can become depleted because much of our food is empty of essential nutrients. If you think that's far-fetched, go to eatthis.com and check out the list of 30 things that can be in your food!

Older adults are particularly vulnerable to riboflavin deficiency. Some symptoms show up as lowered mental capabilities that can progress to severe mental confusion. The progression of symptoms depends on their food intake, and habits such as tobacco and alcohol usage.

On the other hand, deficiencies in children can stunt growth (height) and brain development. The latter can lead to lifetime behavioral problems. The reason growth is slowed is that riboflavin is needed for little bodies to assimilate the protein, tryptophan, which is vital to the process of development.

Vitamin B2 is even more important to babies growing in the womb. When a pregnant mother's diet lacks riboflavin, her baby's bone structure can fail to develop properly. That can lead to such things as cleft palate and abnormal bone development in her child's limbs and lower jaw. Infant body parts which need oxygen in order to form properly do not receive what they need and the result is malformation.

Other symptoms for all ages can include itching and scaling of various skin parts, particularly around the nose, corner of the mouth and eyes; a swollen and discolored tongue; trembling; dizziness; insomnia; lethargy and inflammation of mouth tissue.

Because of its value in eye function, vitamin B2 deficiency has been known to cause cataract development. A lack would probably show up first as irritation in the conjunctiva, the delicate mucous membrane covering the eye surface and lining of the lids.

Enzymes containing vitamin B2 combine with oxygen to feed the cornea or covering of the eye. Since eye tissue needs a constant, reliable source of oxygen during the process of vision, a lack causes delicate blood vessels to form on the surface of the eye to provide more opportunity for oxygen to be extracted and sent into the interior of the eye. Although these vessels can drain with supplementation, they remain in position and can quickly refill at any future shortage time.

One result of this is a growing discoloration of the sclera (white part) or the iris. It can progress to an external opacity and cataracts internally. In fact, horses who develop a milky eye and are then treated with high doses of riboflavin frequently regain their eyesight.

Years ago a researcher named Dr. Sydenstricker found that eye cloudiness, opacities, and cataracts could disappear when people were put on high doses of B2 with an improved diet. That was dependent on two factors: if the condition was not severe and was caught early enough.

It's important to remember that many nutritional substances work together as a team. Vitamin B6 and protein work with riboflavin and one doesn't effectually function without the other two.

It's thought that riboflavin forms a visual screen that converts bright light into a more restful green wavelength. The light ray passes on to the visual purple area which works with retinol (vitamin A) to help with night vision. Since this is a continual process, riboflavin can quickly be used up. The eyes continue to draw vitamin B2 from what is circulating in the blood. If it's deficient, it causes retinol to be used up more quickly. The result causes symptoms such as blinking, squinting, eyes that water, sting or burn, headaches from close work, eyestrain, twitches, tics, and difficulty adjusting from bright to dark or dark to light.

Vitamin B2 deficiency can cause whitehead formation, oily hair, and face in teenagers. It also causes acne rosea, because tiny capillaries need oxygen near the skin in the same way as they do in the eye. A junk food diet causes deficiencies, and young people are encouraged to spend all kinds of money on special soaps and skin medications.

Teenagers are not the only vulnerable ones to these reddened lines. Alcohol destroys riboflavin. Many older alcoholics begin to develop spidery tracings on their cheeks and noses plus tiny fat deposits under the skin similar to whiteheads. Since riboflavin deficiency causes liver damage, that may be one reason alcoholics develop cirrhosis.

Perpendicular lines called "whistle marks" tend to form around the lower lip as people age. The upper lip begins to slowly shrink and lips become rough, crinkled, and chapped. All of these signs can be corrected with vitamin B2 supplementation if the condition has not progressed for too long.

In older people, pooling of tears which may interfere with good eyesight is another signal of riboflavin deficiency.

Deficiencies can also cause digestive disturbances and difficulty in forming red blood cells. The latter can lead to a type of anemia. Since riboflavin deprivation can reduce folic acid usage in the liver, that can be another factor in anemia. Blood building needs folic acid (and B12) for the correct size, shape, and function of red blood cells.

Vitamin B2 also works as a team with vitamins A and E and the fatty acid, linoleic acid. These are important in helping the adrenal cortex produce hormones which give us health and energy. A severe deficiency of any one of these can cause fatigue and gradual degeneration of this vital gland.

Most people have become so conscious of fat that they stopped drinking whole milk. However, since riboflavin helps burn fat for energy and both are in milk, non-milk drinkers must supplement with cheeses or yogurt or do without important resources for this vitamin. Milk sugar increases the body's need for riboflavin unless there's enough fat present at the time of consumption. Some researchers found that including milk in their daily diet decreased watery, burning eyes and failing vision.

Although riboflavin does not decompose in heat as quickly as does thiamine (B1), it does dissolve in cooking water (the yellow-green color in pan fluid) and is destroyed by exposure to light and strong alkaline solutions. Milk stored in plastic jugs contains less riboflavin than that in cartons because of light sensitivity. Use a lid when cooking food to block out the light.

If dried beans are cooked with baking soda it destroys this nutrient. Some people use soda hoping to make beans more digestible. However, you can take enzyme tablets which would be more effective without harming riboflavin.

The higher the intake of protein, the greater the need for riboflavin. It's needed so protein can be metabolized. This allows new tissue to be built and for flavoprotein enzymes to be produced. This is especially important in burn patients for formation of new skin.

Flavoproteins are enzymes vital for the release of cellular energy by burning fat or sugar in the cells. Without the raw material of riboflavin, a person is lethargic and chronically fatigued. One reason for this is that vitamin B2 is vital to adrenal hormone production as well as the manufacture of insulin.

Hand-grip strength is decreased when flavoproteins are inadequate in muscles. People who use their hands in multiple, repetitious movements will do well to remember that.

Bibliography:
Davis, Adelle, Let's Get Well. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World 1965
Editors of Prevention, Fighting Disease, Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1984.
Editors, Prevention's Food & Nutrition, Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1993.
Dr. Carlton Fredericks' New & Complete Nutrition Handbook. Canoga Park: Major Books, 1976.
Goodhart, Robert S. , M.D., D.M.S., Maurice E.Shils, M.D., Sc. D., Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. Philadelphia: Lea & Feibiger, 1980.
Hoffer, Abram, Ph. D., M.D. and Morton Walker, D.P.M., Orthomolecular Nutrition. New Canaan: Keats Pub. Co., 1978.
Quillin, Patrick, Ph.D., R.D. Healing Nutrients. New York: Vintage Books, 1987
Smith, Lendon, M.D., Feed Your Kids Right. New York: Dell, 1979.
Staff of Prevention, The Complete Book of Vitamins. Emmaus:Rodale Press, 1977.