Unlocking Vitamins

Explore water-soluble vitamins (B-complex and vitamin C): daily requirements, dietary sources, and roles in energy generation and nerve conduction, with deficiencies like beriberi and scurvy.

Examine vitamin B1's role in energy generation and peripheral nerve conduction, and identify deficiency triggers (alcoholism, hyperemesis in pregnancy, bariatric surgery, chronic diuretics) and beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff signs.

Learn about riboflavin (vitamin B2) and its cofactors FMN and FAD, and its metabolic roles. Identify signs like angular stomatitis and photophobia, and diagnose via RBC and urinary riboflavin.

Vitamin B3 deficiency from maize diets, sorghum leucine, alcohol, and isoniazid causes pellagra with dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and death, and castle necklace, treated by 100–200 mcg nicotinamide or nicotinic acid.

Describe pantothenic acid as vitamin B5, a component of CoA formed with alanine and acetyl CoA, driving fatty acid metabolism and cholesterol and steroid hormone synthesis.

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) supports amino acid metabolism, glycogenolysis, and heme/neurotransmitter synthesis; deficiency from alcoholism, malabsorption, dialysis, or drugs causes stomatitis, glossitis, neuropathy, and microcytic anemia, treated with pyridoxine.

Folic acid, via tetrahydrofolate, supports dna synthesis; deficiency from increased demand or malabsorption causes megaloblastic anemia; treat with 5 mg daily and monitor cobalamin, with serum folate 2–15 mg/L.

Discover vitamin C as an antioxidant for connective tissue metabolism, promotes non-heme iron absorption, and prevents scurvy with bleeding gums and perifollicular hemorrhages.

Identify the four fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, their daily requirements, and dietary sources. Explain their functions, deficiencies, and the therapeutic dosing ranges mentioned for each vitamin.

Learn how vitamin A (retinol) supports vision, cell differentiation, iron utilization, and immunity, and how its deficiency causes stages from conjunctival xerosis to night blindness, with treatment doses.

Vitamin d supports muscle and immune function, and bone health by increasing calcium absorption; deficiency causes pain and rickets, treated with 50,000 iu for 6-8 weeks, then 800 iu daily.

Learn how vitamin E, via alpha-tocopherol, acts as an antioxidant and supports neurological function and immune regulation; deficiency, but linked to malabsorption syndrome, leading to hemolytic anemia and axonal degeneration.

Explore vitamin K, its two forms phylloquinone and menaquinone, and its role in coagulation factors II, V, VI, VII, IX, X; newborns receive vitamin K at birth.

Present a master chart of vitamin deficiency signs and therapeutic doses, outline practical oral prescribing, use B complex until deficits are identified, then tailor, with yearly B12 prophylaxis for vegetarians.