Serotonin is a key hormone that deserves our full attention as it impacts our entire body! Most people know that this hormone stabilizes our mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness. But it doesn’t end there. Serotonin helps with sleeping, eating, and digestion. It also enables brain cells and other nervous system cells to communicate with each other.
While we cannot directly ingest serotonin from our foods, we can fill our plates with the key players in the serotonin making pathway. This blogpost is going to be #3 of a five part series – with each part focusing on a different player. Today’s MVP is Vitamin B6.
WHAT IT IS AND WHY WE CARE:
- Vitamin B 6 is important for our mood because it is needed to convert niacin (vitamin B3) into tryptophan, which is needed for serotonin synthesis.
- Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in many foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement
- Acting as a coenzyme, it performs a wide variety of functions in the body and is involved in more than 100 enzyme reactions, mostly concerned with protein metabolism
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