Motor tics are sharp, quick muscle movements you can't control. Your body's nervous system is responsible for communicating messages about movement from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of your body. Motor nerves, in particular, manage the muscles you can control---the muscles responsible for motor tics. When your nervous system is damaged, these messages get interrupted or lost in translation. This damage is called peripheral neuropathy and it can be a symptom of several vitamin deficiencies.
Vitamin B-12
Your body needs vitamin B-12 to maintain proper neurologic function. If it doesn't get enough, that function may be impaired to the point of developing peripheral neuropathy. These uncontrolled muscle movements are just one physical symptom of vitamin B-12 deficiency. Other symptoms include anemia, depression and impaired memory. Since vitamin B-12 is found in meat and dairy products, this deficiency can sometimes affect vegans. However, it's most often diagnosed in the elderly, alcoholics, and people with pernicious anemia, Crohn's disease or peptic ulcers.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E has eight naturally occurring chemical forms, although only one of these can provide the nutrients your body needs. Vitamin E's alpha-tocopherol component acts as an antioxidant and fights the harmful effects of cell-damaging free radicals, boosts immune function and helps dilate blood vessels. Common food sources of vitamin E include leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds and fortified cereals. Vitamin E deficiency is rare; however, since your digestive tract needs fat to absorb this vitamin, dangerous deficiencies can occur in people who have fat-absorption disorders. The symptoms of vitamin E deficiency include peripheral neuropathy, impaired immune response, damage to the retina of the eye and ataxia, a lack of muscle coordination.
Thiamine, or Vitamin B-1
Thiamine is essential for maintaining the nervous system and muscle function---it helps electrolytes flow in and out of muscle and nerve cells. The body can't produce thiamine on its own; it must be obtained through the food you eat. Since the body can't store thiamine for very long, deficiencies can start affecting you in as little as two weeks. Thiamine deficiencies cause nervous system and muscle damage. Severe thiamine deficiency is called beriberi; so-called "dry" beriberi leads to loss of muscle function, loss of sensation in the hands and feet, mental confusion.
Vitamin B-6
Vitamin B-6 has linkages to several nervous system and movement-related disorders. Your body needs vitamin B-6 to produce the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. These two chemicals transmit nerve impulses; serotonin also regulates your mood. When the body doesn't get enough of this vitamin, your peripheral nerves can be affected; in children, the entire nervous system may be damaged. Vitamin B-6 has also been used to treat a movement disorder caused by certain psychiatric prescription drugs as well as tardive dyskinesia, an involuntary movement disorder.
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