What Is Vitamin B6 Taken For?

Getting enough vitamin B-6 in your diet is easy because it's added to ready-to-eat cereals and is found in many favorite foods, such as bananas, chicken, beef, pork, tuna, broccoli, potatoes, tomato products and peanut butter. However, taking vitamin B-6 supplements may be necessary for some people to help treat or prevent certain medical conditions.

Vitamin B-6 is a water-soluble vitamin that must be obtained through your diet. It's needed for about 100 enzymes to function properly, according to Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute. These enzymes are responsible for causing chemical reactions that are essential for many roles throughout the body, including the production of amino acids, neurotransmitters, hemoglobin and nucleic acids responsible for genetic information.

Deficiency

A deficiency of vitamin B-6 is rare, but some people are at a higher risk and may need to take supplements or adjust their diet. Alcoholics are at an increased risk for a deficiency because alcohol promotes the destruction of vitamin B-6, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. A medication for asthma called theophylline decreases the amount of vitamin B-6 stored in your body. Older adults tend to have low blood levels of vitamin B-6, which may be due to a limited diet. Anyone with a poor quality diet may not consume enough of the vitamin. Symptoms of a deficiency only occur after intake has been low for a long time. They include skin inflammation, a sore tongue, depression, confusion and convulsions.

Cardiovascular Health

Vitamin B-6 is one of three vitamins that regulate the amount of a substance in the blood called homocysteine. Your level of homocysteine is important because high levels are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Homocysteine is an amino acid created during the digestion of protein. Your body uses two chemical reactions to convert homocysteine into an essential amino acid called methionine. Vitamin B-6 must be present for one of the reactions to occur, while vitamin B-12 and folic acid are required for the second process. If you have a deficiency of vitamin B-6, levels of homocysteine may rise along with your chance of developing heart disease.

Nausea and Vomiting

Vitamin B-6 has been used since the 1940s to treat morning sickness in pregnant women, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. It is considered safe for pregnant women to take, and it helps reduces nausea. It also helped reduce the amount of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in women with ovarian cancer.

Memory Loss

Homocysteine levels have also been associated with memory loss. The July 2011 edition of the "International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry" published a study about the effect of vitamin B-6, folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplements given to patients with age-related memory loss and cognitive impairment. Their results indicated that homocysteine levels dropped by 30 percent and cognitive ability, measured by memory and dementia ratings, stabilized.