Sumeet: Another thing that Sam mentioned while she was going through her list of Reds is vitamin B6 or vitamin B. I know there's a whole array of vitamin Bs – B6, B1, B2, B12.  So what are the benefits of having vitamin B6 or vitamin B in general?

Sam: I'll take it. Yeah. So B6, it's really important for your brain development and for just keeping your nervous system and your immune system healthy. So like Mike was saying, your nervous system comes with, if your nervous system is not regulated, that can lead to anxiety.  And so these are just having a regulated nervous system is what allows your body to function in a way that your body is able to respond to stressful situations in a more regulated way.

Most commonly, it is interesting when people do have anxiety, B6 is a really great supplement to look and explore, to see if they are deficient in.  And then that is a really great natural way to support your body and support your anxiety as opposed to maybe straight going to something that's prescribed and that's not natural.  As a holistic health coach, that is always my goal, is to explore the natural ways that we can help support where we feel like we need that extra support through naturally occurring foods, supplements. So that's a little bit on why it's so important to have B6.  

But all of the vitamins in general, or all the B vitamins are really important as they do really support our energy and which helps us function properly. 

Mike: So B6 and at the bottom of this is vitamin B12. So do you need heavy supplementation of those things? So what we say again the same story, eat vegetables. But these supplements B6 and B12.  And in severe cases we administer injections.  B6 also there is an injection available.  

Sam:  Yeah, well, when people are super dehydrated or they exist now if you're hungover, which means you're dehydrated, you can take these or you can get these injections or you can go somewhere and have it done for you.  But I just also want to really highlight how you mentioned there's a reason why these are called supplements and not substitutes because it means it's supplementing our diet, it's not substituting our diet. So you're not going to take a vitamin C supplement and think that you're good to go.That's meant to be used in addition to everything else that you're eating that day.

Mike:  Sure. I think that's part of the reason also people don't take it very seriously.  Let's say if it were to show up, let's say like a medicine, let's say you take a Tylenol and they feel better right away, right? People use it more often because they feel well right away.  But somehow these vitamins, minerals and all these things doesn't show impact right away. But, let's say if a person doesn't have a healthy habit for 20 years, right? It's not a switch on, switch off.  But you can see the quality of well-being over the period of time.

Sam: Right. Well also those people get sick more easily.  It’s like preventative first.

Mike: True, exactly.  So in other words, let's say you can easily say we see a lot of people every day.  So I can easily say, hey, this guy has a good quality of life just by looking at the way they walk, just by looking at the way they talk. You just see some people and say, hey,  you don't look your age. 

Sam:  Right. Well, that's also the skin component, like vitamin C.  

Mike:  It's the magic of well-being.  You mean taking care of yourself.  So that's all we are preaching for right now.  

Sumeet: That's actually very interesting. Magic of well-being.  Nice set of words. So I actually have a story here.  My mother in law, she was visiting us and one night, she came out, she was kind of in a state where she was about to cry and I was walking by and I'm like, “what happened?”  She's like, “I've been struggling with these cramping around my calves and in my legs and it's been there for a long time.”  And I asked her, “so did you see a doctor?” She said, “yes we did.”  And the doctor said that you have vitamin B deficiency because of which your nerves are starting to slowly die around your peripheral parts of the body.  They said you need to start taking vitamin B supplements, especially vitamin B12 and B6.  And I actually then went and got her some supplement which is loaded with vitamin B12.  And within three days she started feeling the effect.  She's like, “You know my cramping has almost gone away, there's almost no cramping.”  

So it is very very important that we take complete nutrition because you don't know how it will impact.  We focus too much on diabetes, chronic conditions, pain, but taking wholesome nutrition will benefit you in the long run.

Mike: Also, let's say we tend to eat repeatedly the same type of food, what is available on the shelves.  So what happens if we do not incorporate fruit and veggies into the diet?  Whatever we eat, we consume from the restaurants and from the processed food aisles and stuff, they completely miss the vital ingredients naturally available.  And it is not naturally available.  They're required for the body.  They are required for the body and we miss it completely. And if we do it continuously for a couple of months, your body starts showing the symptoms.  

We want to think, we’re travelling and sometimes we tend to lose our rhythm in what we eat.  So one time I told my wife, “Hey, I don't know why I'm craving for too much Gatorade these days.”  And we retrospect to this, we're going back and see what we are eating and what we're doing.  So that means the mineral deficiency.  So your body craves, your body tells you. Some people, they ask when you go to a restaurant and hey, what do you feel like eating?  What do you feel like drinking? Right?  So it's something probably they know what this guy is going through when we tell, hey, I want to feel like eating fish with these types of vegetables. Right.  So probably if that guy is smart, that guy should know what I've been eating last one month.  

Sam: Right.

Mike: That's how this mood works. 

Sam: Yes.

Mike:  Yeah, that's what the studies show too. 

Sam:  Yeah. Your body is always telling you what it wants.

Mike: Your body tells you. But we need to be smart enough to understand the coding. 

Sumeet: Oh ok, very very interesting. Yeah. Awesome.

Mike:  So like we are discussing about pyridoxine. Pyridoxine is like we discussed immunity basics, right?  So immunity and energy, mood and everything.  Also it has an important role in depression. These days, we need to address this. I want to take some time of our discussion to address this issue of mental health. So basically, pyridoxine, especially B6 and overall B vitamins help in bringing the mood up.  So bringing the people from depression out of depression. So I request everybody to start looking into these things and start looking into your diets to consume more foods that have vitamin B, especially B6.  And also if anybody starts feeling symptoms of it, the easiest way without a prescription, without talking to anybody is you can just recommend just to go buy some B supplements and, you know, talk to them about the mood.  Hey, start taking this twice a day.  Drink more water and incorporate more veggies and foods that has more vitamin Bs.  And talk about going out and taking a stroll outside and exposing themselves to outside temperature. 

So that is itself a big help for them before they get into deep rabbit hole, especially these things, talking to them, giving them more resources, more supplements that improve their mood and getting out of depression, for their overall well-being of mental health. Probably, we can prevent a lot of stuff, what’s going on outside. So, it is just a recommendation. I wanted to talk about it because as a health professional, this is our responsibility to talk about it.

If you missed Samantha's and Mike's discussion on Eat The Rainbow, you can still watch the full episode here (Part 2 - Orange / Yellow) -->  https://www.facebook.com/cobionic/videos/the-cobionic-talk-show/764054365114487