like what is the actual meaningful gain here? will i actually notice any difference? ooh i love monitoring my folate levels
It will make a difference if you don’t get enough of it. But having enough of it will just feel normal.
To note, 13% of Americans may be deficient in B6:
So if you are one of the 1 in 8 who are deficient and consume an energy drink with B6 then you’ll feel more energetic just from the B6.
Then there’s the caffeine, taurine, and other B vitamins as well.
That said you can make your own “energy drink” by mixing (safe) levels of B complex, caffeine, and taurine into your favorite beverage.
That or take them separately if you know you’re deficient.
Magnesium is also worth trying as if you are deficient you can experience several symptoms including brain fog. It takes effect fast (within 30 minutes). If you take too much Mg then you’ll just accelerate the contents of you alimentary canal.
I think if you are low on B6 you will definitely notice it. If your levels of B6 are fine, then you probably won’t notice a difference.
How will you know you are deficient in B6?
From (US) NIH fact sheet:
Vitamin B6 deficiency is associated with microcytic anemia, electroencephalographic abnormalities, dermatitis with cheilosis (scaling on the lips and cracks at the corners of the mouth) and glossitis (swollen tongue), depression and confusion, and weakened immune function [1,2]. Individuals with borderline vitamin B6 concentrations or mild deficiency might have no deficiency signs or symptoms for months or even years. In infants, vitamin B6 deficiency causes irritability, abnormally acute hearing, and convulsive seizures [2].
Blood test to check for nutritional deficiencies
The other issue is, just because the lab tested for high amounts of a vitamin does not mean that you will get those vitamins into your body. Most vitamins need a combination to actually get absorbed by your body or to not have an adverse effect. (Vitamin C needs iron, B vitamins often benefit from K, …) So, sometimes a food item with “low levels” of the vitamin will actually give your body more of it that something that just has vitams B crammed into it without anything to help your body digest it.
Marketing psychology.
Not really about whatever they are saying, it’s a way to drop the subliminal suggestion that there’s something “good for you” in there or that it has something competitors don’t. They often include the word “essential” when talking about vitamins to add the suggestion that you somehow have to have this thing.
Just like saying “all natural”. Dog shit and cyanide are all natural, but despite logic, most the people at some level absorb the suggestion that the product is somehow wholesome or healthy.
Partly true, but mostly not.
The vitamins and minerals are called essential because they are essential.
You acting to defend vitamin claims actually proves my point.
The word “essential” is chosen to lead you subconscious through the path of if we know that humans need vitamins to survive, and this snake oil has vitamins, then humans must need this exact product to survive.
This is meant to implant a suggestion and not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
When product marketing calls out stuff like “essential vitamins” it is technically true, but it is generally a horrible and/or unnecessary source compared to just eating normal foods.
I just kinda crave folate foods, but my folate methylation pathway is as mutated as it gets so I need a shitton of it.
