Truth is we’ve been delaying this article for a while until we had enough information & facts to allow us to enlighten our readers.
Fact Checked
Th remedies are a popular choice for those that are looking to improve upon their mental health issues without medicine. Few people want to deal with the time and effort of therapy, and fewer still want to use the medicinal treatments that are not only prescribed extremely fast in today’s medicine-oriented community – they also have a lot of side effects. Many believe that vitamins and nutrition are the key to improving anxiety.
That’s because deficiencies in important vitamins appear to precipitate anxiety symptoms, so it is possible that improving our intake of these vitamins should have the opposite effect and decrease the amount of anxiety we experience. There’s some good news and bad news. The good news is that if you are deficient in any vitamin, such as B-Vitamins, it’s likely that adding these nutrients to your diet (in terms of supplements or in food) can potentially decrease your anxiety symptoms.
Background
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) , kava was a popular choice before researchers determined that it can cause severe liver disease. Passionflower is an example of an anxiety remedy that does not have enough quality evidence to support claims of its effectiveness. Studies that do support passionflower’s anti-anxiety effects have serious flaws.
However, the following supplements do show promise in easing the symptoms of anxiety. They also have a good record of safety, as backed up by scientific evidence.
1. B Vitamins
Your body needs eight B vitamins for optimal health:
All B vitamins play a beneficial role in reducing anxiety and improving your mood.
For instance, a study[5] published in the Journal of Functional Foods found that people who ate B vitamin-rich foods saw significant improvements in their anxiety and stress scores compared to those who didn’t eat B vitamin-rich foods. However, when it comes to vitamin B for anxiety, vitamin B12 is especially powerful for managing your mood. B12 also offers additional braincare benefits, such as increasing your ability to focus and remember information.
Abstract
A systematic search identified all available randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of daily supplementation with ≥3 B group vitamins with an intervention period of at least four weeks. Random effects models for a standardized mean difference were used to test for overall effect. Heterogeneity was tested using the I2 statistic.
Eighteen articles (16 trials, 2015 participants) were included, of which 12 were eligible for meta-analysis. Eleven of the 18 articles reported a positive effect for B vitamins over a placebo for overall mood or a facet of mood. Regarding individual facets of mood, B vitamin supplementation benefited stress (n = 958, SMD = 0.23, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.45, p = 0.03).
B vitamin supplementation may particularly benefit populations who are at risk due to (1) poor nutrient status or (2) poor mood status. Keywords: B-vitamins, mood, meta-analysis, review, mental health, stress, anxiety, depression.