The 5 Conditions That May Benefit from High Dose Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)

Riboflavin, or vitamin B2 is an essential nutrient that plays a role as a co-factor needed for numerous enzymatic reactions. All of the B vitamins are inter-dependent, however, B2 is at the root of most B vitamin deficiency problems. B2 kickstarts the cascade of reactions that utilizes all the other B vitamins.

#1 SUPPLEMENT INTOLERANCE - Many times, as a clinician, I hear complaints from clients that their tests show a deficiency in B12 or B6, or even folate (which by the way is also a B vitamin). However, when they try to supplement with those “downstream” B vitamins that they have weird reactions, mostly anxiety or nervousness. These super sensitive people can usually tolerate them once they take Riboflavin individually first for a little while. This is because B2 is needed in some key reactions that help move things along in downstream pathways of metabolism.

#2 HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE – This is a typical scenario where the individual has problems breaking down histamine in the body. Histamine is released as a normal part of digestion, and is also considered a neurotransmitter and is released in the nervous system. Most of us are able to break down histamine very quickly after it is used by the DAO enzyme in the gut and the HNMT enzyme outside the gut. Vitamin B2 is a needed nutrient in both pathways. The individual with histamine intolerance may have difficulty in making enough DAO enzyme, or the HNMT enzyme may not be working efficiently due to a poor methylation status. Again, B2 is at the nexus of methylation and is the first B vitamin to kickstart the entire methylation cascade. Simply supplementing with B2 can boost the body’s ability to break down histamine and give the individual relief from symptoms.

#3 – MIGRAINES – There is plenty of evidence in the literature of using high dose vitamin B2 upwards to 400mg daily for migraine headaches. Most likely this helps because of the boost it gives to methylation and to DAO enzymes. Both of which metabolize histamine. Most people don’t realize their migraines could be histamine related. Many times, it’s a food at the root cause. If B2 is helpful for your headache, then you probably can identify which food(s) are causing a histamine response and remove it from your diet. Another little-known root cause is poor indoor air quality due to plug-in air freshener or breathing in mycotoxins from mold growth in the home. Throw out the air fresheners, as fresh air is the best air freshener! Do an investigation of possible sources of water damage and have it remediated to eliminate the migraines.

#4 - ALL NEUROLOGIC DISEASES – the entire nervous system is covered with fats. Fatty acids can either be stored in adipose tissue, burned as fuel, used for cell membrane repair, or for repairing the lining on nerves, called the myelin sheath. When burning fats for fuel, the longer chained fats are preferred because they provide more energy than the shorter chained fats. However, they require B2 for utilizing and converting the fats to energy in the mitochondrion portion of the cell. The very-long chained fats (VLCFAs)have to be broken down further in an organelle called the peroxisome first. A build-up of those VLCFAs can get deposited on the nerve forming lipid rafts. This impairs nerve transmission and can trigger neurological diseases and even nerve pain. Supporting the “burning off” of the VLCFAs with high doses of B2 can be a big boost to the mitochondrion and peroxisome enzymes involved in energy homeostasis.

#3 STINKY ARM PITS – No matter how much you wash your armpits or how much deodorant you spray on, nothing improves the odor when you have a genetic variance of the TMAU, causing a condition known as Trimethylaminurea. The metabolic deficiency occurs as a result of a failure in the cell to make a specific protein, in this case the enzyme flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3).

Enzymes are nature's catalysts and act to speed up biochemical processes. Without this enzyme, foods containing carnitine, choline and/or trimethylamine N-oxide are processed to trimethylamine and no further, causing a strong fishy odor.The co-factor of that enzyme is B2. By taking high doses of B2, you can essentially speed up the rate of that impaired enzyme! It can work beautifully to help reduce that fishy under-arm odor.

Riboflavin-5-Phosphate is the active form of B2. Those that are slowed enzyme activity may benefit by taking the activated form.

Riboflavin Benefits

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