Pyridoxine is an essential vitamin called B6 that your body does not produce, but it is found in many foods and it helps maintain the health of your whole body. This vitamin is crucial for treating and preventing vitamin B6 deficiency and is key in brain development and keeping your nerves and immune system working properly.

Your body uses small amounts of this nutrient for more than 100 chemical reactions involved in your metabolism. It plays a key role in making proteins, using carbohydrates and fats, and even making important chemicals in our brain called neurotransmitters  (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA) which help our brain send important messages. It’s also involved in adjusting how well hemoglobin, a part of our blood, holds onto oxygen.

Vitamin B6 has been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It helps make DNA, red blood cells (effective for anemia and neurotransmitters (improves mood, aids sleep). Vitamin B6 helps your body maintain normal levels of homocysteine – an amino acid that helps to build proteins.

Studies have linked low levels of vitamin B6 with anemia, inflammation, and inflammation-related chronic illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis. Other studies have shown vitamin B6 is associated with lower depression and anxiety in females, plays several vital roles in ensuring a healthy pregnancy, relieves nausea during pregnancy and morning sickness. A female study of participants taking vitamin B6, folic acid and B12 for seven years lowered the risk of age-related macular degeneration.