Getting Vitamin B5 From Food
Vitamin B5 is probably the most effective acne treatment out there, but do you really need to take supplements in order to get enough of it to help with clear skin? Vitamin B5 is also known as pantothenic acid, a name which comes from the Greek word “pantos”, meaning “everywhere”. This refers to the fact that vitamin B5 is widely found in a great variety of plants and animals. Foods rich in pantothenic acid include organ meats (such as liver and kidneys), fish such as herring and cod, yeast products, ground peanuts, royal jelly and wheat germ. Moderate amounts are found in meats and vegetables too numerous to list. Chances are that if you’re eating at all you’re getting at least some vitamin B5.
The problem with relying on your diet for getting enough vitamin B5 for clinical purposes (such as to treat a disease like acne) is twofold. First, B5 is easily destroyed in the processes of either cooking or storing food. Heat denatures the pantothenic acid molecule, causing cooked food to lose most of the B5 before your body gets a chance to absorb it. Freezing and canning also lead to a loss of much of the B5 present in foods. The second problem is that the B5 compound is unstable even if it does manage to make it into your body. Supplements use calcium to stabilize the vitamin B5 molecule, which is why you often see B5 described as “calcium pantothenate” on ingredients section of the bottle.
Your body will still usually have no problem absorbing the minimum level of vitamin B5 required. But the main product of B5 - Coenzyme-A - is one of the most important and widely used catalysts in the body. Because Co-A is needed for so many functions, a considerable amount of B5 is required in order for B5 supplementation to have a real effect against an illness such as acne. For these reasons, it’s simply not realistic to expect B5 from food sources to be sufficient. You need the higher doses that only supplements can provide. That said, these aspects of vitamin B5 may play a role in why some cultures which rely less on frozen, processed foods (and cooked meats) typically have fewer cases of acne.
