Vitamin B5 and Circulation
It’s been said that vitamin B5 promotes healthy circulation and speeds wound healing, but how does this occur? The healing process is fairly complex, but this should give you a better understanding of the role vitamin B5 plays in healing wounds to your skin.
If you’re seeking clear skin, it’s not always enough just to combat the underlying bacteria in acne. The eruption of acne lesions causes damage to your skin, resulting in inflammation and small wounds. Blood circulation plays a central role in wound healing, as different blood cells are required to clear dead tissue from the area and supply healthy, oxygenated cells to repair the damage. Poor circulation is the primary reason when wounds do not heal as quickly as they should, which is why wound healing can be especially difficult for those with circulatory problems such as diabetes.
There are ways you can enhance circulation to ensure speedy recovery from wounds. Some vitamins and minerals play an important role in this, such vitamin C, vitamin B5 and zinc. These can all affect the ability of your blood cells to quickly reach their destination with as little obstruction as possible, but here I’ll be focusing on vitamin B5.
For red blood cells and platelets to function optimally, they must have the right balance of fatty acids present in their membranes. Fatty acids help membranes maintain their shape and density, which in turn enables the cells to move more naturally in circulation with less resistance. A poor balance of fatty acids can result obstructive blood clotting that interferes with circulation and prevents cells from performing normal functions effectively.
What does this have to do with vitamin B5? Vitamin B5 is chemically converted into coenzyme-A, one the body’s most important catalysts. Among other roles, coenzyme-A is required for the regulation of fatty acids and plays a vital role in essential fatty acid chains. Thus, as vitamin B5 is required to produce coenzyme-A, B5 plays an indirect, but important role in promoting healthy circulation.
It’s speculated that vitamin B5 may aid wound healing in other ways as well, but the mechanisms by which this may occur are unknown. Studies have also found the combination of vitamin B5 and vitamin C to be especially effective in speeding recovery from wounds (as I mentioned in a previous post), so adding 500 mg of vitamin C for every 1,000 mg of B5 may help those who are desperate to repair skin damage as fast as possible.
