Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B₂, enables carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to release energy. Riboflavin is needed for normal reproduction, growth, and repair of skin, hair, nails, and joints. It is also important to the immune system, which protects your body against disease.

Uses

Here is a partial list of the illnesses that riboflavin helps prevent, and those that it helps to treat.

• Migraine headache. Riboflavin may help prevent migraine headaches. Studies have suggested that supplementation with riboflavin is more effective than aspirin in preventing these severe headaches.
• Cataracts. Riboflavin deficiency may cause cataracts. Riboflavin is vital to the activity of an enzyme that protects your eyes. Riboflavin deficiency is fairly common in older people. Before taking more than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for riboflavin to prevent cataracts, speak to your health care provider.
• Riboflavin supplements may help in the treatment of sickle cell anemia. It may also enhance the effectiveness of iron supplements in the treatment of anemia.
• Rheumatoid arthritis. Too little riboflavin in your diet may put you at risk for rheumatoid arthritis. Supplementation with riboflavin may help improve your symptoms.

Riboflavin is also helpful in the following ways.

• May relieve symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome
• Reduces the effects of stress
• Skin problems such as acne (especially acne rosacea), dermatitis, eczema, and ulcers may improve with riboflavin supplementation
• May improve muscle cramps
• May protect against certain types of cell damage that occur during a heart attack or stroke
• Enhances immune function

Dietary Sources

The best sources of riboflavin include brewer's yeast, almonds, organ meats, whole grains, wheat germ, wild rice, mushrooms, soybeans, milk, and spinach.

Riboflavin is added to flours and cereals. Riboflavin is destroyed by light and alkalis such as baking soda. It is not destroyed by heat, although it will leach into cooking water. Foods should be stored away from light to help retain their riboflavin content.

Other Forms

Riboflavin supplements are available in two forms: simple or activated. It is also found in multivitamin preparations and in B-complex vitamins, in 25-, 50-, and 100-mg tablets.

How to Take It

Recommended dietary allowances for riboflavin are listed below.

• Children 1 to 3 years: 0.5 mg/day
• Children 4 to 8 years: 0.6 mg/day
• Children 9 to 13 years: 0.9 mg/day
• Men 14 years and older: 1.3 mg/day
• Women 14 to 19 years: 1.0 mg/day
• Women during pregnancy: 1.4 mg/day
• Women during lactation: 1.6 mg/day

As with all medicines, check with a health care provider before giving riboflavin to a child.

Precautions

Riboflavin toxicity is rare. Possible reactions to high doses include itching, numbness, burning or prickling sensations, and sensitivity to light. High doses of riboflavin can affect urinalysis test results.

Possible Interactions

Poor dietary habits in combination with birth control medications can interfere with the body's ability to use riboflavin.

Riboflavin can interfere with antibiotics that are sulfa-containing drugs.

Riboflavin may reduce the effectiveness of medications taken for malaria (such as chloroquine, mesloquine).

Riboflavin interacts with selegiline, a mediation used for Parkinson's disease.

Riboflavin may interact with doxorubicin, a medication used for the treatment of certain cancers.

Methotrexate, a medication used to treat cancer, can prevent the body from making riboflavin (as well as other essential vitamins).

Psychotherapeutic medications called phenothiazines (such as chlorpromazine) may lower riboflavin levels.

Tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine, amitriptyline) inhibit the body's use of riboflavin.

Supporting Research

1999 Drug Facts and Comparisons. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Company; 1998.

Bomgaars L, Gunawardena S, Kelley SE, Ramu A. The inactivation of doxorubicin by long ultraviolet light. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 1997;40(6):506-512.

Christenson, H. Riboflavin can protect tissues from oxidative injury. Nutr Rev. May 1993;51:149–150.

Dreizen S, McCredie KB, Keating MJ, Andersson BS. Nutritional deficiencies in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy. Postgrad Med. 1990;87(1):163-167, 170.

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Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1998.

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Takacs M, Vamos J, Papp Q, et al. In vitro interaction of selegiline, riboflavin and light. Sensitized photodegradation of drugs [in Hungarian]. Acta Pharm Hung. 1999;69(3):103-107.

Copyright © 2000 Integrative Medicine Communications

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