Pantothenic Acid, Part 1 (What It Is and Why We Need It) | Mastering Nutrition #64

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Pantothenic acid is vitamin B5. You use it to make coenzyme A, a molecule that is central to energy metabolism, most famous for forming acetyl CoA, which lies at the intersection of all anabolic (building up) and catabolic (breaking down) reactions.
Alex Leaf and I team up again, this time to tackle B5.
This is what happens when you don’t have enough:
You get fatigue apathy, discomfort, uneasiness, or pain.
You get numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
You may get depressed, quarrelsome, childish, or want to spend all day in bed.
Your pulse gets higher than you’d expect after minor exertion.
Your sleep gets trashed.
You get muscle cramps and abdominal cramps, you fart more, and when things get real bad you might throw up.
Much of this can be explained by pantothenic acid’s role in working all of this magic:
We use it break down fat, protein, and carbohydrate for energy.
We use it to synthesize fatty acids, ketones, and cholesterol.
We use it to synthesize all of the steroid hormones, including the sex hormones, the glucocorticoids that regulate blood sugar, and the mineralcorticoids that regulate electrolyte balance and blood pressure.
We use it to regulate our use of iron properly, including preventing its accumulation in the brain, where it can cause neurological damage.
We use it to make melatonin, which tells our body it’s time to sleep.
We use it to make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory, and cognitive performance during periods of sustained, focused attention.
We use it to make mucin, which lubricates the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, vagina, penis, and internal organs.
We use it to regulate the fasting/feeding cycle by flipping on the genes for autophagy during fasting and flipping on the genes for repair and antioxidant defense during feeding.
We use it for quite a few other things too, like the detoxification of some drugs; the synthesis of hemoglobin to prevent anemia; switching on the urea cycle to help us burn protein for energy cleanly; using folate to synthesize DNA, all the major vitamin-derived carriers in the system of energy metabolism, and glycine, an amino acid that acts as a calming, sleep-promoting neurotransmitter, stabilizes blood sugar, and supports collagen synthesis to make your bones strong and your skin smooth.
Burning fat only requires 20% more B5 than burning carbs, which is small compared to how these macros affect riboflavin requirements, However, under conditions of stress you can burn carbohydrate without any B5 at all and you cannot do that with fat. In mice with severe deficiencies of coenzyme A, ketogenic diets dramatically worsen the neurological effects of deficiency.
Although pantothenic acid is named for its presence everywhere and in everything using the Greek word “pantos,” and the common dogma is that no one is deficient, Alex and I make the case in this two-part podcast that suboptimal pantothenic acid status might just be the norm.
And the crazy thing? Official recommendations suggest we only need about 5 milligrams per day. In the podcast we discuss why some people might need GRAMS per day.
Plus, why the FOOD forms might be superior to anything you can get in any supplements on the market.
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DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

[@chrismasterjohn]

00:37 Cliff Notes 14:02 Symptoms of experimentally induced pantothenic acid deficiency 15:57 It is thought that pantothenic acid deficiency doesn’t occur naturally. 18:59 Experiments inducing pantothenic acid deficiency 26:06 Signs and symptoms of suboptimal pantothenic acid status 26:54 Is there pantothenic acid toxicity? 30:52 Hypothetical problems of taking high doses of pantothenic acid 31:53 What pantothenic acid is 35:28 Comparisons to niacin and riboflavin 37:14 Roles of coenzyme A 46:02 Roles of 4’-phosphopantetheine 48:12 Burning fat requires 20% more vitamin B5 than burning carbohydrate; and why in the context of severe deficiency of B5 or impairment in the metabolism of B5 a high-fat diet could have devastating consequences. 53:09 The importance of the ratio of acetyl-CoA to free CoA in regulating many metabolic pathways 01:01:02 There are metabolic disorders, such as fatty acid oxidation disorders, that compromise the pool of coenzyme A. 01:03:03 Synthesis of coenzyme A 01:06:47 How coenzyme A synthesis is regulated 01:11:38 Degradation of coenzyme A 01:15:44 The physiology of pantothenic acid absorption 01:25:29 A 2015 paper showed that 4’-phosphopantetheine can cross cell membranes via passive diffusion. 01:29:00 The physiology of pantothenic acid transport in the blood 01:32:11 Cellular uptake of pantothenic acid from the blood 01:33:21 Tissue distribution of pantothenic acid 01:36:00 There may be a particularly high need for pantothenic acid in adolescence. 01:37:01 Mothers actively transfer pantothenic acid to their fetuses and into their milk at their own expense. 01:39:29 Pharmacokinetics of supplementation 01:48:20 A case for why food is superior to supplements for vitamin B5 01:52:41 Inborn errors of coenzyme A metabolism include pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN).

[@raphaelroche1784]

Suspect I have had a low chronic B5 deficiency for 30+ years inc bouts of skin itching, adrenal fatigue, irritability, dry nose, eye problems, poor balance, prematurely grey hair, fat dismetabolism etc. This is really huge. Truly awesome job.

[@thanveerahamed506]

Did supplementing with B5 help you?

[@Kimmy1412]

Wow, in depth! Looking forward to part 2. : )

[@lf7065]

Love your podcasts! Thank you so much! Very helpful! 🙏🙂

[@marekqwerty8963]

Hey , appreciate your hard effort. I would like to ask can vitamin B5 turn off my acid production and make me fell depressed? Because I took 500mg of d-calcium-panthotenate and my digestion is totally non existent. Riboflavine used to help me with digestion now it not helping. I would really appreciate some theory what could turn off my acid production after this vitmin and make me feel depressed and sad for days.

[@mariabutanda-blackley4328]

Thank you I am learning to help my body be healthy.

[@johngoh767]

Chris Masterjohn, PhD, I am 83 years old man, general active doing gym workout with weights. I just started taking B5 Pantothenic Acid for two weeks now, though I have been taking B-Complex B1, B2, B6 and B12 daily for more than 2 years. So my question is my B5 is 500mg per capsule per day according to the label on the bottle. Can I take one capsule at breakfast and another capsule at dinner, in other words, two capsules total 1000 mg daily. Is 1000 mg too much for me daily and taking it together with other B-Complex not advisable?

[@Walnüsse]

Wow so much good Information Danke

[@fredh3152]

I believe there might be some misconceptions, especially in cases like mine. The superiority of food is evident only when one has normal digestion and can absorb B5 from it. In my situation, adequate food posed no issues. However, having SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) means that for individuals with absorption issues in the intestine, an injection might be a more effective solution. Unfortunately, it's not readily available at the moment. I wish you had covered injection form in your podcast!

[@victoryak86]

You had an 84 year old man ask a question about his B5 levels and if he was doing the right thing. This was 2 years ago and I only see 40 comments here so you might have thought of answering his question. Just a thought!

[@jennythomasmathew]

Thank you thank you!!! Been trying to decipher some of the stuff CoA which I see generated in the breakdown of fats and amino acids and carbs and not understanding much of it..

[@raphaelroche1784]

Brilliant vid. Many many thanks.

[@paigeh.4950]

You’ve mentioned fatty acid oxidation disorders in this series but it is not clear if Pantothenic is needed for these cases or if it could be harmful

[@bernadettebecher5668]

Listened to Dr Stasha Gominak who used B5 with her pts- very interesting - thank you for your talk. B5 used to clear acne also!

[@mistersir3020]

In your riboflavin video you say that all molecules are dephosphorylated in the digestive system... So does this change your idea about R5P? Could it also be absorbed through the stomach wall?

[@Nmethyltransferase]

Hi Chris! Does pantethine have any special benefits?

[@mcmstar19]

Where is the part two?

[@mistersir3020]

I'm not convinced by all the inferences you make of the type "... level reflects ... flux/transport". Like in the enterocytes, the blood of mothers, etc. You can't infer transport by looking at levels. Basic transport phenomena. If serum pantothenate were high in lactating mothers you'd say: "Mother is increasing blood levels to push more of it into the milk." It being low you say: "So much pantothenate is pushed into the milk that the blood levels drop." All we can say is, if there's pantothenate in the milk, then it came from the mother. We can't even say if it got there on purpose (nutrient) or despite efforts to prevent it (toxin). To distinguish between those, you'd need multiple mothers, some with deficiency and some with abundance of pantothenate, and look at their milk. If those with deficiency have relatively higher (or not as low as you'd expect) pantothenate levels in their millk (despite deficiency), we can conclude the body means to put it there and pantothenate is probably good for the baby. This is how in the field of medicine and many other sciences, anything can be proven on demand, and dogmas persist. Measure some stuff and draw inferences. Never mind that if you look at it with a contrarian view you can prove the exact opposite thesis from the same data with equally good sounding logic.

[@sidmichael1158]

What is its role with uric acid?

[@jddavisism]

@chrismasterjohn,phd any reason why b5 causes more abdominal gas?

[@jjhbjhbhjgjhgfjhghjg]

Is there a coenzym a suplement ? Can one get it as Liposomal?

[@JaiJatt7]

No

[@KORTOKtheSTRONG]

neat

[@AlanWil2]

Cheers!!!

[@josephmarcello7481]

Alas ,'doctor' Chris masterjohn nose precious little about true nutrition! What a schmoozer...

[@DinarAndFriends]

The symptoms you describe are not pathognomonic for B5 deficiency. You are confusing people and encouraging them to take supplements which are unnecessary.

[@harveymorgan1749]

I am still listening but ppl can take this info and do with it what they will.

[@DinarAndFriends]

@@harveymorgan1749 Most people are incapable of independent thought: they latch onto the advice of 'gurus' and follow it blindly. This is why he is being irresponsible.

[@davide6848]

As a medical doctor, I can tell this podcast is well done and plenty of useful info.. they're not saying that you HAVE TO take B5.. they're just explaining the argument. Please apreciate instead of being so uselessly critic..

[@DinarAndFriends]

@@davide6848 >>As a medical doctor Am I supposed to be impressed by that? If you are a medical doctor your knowledge of nutrition will be marginal, at best. I don't understand what you find helpful about this presentation. What is the value in telling people that their symptoms are a result of a deficiency when they are much more likely to be a result of something else? There is more than enough noise and misinformation on the Internet.

[@DinarAndFriends]

@@davide6848 >>As a medical doctor, Maybe you should go back to prescribing oxycontin to hide the symptoms of atherosclerosis in your patients' lower backs. Understanding nutrition is probably not one of your strengths.