The B-complex vitamins are a mixture of the eight essential B vitamins. These vitamins are required on a daily basis for our bodies to properly function. It was first believed that there was only one B vitamin, however later studies on the vitamin were able to differentiate it into eight different vitamins. Hence, the B-complex vitamins were formed. Each component of the B-complex vitamins play an individual role in the body’s function.
Vitamin B3 is also known as niacin. This water-soluble vitamin was discovered in 1937. Niacin is very important in energy metabolism, as the other B vitamins are, and is very important in living cell repair. Additionally, it aids in the DNA repair process, which occurs in living cells.Vitamin B3 has various other functions as well including the removal of toxic chemicals from the body and the production of steroid hormones in the adrenal gland. These steroids include stress-related hormones as well as sex hormones.
