The Health Benefits of Riboflavin

I didn’t really set out to do a series on B vitamins, but as I began to write about them, I realized that in my 10+ years of writing, I’d never focused on these essential nutrients.

Since it’s incredibly important for people to understand why we (doctors, that is) recommend what we do, I wanted to give some better explanations of the health benefits of B vitamins.

Now, with that being said, let me ask you a question.

Do you have any idea what riboflavin does?

No?

I wouldn’t think so. If I were even to survey healthcare workers, many wouldn’t be able to rattle off a list of benefits.

Unsurprisingly, riboflavin is extremely important, and increasing your overall intake of this vitamin may benefit you.

Let me show you what it does and where you can get more if needed.

What is Riboflavin?

There are eight B vitamins, and riboflavin is known as vitamin B2, meaning it was the second B vitamin to be discovered.

Because riboflavin is a water-soluble vitamin, it’s not stored in the body, which is why you need to consume it regularly through diet.

Riboflavin is essential for various bodily functions and plays a significant role in maintaining overall health… It is not a “nice to have” vitamin. It is essential.

So what happens when you ingest riboflavin?

Well, a number of amazing things.

1. Helps With Energy Levels:

B vitamins are so important for maintaining healthy energy levels.

So many of us struggle with energy levels, and I’d argue many people’s energy levels are low because they’re not getting adequate riboflavin intake.

Like thiamine, riboflavin helps produce energy and gives you what you need to make it through the day by converting carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into energy.

Riboflavin acts as a coenzyme in various chemical reactions within the body's cells, helping to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the primary energy carrier in cells.

Optimized ATP production is critical to maintaining sustained energy levels, so ensuring normal riboflavin levels will absolutely help you function at peak productivity. 

2. Antioxidant Function:

One of the main things you can do to help achieve peak health is neutralize the negative effects of free radicals. The primary method for achieving this is to enhance antioxidant activity in the body.

While there are numerous antioxidants, one of the most important is glutathione.

Often referred to as the master antioxidant, glutathione is an antioxidant that helps increase the activity of other antioxidants.

Riboflavin regenerates glutathione, one of the body’s most important antioxidants.

Riboflavin helps produce important coenzymes, FMN and FAD, which are crucial for the enzyme glutathione reductase.

This enzyme uses FAD from riboflavin to convert oxidized glutathione back to its active, reduced form. By keeping glutathione in its active state, riboflavin helps protect cells from damage caused by oxidative stress and supports detoxification processes. Essentially, enough riboflavin ensures that glutathione can do its job effectively, keeping our cells healthy and balanced.

Without it, you may more readily succumb to the damage of free radicals.

3. Enhances Metabolism:

Going back to the article on thiamine, if you’re interested in health as it ought to be (see what I did there?), then you want to maintain a healthy body weight, and easily the top way to do that is to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders.

Riboflavin is a coenzyme that breaks down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Its importance isn’t just that it sustains energy levels. Riboflavin also supports cell function and assists in metabolizing other vitamins, like B6 and niacin, making it essential for overall metabolic health and weight management. 

4. Helps to Support a Health Nervous System:

Even if you have high energy levels and excellent antioxidant support, if your nervous system is compromised, you won’t feel great.

The good news is that riboflavin helps deliver phenomenal support to the nervous system.

Riboflavin facilitates the conversion of food into energy, ensuring that nerve cells (neurons) have the energy they need to function properly.

Additionally, riboflavin activates and metabolizes other B vitamins, like B6 and niacin, which are critical for synthesizing neurotransmitters—chemical messengers that transmit signals in the brain and throughout the nervous system.

By supporting energy production and aiding in the metabolism of these important vitamins, riboflavin helps maintain a healthy and well-functioning nervous system, reducing the risk of neurological disorders and nerve-related issues.

5. Helps with Red Blood Cell Production:

Life is in the blood, and riboflavin plays a multifaceted role in producing and maintaining red blood cells.

What does it do?

Riboflavin is involved in producing the coenzymes I mentioned above (FMN and FAD), which are essential components of various flavoproteins… These flavoproteins are involved in redox reactions that are critical for cellular processes, including the synthesis of hemoglobin.

It also helps with iron metabolism, a key component of hemoglobin.

Flavoproteins assist in the reduction of ferric iron (Fe3+) to ferrous iron (Fe2+), which is the form that can be incorporated into heme, the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin.

By aiding iron metabolism, riboflavin ensures an adequate supply of functional hemoglobin, which oxygen bonds to.

Riboflavin also activates vitamin B6 to its active form, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP, P5P). Without adequate riboflavin, the activation of vitamin B6 is impaired, which can hinder heme production and, consequently, hemoglobin and RBC formation, which means that your blood doesn’t work the way it should.

In addition, riboflavin is involved in activating folate coenzymes, which are essential for DNA synthesis and cell division. Folate, in its active form tetrahydrofolate (THF), supports the synthesis of purines and thymidylate, components of DNA.

This is important because you need adequate folate levels to create cells called “erythroid progenitor cells,” which are located in the bone marrow and are responsible for creating mature red blood cells.

Riboflavin Does Even More

Beyond what I’ve listed above, riboflavin can help out with additional aspects of health.

Some others include:

• Healthy growth and development
• Maintenance of mucous membranes
• Disease prevention (e.g., migraines, chronic conditions)

So, where do you get riboflavin?

Good food!

Here’s an example of some of the best sources.

1. Milk
2. Cheese (especially Swiss and cheddar)
3. Yogurt
4. Eggs (particularly egg yolks)
5. Beef liver
6. Chicken breast
7. Salmon
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Almonds
11. Sunflower seeds
12. Whole wheat bread
13. Fortified cereals
14. Lentils
15. Chickpeas

If you need additional support, getting an active form of riboflavin in pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP, P5P) is best. That way, you get immediate benefits and don’t have to worry about other biological processes impeding the conversion of riboflavin into PLP.