Organic Compound #5: Vitamins

Vit­a­mins are organic coen­zymes (“cofac­tors”) and can be split into two cat­e­gories:  Fat-soluble and Water-soluble.  Fat sol­u­ble vit­a­mins are fat sol­u­ble because they are fats.  Water sol­u­ble are not sol­u­ble in fats and are more like amino acids.

Fat Sol­u­ble Vitamins

Let’s start with Vit­a­min D (aka cal­cif­erol and chole­cal­cif­erol) since we already talked about how it’s a steroid hor­mone when we reviewed lipids.

Vit­a­min D (cal­cif­erol) is a steroid hor­mone made by cho­les­terol on your skin.  We don’t make enough of this hor­mone so we make sure we do by mak­ing sure it’s in foods and/or tak­ing a sup­ple­ment.  If we don’t get enough vit­a­min D, espe­cially chil­dren, we get some­thing called rick­ets where the bones are weak and things like sco­l­io­sis or bowed legs will form.  Rick­ets does not exist in this coun­try because they add this steroid hor­mone into the milk and call it Vit­a­min D.

Vit­a­min A (retinol) acts as a coen­zyme for the pho­tore­cep­tors in our eyes that is needed for a chem­i­cal reac­tion that allows us to see.  It is espe­cially impor­tant for dark­ness and not enough of it leads to night blind­ness.  Why it’s chem­i­cally called retinol is because the back of the eye is the retina.  It’s also needed by skin.

Vita­mon E (toco­pherol) is needed to pro­duce RBC’s in our bone mar­row.  If some­one doesn’t pro­duce enough RBC’s, then we say they are ane­mic.  The rea­sons for that may not be because they don’t have enough Vit­a­min E, though, there are dozens of other rea­sons that may cause ane­mia.  Vit­a­min E is also an antiox­i­dant which we will dis­cuss later in detail about that.

Vit­a­min K (phyl­lo­qui­none) is needed for nor­mal blood clot­ting.  Blood clot­ting is a series of chem­i­cal reac­tions where vit­a­min K is needed.  If some­one doesn’t have enough vit­a­min K, they would tend to keep bleed­ing.  If you’ve heard of coumadin/warfarin/dicoumarol, it’s a blood thin­ner.  It pre­vents blood clot­ting so clogged up arter­ies don’t occur and peo­ple won’t have heart attacks.  This med­i­cine works by inter­fer­ing with Vit­a­min K so that the blood won’t clot.  It’s a Vit­a­min K antag­o­nist or blocker.  If some­one takes too much coumadin, the treat­ment for it is actu­ally Vit­a­min K.

It’s pos­si­ble to over­dose and take too much of these fat sol­u­ble vit­a­mins.  This is one of the lessons that Amer­i­cans don’t under­stand.  The body works opti­mally when we have the right amount, noth­ing less or more than nor­mal.  When we talked about lipids and steroid hor­mones specif­i­cally, we men­tioned that we need salt, sugar and cho­les­terol but too much of it leads to high blood pres­sure, dia­betes and heart attacks, respec­tively.  The same goes for fat sol­u­ble vit­a­mins, we need them to live but too much of it is bad because they accu­mu­late in the fatty tis­sues of the body.

Water Sol­u­ble Vitamins

Since these are all water sol­u­ble, they don’t accu­mu­late in our tis­sues, the body does not store them and they come out of our urine very quickly .  If you took mas­sive amounts of Vit­a­min C, you can’t over­dose on it.  It causes your urine to turn very yel­low and after you pee a cou­ple times, all the vit­a­min C will be gone.

Vit­a­min C (ascor­bic acid) acts as a coen­zyme for col­la­gen syn­the­sis.  Col­la­gen is a pro­tein that is cre­ated and secreted by fibrob­lasts.  Col­la­gen is found in skin, bones, ten­dons and gums.  Many con­nec­tive tis­sues con­tain col­la­gen.  An exam­ple of a tis­sue that con­tains fibrob­lasts that man­u­fac­tures col­la­gen is known as loose are­o­lar con­nec­tive tis­sue.  This is the most per­va­sive type of CT.  Another type that has col­la­gen is dense fibrous con­nec­tive tis­sue (reg­u­lar and irreg­u­lar).  In order for these tis­sues to pro­duce these things, they need Vit­a­min C.  If the tis­sue doesn’t have enough col­la­gen, this con­di­tion is known as scurvy where the skin, gums, ten­dons, even the bones (any­where that has col­la­gen), become thin and weak and bleeds eas­ily.  Also, it’s an antioxidant.

B-complex Vit­a­mins:  All the B vit­a­mins play a role in metab­o­lism.  We are going to focus on niacin, riboflavin and pan­tothenic acid.

Niacin is part of a larger coen­zyme called NAD which is impor­tant for the trans­fer of elec­trons.
Riboflavin (B2) is part of a larger coen­zyme called FAD.
Pan­tothenic acid (B5) is part of another larger coen­zyme called CoA (Coen­zyme A)

Now it’s time to review the final post in our bio­log­i­cal chem­istry makeup… MINERALS!

Now let’s learn about our next com­pound that is inor­ganic .. Min­er­als!

1. Intro to Physio and Organic Molecules
2. Car­bo­hy­drates
3. Lipid
4. Pro­teins
5. Nucleic Acids
6. Vit­a­mins
7. Min­er­als