– Why are there so many B vitamins but not multiple of other letters. What’s the difference between them all?

Question

I’m eating cereal right now and it says it’s a good source of 5 B vitamins. You always see Vit B6 or B12. What are all these vitamins and why is there only one A or C vitamin?

In: 3269

Answer 1

Imagine this: you have 10 glass marbles. The only categorical differences between them are size, shape, color, and design. You have already identified that they are in fact marbles because they are made of glass and you have identified and verified the structural sequences of glass material. All that’s left to do is sort them into the categories they fit into – type (glass vs. non-glass), color (red, blue, green, etc.), shape (spherical, drop, etc.), design (transparent or cats eye, etc.).

The same goes for vitamins. Scientists first identify the genotype (“code”) that classifies a substance as a vitamin; then they determine the type and subtypes of those substances, using other parts of the code. For example, let’s say a scientist has three substances to study. Upon first look, studying only the “base material” or the genotype, all three substances classify as vitamins because the code that engineered them is identical to the base code in almost all other vitamins. Upon further examination, two of the vitamins appear to function very similarly to one another and the third appears to function similarly to the other two but not nearly as similarly. This is where they’d identify the family of vitamins each one belongs to. Maybe the two that are very similar are both B vitamins, and the third is an A vitamin. Upon even further study, the scientist identifies a third set of data to tell the two similar B vitamins apart – they behave differently. Now the scientist has identified that not only does he/she have two B vitamins, but one of each, vitamin B6 and B12.

The names of these vitamins help scientists identify how these vitamins are similar (vitamin vs vitamin, vitamin vs mineral, vs other substances) how far down they remain similar, and where exactly they depart from similarity so they better understand more about what the substance is, how it behaves/reacts, and what benefits/consequences we have of taking these specific substances, AND how much we should take (as deficiencies and toxicity can occur if we take the wrong dose).

I hope this helps!

Not a doctor.

Edited for a few typos/clarifications.