Para-aminobenzoic acid, also known as PABA, occurs simultaneously with folic acid.  PABA stimulates the intestinal bacteria, enabling them to produce folic acid, and eventually pantothenic acid (1).

I hope that by the time many of you have gotten to this article, you have also read some of my other articles about the other vitamins necessary for good health.  If you have, there is one fact that I hope has rung through loud and clear......every disease starts in the intestinal tract.  It is in the intestinal tract that certain substances in foods are turned into the vitamins we need, and it is in the intestinal tract that they are absorbed.  If conditions are not right, certain vitamins cannot be made.  Your eating and drinking habits can cause the walls of the intestine to be unhealthy so that they don't let vitamins and minerals through into the bloodstream, thereby starving your body of vital nutrients needed for proper functioning.  Your present and future health both depend upon creating a healthy intestinal tract.  All the nutrients work together.  PABA is just one of the nutrients that must be available in order for the other vitamins to do their job.

Some people believe that PABA is not necessary to human health.  However, it occurs naturally in our food supply, in liver, yeast, wheat germ, and molasses.  My personal belief is that if God put it in the food supply, it is there because we need it.

PABA plays an important role in determining skin health, hair pigmentation, and health of the intestines.  It also acts as a sunscreen and is incorporated into some sunscreen ointments.

A safe, average daily dose is 30 mg per day, but higher doses are used for therapeutic reasons.  Extremely high doses are not recommended.  Deficiency symptoms include fatigue, irritability, depression, nervousness, headache, constipation, and other digestive disorders (1).

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For the next article in this series, go to  Vitamin P Flavonoids: From Cancer to The Common Cold
 
 

References:

(1)  Dunne, Lavon J.  (1990).  Nutrition Almanac, 3rd ed.  New York:  McGraw-Hill, pp. 42-43.