Although there are eight different B vitamins, some get more attention than others. And while vitamin B12 is often spotlighted for its role in keeping blood and nerve cells healthy, vitamin B6, also known as pyridoxine, tends to fly under the radar.
Like most the B vitamins, B6 is essential, which means your body can’t synthesize it — you have to get this vital micronutrient from your diet. Are you getting all that your body needs? That’s worth asking, particularly if you’re eating less of certain foods for health or environmental reasons.
If you tasted a new wine variety each week, it would take you 40 years to try them all.
Jone Mark
What B6 does in your body
Since 2014, the Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir Rootstock Trial – involving growers from across Greater Victoria – has been comparing the performance of Pinot Noir scions grafted to14 different rootstocks on two commercial vineyards 15 kilometres apart and with more than 100 metres elevation difference. One vineyard is located in a warmer coastal area of the Mornington Peninsula, while the other sits in a cooler more elevated location.
A B6 deficiency issue?
Vitamin B6 plays a role in more than 100 enzyme reactions in the body. It helps your body break down protein, carbohydrates, and fats that build muscle, supply energy and fulfill a multitude of essential tasks. Vitamin B6 also helps
- Keep your immune system working well
- Create important brain-signaling chemicals (neurotransmitters), including serotonin and dopamine
- Make hemoglobin, the protein responsible for carrying oxygen in red blood cells.
At both vineyards, Pinot Noir clone MV6 was grafted to 14 rootstocks with three replicates per treatment and one panel per replicate. Grapevines were also planted on their own roots as a control.
