Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid)
Almost nobody is short of it. The interesting form is pantethine, and it is a different argument.
Pantothenic acid is the raw material for coenzyme A, which is how fat and carbohydrate get turned into usable energy, and it is in enough foods that deficiency is close to unheard of outside starvation. The UK has never set a reference value for it. EFSA puts adequate intake at 5mg a day for adults, and the UK Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals set a guidance level of 200mg a day from supplements, having found no evidence of harm to justify a formal ceiling. Supplements sell it as calcium pantothenate or as pantethine, and NIH ODS is direct that no study has compared how well the two are absorbed, so any label ranking them is guessing. Pantethine is worth separating out: a small trial gave 600 to 900mg a day for 16 weeks and saw LDL cholesterol fall around 11%, which is a claim about pantethine at a pharmacological dose, not about B5 as a vitamin.
Reference values
Daily reference values from official nutrition authorities. These are population reference figures, not personal recommendations.
| RDA | Upper limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 5 mg | No UL set | EFSA NDA Panel AI 5mg/day, adults (2014 opinion). SACN has not set a formal DRV for pantothenic acid. |
Stack Almanac totals your B5 across the stack, which is how a 10mg line inside a multivitamin, a B-complex and a standalone pantethine capsule stop looking like three unrelated things.
Track your Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) in Stack Almanac
Reference values are adult-general RDAs from EU. Individual needs may vary. This page is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.