Riboflavin and women's health, plus riboflavin-making gut bacteria
What it found
Riboflavin matters for women's health, especially in pregnancy, anemia and migraine, and some gut and vaginal bacteria can make it.
Most of the evidence for those bacteria comes from lab and animal work, not from people.
What they found
Studies in people
Deficiency is common
Between 31% and 92% of women worldwide are reported to have low riboflavin levels. This affects both developing and developed countries.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Riboflavin needs rise during pregnancy and breastfeeding because it is passed to the baby. Recommended daily amounts are 1.9 mg in pregnancy and 2.0 mg while breastfeeding in Europe, and 1.4 mg and 1.6 mg in the U.S. and Canada.
Anemia in pregnancy
In a trial of 2153 pregnant women in Ireland, 68% had low or deficient riboflavin levels, and this was linked to lower hemoglobin and anemia at 12 weeks. The authors say pregnant women could benefit from riboflavin supplements to reduce anemia risk, though this is not yet in treatment guidelines.
Migraine prevention
High-dose riboflavin (400 mg a day for three months) reduced how often migraines happened, how long they lasted and how much they hurt, in a review of eight randomized trials and one intervention study. It is included in some treatment guidelines for conditions with migraine.
Animal and lab studies
Riboflavin-making bacteria
Some lactobacilli and bifidobacteria can make riboflavin in the lab, and one vaginal strain reached about 18.36 micrograms per milliliter. The authors say no human studies have yet tested whether these bacteria raise riboflavin levels or improve health in people.
Studies in people and animals
Vaginal health
In one trial of 158 women, an oral vitamin B complex including riboflavin helped fluconazole work better against complicated vaginal yeast infections. Lab and mouse studies supported this. No data exist on how riboflavin supplements affect the vaginal microbiome itself.
What the authors conclude
“Overall, leveraging riboflavin and riboflavin-producing lactobacilli is a promising avenue with a wide range of potential benefits for women’s health.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say it is crucial to ensure adequate riboflavin status in women, and that functional foods, nutraceuticals and probiotics should be considered as alternative sources.
- They call for more research on how micronutrient production shapes the female microbiome, how vitamins are shared between microbes, and how bacterial vitamin production affects women's health.
- They say large clinical intervention studies in humans are needed, with microbiome, multi-omics, metabolomics and immune measures, and that formulation, dosage and safety of microbial supplements should be considered.
How it was done
Riboflavin is an essential vitamin that people must get from food, and many women worldwide do not get enough. The authors wanted to pull together what is known about riboflavin for women's health and whether riboflavin-making bacteria could help.
The authors gathered and described existing studies on riboflavin and women's health, including clinical trials, observational studies, and lab and animal experiments. They also reviewed research on bacteria that produce riboflavin, such as certain lactobacilli.
What it can’t tell you
- Many of the findings come from lab and animal studies, so they cannot show what happens in people.
- Observational studies can show links between riboflavin and health outcomes, but not that riboflavin causes them.
- No human trials have yet tested whether riboflavin-producing probiotic bacteria improve health.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council) (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- This review was written in the framework of the PhD research projects of C.D., I.E., and S.A. However, for transparency, the authors want to declare relationships and interests that could be perceived as a potential conflict of interest. This involves the patent application EP20210606.8 that has been submitted by the host institution (University of Antwerp) on findings related to microbially produced riboflavin in strain Limosilactobacillus reuteri AMBV339. S.L., I.S., and S.A. are listed as inventors. Moreover, the authors declare that they have received funding from different probiotic and food supplement companies to perform mechanistic and clinical research related to aspects discussed in this review.
- Authors work at
- University of Antwerp, Belgium
The paper
- Title
- Riboflavin for women's health and emerging microbiome strategies
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Dricot CEMK, Erreygers I, Cauwenberghs E, et al (2024). Riboflavin for women's health and emerging microbiome strategies. NPJ biofilms and microbiomes. doi:10.1038/s41522-024-00579-5Free full textPubMed 39420006DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error