Inositol

Product Description:

Inositol, primarily the isomer myo-inositol, is a carbocyclic sugar that is abundant in the brain and other mammalian tissues; it mediates cell signal transduction in response to a variety of hormones, neurotransmitters, and growth factors and participates in osmoregulation. Concerning regulation of osmosis, in most mammalian cells the intracellular concentrations of myo-inositol are 5 to 500 times greater than the extracellular concentrations.

It is a sugar alcohol with half the sweetness of sucrose (table sugar). Inositol was once considered to be a B vitamin before the discovery that it is made naturally in the human body from glucose, and therefore cannot be a vitamin. A human kidney makes about two grams per day. Other tissues synthesize it too, and the highest concentration is in the brain, where it plays an important role in making other neurotransmitters and some steroid hormones bind to their receptors.

Inositol is promoted as a dietary supplement in the management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). However, there is only evidence of very low quality for its efficacy in increasing fertility for IVF in women with PCOS.