Vitamin B6

[greygoose]

Deficiencies, Sources and Health Benefits

draxe.com/vitamin-b6-benefits/

[helvella Administrator]

Interesting - the highest dose listed in the RDA table is 2.0 milligrams.

And he says:

All B vitamins are water-soluble, meaning they will be flushed out of the body and dissolved in your urine if you acquire too much of them. For this reason, there isn’t usually much concern with overdosing on vitamin B6 or reaching toxic levels; however, in rare instances too much vitamin B6 can cause some unwanted reactions.

Consuming too much vitamin B6 is usually a result of taking supplements and eating or drinking fortified processed foods that contain synthetic B vitamins, including fortified grain products and energy drinks. When someone has too much vitamin B6 within their body, reactions including muscle numbness, confusion and other unpleasant temporary symptoms.

And yet, we see lots of products which contain 100 mg (or 99 mg in the USA). The reason seems to be almost entirely to fulfill the arithmetical target of having 100 <any unit you use> in a B-100 vitamin B complex.

Having been with someone suffering from excess B6 (and that from much less than 100 mg), it is most definitely something to avoid.

[greygoose in reply to helvella]

Interesting. What were the symptoms? And how did you find out it was B6?

[helvella Administrator in reply to greygoose]

Took B6, felt awful. Repeat. Ah! Stop repeating and stop feeling awful.

High B6 is also associated with neuropathy:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/250...

[greygoose in reply to helvella]

Simples, what! lol

Now I'm wondering why one would take large doses of B6 without the other Bs...

[helvella Administrator in reply to greygoose]

Trying things out. And it wasn't anything like 100 milligrams.

[greygoose in reply to helvella]

OK, well, forwarned is forarmed! For some reason the magnesium I'm taking has added B6 and I'm taking a B complex, but so far I feel great! I'll have to add up the amounts and see how much it comes to...

[helvella Administrator in reply to greygoose]

I don't have anything against the B-complexes which are formulated on the basis of likely need. (Though they might not be wonderful for everyone.) I am extremely wary of the B-50 and B-100 formulations which exist simply because of easy numbers.

Classic item is 100 micrograms of B12 - which might be enough if someone has a purely dietary cause of low B12 but nowhere near enough to do anything useful for those who have impaired absorption. Oral B12 supplements start to support diffusion somewhere around 750 micrograms.

[greygoose in reply to helvella]

I take a B complex because I'm taking highish doses of B12. It contains 10 mg B6.

My magnesium contains 2 mg B6. So a 12 mg total. I am hopeless at converting mgs to mcgs! So I have no idea if that's too much or what.

On the bottle of B complex it says the B6 is 500% RDA. On the magnesium it says it is 143% RDA... So I'm a bit confused there...

However, I've almost finished the magnesium so will find one without B6 in it!

(Why would anyone give you 500% RDA...)