I actually take vitamin B6 every day and never thought it could have side effects. Reading this, I realized that taking too much for too long might damage your nerves , and it might not even be reversible. It's the kind of thing that's really easy to overlook.
High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
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Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#42Happened to me too. I had been consuming two energy drinks per day for a week or so and then my SO (who's addicted to vitamin supplements) gave me some multivitamins that I took just to be nice. Apparently that pushed me over the edge. After one night and day of sweating profusely and feeling really bad, and me thinking I've cached a bug on my daily public commute, I didn't think about it any more, until days later w…
> Plus I barely sweat any more (which has it's upsides)
Do you realise that sweating is the body's way of thermoregulating? Your body has partially lost the ability to thermoregulate as much as it used to.
Your conclusion of staying away from vit supplements (as opposed to energy drinks who are not health at all) is a very curious one. If you are anything like the average citizen, you are likely vitamin deficient in some form or another. Staying away from supplements while keeping energy drinks is not a great choice health wise.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#43The title mentions high doses and long periods, but let’s quantify it more accurately: Cases of toxicity have been reported at doses as low as 21 mg per day, the recommended daily intake is 1.3 to 2 mg. The person in question was diagnosed with issues possibly caused by this after 2 years. Edit: Clarification, the 21 mg figure isn’t from this article but from a related document released by Australian Therapeutic Good…
I checked the daily multivitamin I take and it has 40mg of B6. Edit: read it again and that's based on 2 tablets per day (I take one) so I guess I get 20mg. Might cut it to every other day though.
40mg is far over daily limit of 12mg the eu placed on b6 supplements. and even 12mg is likely too high.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#44The title mentions high doses and long periods, but let’s quantify it more accurately: Cases of toxicity have been reported at doses as low as 21 mg per day, the recommended daily intake is 1.3 to 2 mg. The person in question was diagnosed with issues possibly caused by this after 2 years. Edit: Clarification, the 21 mg figure isn’t from this article but from a related document released by Australian Therapeutic Good…
> Cases of toxicity have been reported at doses as low as 21 mg per day, the recommended daily intake is 1.3 to 2 mg. The person in question was diagnosed with issues possibly caused by this after 2 years. That's very hard to believe. In my "normal" vitamin B-Complex supplement there is 20mg of B6 in the daily dose. If 21mg per day would cause nerve damage, that we'd know (and it would be an epidemic).
the eu set 12mg as an absolute upper limit on what's safe.
I'm curious, do you exercise every day? b6 seems to get flushed out of the body in proportion to how much exercise you get, as it gets released by the muscles and then only partially reabsorbed with each cycle. It's possible what you're taking would cause you nerve damage if you were sedentary.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#45Happened to me too. I had been consuming two energy drinks per day for a week or so and then my SO (who's addicted to vitamin supplements) gave me some multivitamins that I took just to be nice. Apparently that pushed me over the edge. After one night and day of sweating profusely and feeling really bad, and me thinking I've cached a bug on my daily public commute, I didn't think about it any more, until days later w…
> Plus I barely sweat any more (which has it's upsides) Do you realise that sweating is the body's way of thermoregulating? Your body has partially lost the ability to thermoregulate as much as it used to. Your conclusion of staying away from vit supplements (as opposed to energy drinks who are not health at all) is a very curious one. If you are anything like the average citizen, you are likely vitamin deficient in…
> Do you realise that sweating is the body's way of thermoregulating?
I would assume that everyone on this site understands that. The fact that they explicitly noted that there were upsides shows that the downsides are quite obvious.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#46I actually take vitamin B6 every day and never thought it could have side effects. Reading this, I realized that taking too much for too long might damage your nerves , and it might not even be reversible. It's the kind of thing that's really easy to overlook.
If you're going to start taking anything every day it's always good to look up potential side effects, safe doses and dietary sources before doing so.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've tried many supplements and narrowed it down to B6 and magnesium. B12 had no effect. Insomnia can of course manifest itself through many causes, but taking energy drinks would definitely help very few. B12 is something the body stores so your lifestyle and diet must be quite shit to have a deficiency. Magnesium and B6 on the other hand you can become deficient very quickly.
This makes sense when you consider the role that magnesium has in the body - it's involved in a lot of reactions, either directly or as a cofactor. In fact, ATP exists typically as MG-ATP in the body. Severe Deficiency is rare (or rarely diagnosed i should say) because the body maintains serum magnesium levels at the expense of skeletal mg.
Non-Paywalled Link: https://inspectsupplement.com/magnesium/
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#48Happened to me too. I had been consuming two energy drinks per day for a week or so and then my SO (who's addicted to vitamin supplements) gave me some multivitamins that I took just to be nice. Apparently that pushed me over the edge. After one night and day of sweating profusely and feeling really bad, and me thinking I've cached a bug on my daily public commute, I didn't think about it any more, until days later w…
Interesting!, thanks! —and also: I’m sorry you had to go through that
Had an experience with a missed type 1 diabetes diagnosis causing neuropathy in a loved one. There is a surprising amount of actionable scientific literature out on neuropathy and all sorts of other issues commonly discussed as best-you-can-do-is-wait-and-see. Once you happen to dig in and start reading.
I remember reading papers on acetyl-L-carnitine helping with diabetic neuropathy, and it was our clear experience that it did help.
There were other supplements which helped with various similar repercussions of a severe and prolonged state of elevated blood sugar, which causes oxidation and tissue damage, and isn’t dissimilar to B6 toxicity as it seems. I don’t remember exactly which nutrients/OTC medications seemed to help neuropathy, but I’d suggest looking into alpha lipoic acid (ALA; more specifically Na-R-ALA), argine, maybe BCAAs in the context of mitochondrial function. Probably some other stuff that has results out on it too.
I’d also suggest reading the molecular biology and neuroimmunobiology on NMDA receptor antagonists and 5-HT2A receptor agonists, classes both of which are shown to be “profoundly immunomodulating” as one paper put it – reducing inflammation, including neuroinflammation – as well as encouraging neuroplasticity, which is also useful in peripheral nerves. The discussion of these known molecular-biological results and implication is unfortunately swamped by various social effects; the best-known NMDA receptor antagonist is called “Ketamine”, haha, and 5-HT2A agonists are usually known as psychedelics and, uh, yeah… molly. The partying and the “wheeee” factor isn’t interesting to me; the neuroimmunobiology of it is!! And I, yeah, I emphatically recommend reading the scientific literature on that.
And generally looking for recent papers on nutrients/supplements/OTC medications in the context of all kinds of similar issues. There are often results in one sub-specialization which are applicable to other things. You don’t need to limit yourself to randomized controlled trials, especially if considering supplementation of compounds known to be safe, rather than medication; Molecular biology is molecular biology, and it’s implausible to me that the placebo effect will reliably improve things like chronic neuropathy. Or insulin sensitivity. I’ve seen direct results on continuous glucose meters and all manner of labwork that confirm this view. —Don’t believe me; I deeply and emphatically recommend reading academic literature.
To paraphrase a nice-seeming guy,
Read papers. Mostly published. Not too slowly.
ps., Claude is unusually good at navigating the scientific landscape!
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#49Just checked the supplement I've got around (solgar). 50mg with an asterisk that says long term use may lead to tingling and numbness.
Holy hell...how is that even sold like that. That's going in the bin I guess
Luckily I haven't been taking it regularly. Been leaning more & more towards taking a multi-vit every 2-3 days instead of daily.
Re: High vitamin B6 doses over a long period could cause irreversible nerve damage
#50Can you get your blood tested for vitamin, mineral, enzyme levels? You don't have to do it very often. I was borderline low on D and B12, but everything else was normal. So I take B12 and only take D in the winter. I would never take a general vitamin. There's some people on the internet that advocate taking massive doses of D. But the side effects (short term and long term) are just as nasty as having a deficiency.…
My blood tests never showed a deficiency in B6, even though it significantly improved every aspect of my life after I started taking it. Magnesium deficiency does not show up in any blood tests either. Not to mention that peoples physiology can be quite different. Some need high levels of one thing while others should not have it.