Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ggm 473 days ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/vitamin-b6-toxicity-p...

I got my Bs mixed up it's Mg + B6

1 comments

It's still hard to get a high enough dose to dangerous level from other supplements. Bad b6 effects typically start over 500mg/day. Usual pills of just b6 are 100mg in countries that don't limit it otherwise. The reviews that I've read normally described the issues as going away within days of stopping.

I wish there was better research on this, because so far only weird isolated cases make the news.

I'm willing to assume I'm non typical, but I definitely had temporary nerve pain effects from a B-complex supplement; I can't remember if I noticed that after the first night or the second; my spouse reported nothing like that though. Looking through my cabinet, looks like 50mg B6 pryidoxine HCl (which seems high compared to another brand I looked up and a sibling comment). Not sure why I kept those, tossed it out now.

But I was really just wanting B1 and a bit more shopping found drops (annoying) and tablets with only B1 and negligble other stuff.

Yeah, that's why I mentioned "typically" - there's always going to be someone processing things differently, or naturally at high levels.
Yeah I just looked mine up they are 8mg b6 how are people hitting upper limits?
Amazon is Full of „high potency“ stuff cause idiots think bigger number better
And it is total, fortified foods add to the risk.
Food normally has amounts <1mg. Even fortified juices are <5mg. You'd have to really try hard to make any difference with them.
Vegans can actually inadvertently stumble into this: a lot of tofu scramble recipes call for 2tbsp of nutritional yeast, and the bottles sold by e.g Braggs in America are heavily fortified.

Then it’s also used in cheese sauces, etc - to the point where it’s somewhat of a meme to just add it whenever you want umami. Then many vegans already take a B multi to handle B12.

Point of all this being that this particular diet can lead to overdosing on B6 without realizing it. Once I got myself a non fortified Nutritional Yeast for baking/cooking, I noticed changes in myself for the better.

Obligatory “I am not a doctor and YMMV”