Dr. Berg Table of Contents
Today , we’re gonna talk about Vitamin B6 Deficiency symptoms that you’ve never heard before .
“They” say it’s rare to become deficient in vitamin B6. However, it’s possible to have a subclinical B6 deficiency that still affects your well-being, even if it’s not a full-blown vitamin B6 deficiency.
Vitamin B6 is important to support a healthy body. Typically, there are no side effects of taking vitamin B6 if you take less than 200 mg daily
If you take too much vitamin B6, you could experience toxicity effects. However, you would have to consume over 1000 mg of vitamin B6 per day to cause any issues.
Vitamin B6 deficiency
Now what’s interesting about Vitamin B6 is that if you look this up , they will tell you it’s very rare to have a deficiency and they never talk about this idea of subclinical deficiencies of nutrients .
Instead , they focus on these major deficiency symptoms , but this is gonna be interesting topic .
Let me just kinda go through it .
but this is going to be interesting
vitamin B6 deficiency symptoms
Most people might know that if you’re deficient in Vitamin B6 , you’ll typically have rashes around your nose .
You might have cracks or rashes around your mouth .
You might even get pink eye as a symptom .
You can get anemia , as well as neurological problems , which involves numbness in the bottom of your hands and your feet , which typically come from a B one deficiency , but also from a B six deficiency .
Some people might know that you can get depressed if you’re deficient in B6 .
But today , I wanna talk about all the other problems that you can end up with if you’re low in B6 .
Vitamin B6 explained
But first , let me just kind of give you some interesting information about B6 .
Vitamin b 6 is involved in over a 140 different enzyme pathways .
So you can imagine how broadly this vitamin extends into our bodily functions .
And , yes , there are toxicity symptoms , but typically , Vitamin B6 is a water soluble vitamin .
So you would have to consume over a 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin B6 to have some problems .
Now typically , there are no side effects if you’re taking less than 200 milligrams per day , but the side effects start going up , if you get over a1000 .
And the main side effect will be neurological issues like neuropathy .
So neuropathy can come from a deficiency of Vitamin B6 and too much b 6 , but rarely do I know anyone taking over , you know , 200 milligrams per day .
Now the other interesting thing about Vitamin B6 deficiencies is it can be used as an indicator for inflammation status .
It’s highly correlated for c reactive protein , which is an inflammatory biomarker .
And people , especially with gut inflammation , IBS , have low levels of Vitamin B6 .
And when people talk about Vitamin B6 , they’re really talking about a collection of a group of different compounds that are precursors to the active form of Vitamin B6 .
And the active form is , p5p .
I won’t get into the long name .
You don’t need to know that .
But when you see the form p5p , that is the active form .
The other forms are like precursors that have to turn into this active form .
Foods high in vitamin B6
And the food to achieve the best bioavailability of Vitamin B6 would be from beef , pork , fish , and chicken .
Dairy and eggs are not the best source , and even plant based Vitamin B6 is not the best source .
Foods rich in vitamin B6 are:
- • Beef
- • Pork
- • Fish
- • Chicken
Surprising signs of a vitamin B6 deficiency
So here are the symptoms that , very few people know about that that are related to a Vitamin B6 deficiency .
I just mentioned inflammation , so let’s put that in the top of the list .
So inflammation , especially of the gut , could be related to a B6 deficiency .
Number 2 , B6 helps control polyunsaturated fatty acids .
Those are the ones that I always tell people to avoid , like from corn oil , soy oil , canola , cottonseed oil , things like that .
And also , if you’re consuming a lot of these oils and you can’t metabolize it because you don’t have enough Vitamin B6 , this can lead to the dermatitis rashes that I mentioned when I first talked about this .
Number 3 , Vitamin B6 is intimately involved in making neurotransmitters like serotonin , dopamine , and you can imagine all the symptoms that can occur from having a deficiency of neurotransmitters .
So in other words , Vitamin B6 is necessary to make all of these neurotransmitters .
So it can affect your mood .
It can affect , having addictions .
It can affect your general state of just , nerve communication .
And number 4 , Vitamin B6 is involved in the conversion from something called ALA to DHA .
Now what is that ?
Walnuts have a good amount of ALA , which is a precursor to the active form of the omega 3 fatty acid .
So let’s say , for example , you don’t consume a lot of fish or fish oils or cod liver oil , and you’re doing a lot of walnuts thinking that you’re getting all the , necessary precursors to make your omega 3 fatty acid .
Well , without Vitamin B6 , you might not be able to convert this as well , and this could lead to more inflammation .
Alright .
The next one , number 5 , Vitamin B6 is necessary to make selenium work .
Now selenium is involved in a lot of other things from making glutathione , to involved in converting your thyroid hormones from the inactive to the active .
So you can see indirectly that b six deficiency could lead to all sorts of other deficiencies related to a lack of selenium doing its work in different enzymes .
Number 6 , Vitamin B6 is necessary to convert tryptophan into niacin .
Number 7 , Vitamin B6 is necessary in a lot of different things related to amino acids .
One of the things that can occur as a problem is alopecia hair loss because you don’t have enough Vitamin B6 .
It’s pretty well-known that if you have low vitamin B6, you may experience symptoms, including:
- • Rashes around the nose
- • Cracks or rashes around the mouth
- • Pink eye
- • Anemia
- • Neurological problems
- • Numbness in the hands and feet
- • Depression
In another study , I found that Vitamin B6is intimately involved in an enzyme that if you’re deficient , you can have a higher risk of getting seizures .
If you know anyone who has seizures , you should make sure they’re consuming more Vitamin B6 .
Another thing that Vitamin B6 is needed for is lowering homocysteine , which can affect your heart in a negative way .
Typically , people might know to reduce your homocysteine , you take enough b 12 and folate , but Vitamin B6 is also necessary as well .
So let’s say someone’s deficient in Vitamin B6 and they also have a problem with their gut microbiome .
They’re greatly more susceptible to having autism than if they just had a Vitamin B6 deficiency and they had good microbes .
symptoms of a vitamin B6 deficiency:
- 1. Inflammation (especially gut inflammation)
- 2. Inability to control polyunsaturated fatty acids
- 3. Deficiencies in neurotransmitters
- 4. Inability to convert ALA to DHA
- 5. Poor selenium function
- 6. Inability to convert tryptophan to niacin
- 7. Alopecia
- 8. Seizures
- 9. High homocysteine levels
- 10. Increased risk of autism
- 11. Increased risk of gut pathogens
In other words , there’s this whole gut brain interaction that , can influence symptoms of autism , especially if you’re deficient in Vitamin B6 .
Does it all come from diet ?
Actually not .
A portion of this Vitamin B6 comes from your own microbiome in the large intestine making Vitamin B6 , just like it makes a lot of other b vitamins .
So this relates to one of the reasons why people are deficient in Vitamin B6when they take antibiotics , especially for things like TB because of this lack of Vitamin B6 .
Anyway , I would just recommend if you know anyone with autism , make sure they’re taking the active form of Vitamin B6 p5p , as well as taking a good probiotic .
And just to give you a little more information about that , Vitamin B6 helps regulate or suppress gut pathogens .
Vitamin B6 deficiency causes
So those are the symptoms , but how are people deficient ?
Well , eating too many processed foods , also taking diuretics , certain medications like high blood pressure medication can create a deficiency , taking certain antibiotics , also being on birth control pills , drinking alcohol , if you’re pregnant or lactating .
Also , smoking creates a deficiency .
Certain herbicides , as in glyphosate in all the GMO foods .
And even taking high levels of an herb called Ginkgo Biloba can create a deficiency , but you’d have to take quite a bit of that compound .
Causes of vitamin B6 deficiency:
- • Processed foods
- • Diuretics
- • Blood pressure medications
- • Antibiotics
- • Birth control pills
- • Alcohol
- • Pregnancy or lactation
- • Smoking
- • Herbicides
- • Ginkgo biloba
