B6 High Blood Levels
 

My Dr thought I mite be defient in b12 & 6, due to having bad ulcer on tongue. Also have 3 nerves comp on ncs bilateral w pain/numbness & bi tarsal tunnel. My blood levels came Back High 64.8. I read H B6 can be toxic and cause nerve damage same as having a defiency.
Worried, does anyone else have this problem?

Yes, my B6 came back high too. Normal range 20-125 and mine was 189.5. I don't take B6 so we can't figure it out.

The actual reported cases of B6 toxicity are very few...it is very rare in fact. This goes back to days when PMS treatments used 500mg a day and that ended up with a few toxicity reports.

People are all over the net with supposedly high B6 readings.
Not many but it is fairly easy to find them if you Google it.

The ranges for vitamins were prepared using people considered to be "normal" and not taking ANY vitamins. Any intake will result in a different reading from the old ranges. The ranges therefore do not pertain accurately to anyone consuming B6 in foods or supplements.
Many foods today are fortified, and energy drinks, like 5 hr energy, etc contain B6. Almost all breakfast cereals and nutritional bars contain B6 now.

Also one cannot rule out lab errors. Vit D3 had two episodes of errors due to poor calibration at Quest diagnostics over the years. Labs do make mistakes, and since B6 is not commonly tested, the equipment or tech may have not kept the system up to date, or the test sample may be corroded. All vitamins are tested in labs using "known samples"... so since they are not stable in solution, they can degrade over time, especially with tests done infrequently like B6. Equipment calibrated to degraded samples which are low, will then show a factitious elevation.

Here is my B6 thread on NT:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread30724.html

Pyridoxine B6 in most vitamins is inactive... it must be converted in the liver to P5P. If this fails the pyridoxine may build up in the serum. That might provide a false elevation.

Look at all the foods you eat and see what is on the labels. You might find you are eating more than you realize.

Thank Mrs D for the info. It relieves my stress of not knowing as I dont see my Dr for another month.
Ive been taking high potency multi vit. on & off last 2 yrs. It has 50 Mg of all the B vitimins and I do eat a lot of cereals, protein bars. My B12 was at the upper limit too. It was done at Quest Lab. There upper limit of B6 is 21 and my results are 64.9. So I assumed that is way too high!

Personally, for ANY test in which rare results occur, you should immediately request a second test to confirm the results. And since B6 does carry some significant risk to neuropathy, etc at toxic levels, so this is one test I would have repeated if your results are out of range. Just a thought!

My last B6 test level was 110, (with no supplementation).

Back when I was DX'd w/IPN in 2012, I also had these irregularities:

LOW:
Vitamin D (29)
BUN (7.6)
Mean platelet volume (6.7)
Lymphocyte % (10.5)
Lymphocyte # (0.50)

HIGH:
CRP (5.4)
Bilirubin (1.4)
Neutrophil % (81.1)

I am doing routine blood work next week and I asked for my homocysteine level to be included since that has never been checked.

Different labs use different ranges. I have seen two distinct ranges for B6 posted here. One is lower and one is higher.
It has something to do with the calibration of the instruments etc.
Have them give the ranges with your results, always.

They did provide ranges which I failed to post here. The B6 reference range was 4.0–40.0 and my result was 110.4
:confused:

Test your B6 levels as you take !!!
 

If you are taking B6, I suggesting seriously testing and monitoring it.

My doctors gave me a big B6 overdose and made my neuropathy worse.

I have chemo induced PN. Doctors gave me B6 and other B vitamins. I bugged them later to test my values and found it was 11,000 !!! They actually made my neuropathy worse. It has since taken a year for my B6 levels to very slowly come back down and it still isn't near the normal range yet.

So, bug them to get periodically tested and over time you will see trends.

Do not take too much B6, or you may not help your situation.

Natalie

I tried to find the reference ranges, for B6 testing.
Here is one that goes into detail about lab procedures.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/..._c_met_plp.pdf

This link says upper range to report is 200.

Similar to the B12 range only goes up to 2000 in the US...

I'd get that test repeated. Was it a "serum" report, or a red cell report. There are labs that do vitamin testing only from the cells, and not the serum. The ranges for that may be different.

If you had a plasma (serum) test run on a poorly handled sample where the red cells burst, that could give a factitious (falsely elevated), reading. This often happens with potassium testing.

How much B6 were you taking daily, and for how long?

b6 levels ??
 

My Dr wants to check my levels in a month. Maybe I should ask to go to different lab?
I was told to stop taking all vitamins. I'm continuing to take my vit. D, E, C, fish oil and biotin. I dont see how these would make it worse.
I have a ? If anyone knows. If your liver cant break down b6, does this mean your livers not working properly?
I read that b6 is water double, so how can u overdose w this vit.?
I did notice my urine was very yellow a couple hrs after Taking a High Potency Multi.
So I assumed my body was excreting the extra B vitamins.
:confused:

Some B6 is stored in muscles for short periods of time to aid in metabolizing glycogen. It is stored as pyridoxal --the active form and not pyridoxine as is found in most vitamins.

The enzyme in the liver that converts pyridoxine to pyridoxal phosphate, is called pyridoxal kinase. It has been found to be blocked by some drugs. But not all drugs have been studied in this regard. Pyridoxal kinase uses as a cofactor the Vitamin B2 which is riboflavin. If this is low, then B6 cannot be activated properly.

And yes, typically the high dose B complexes are excreted quickly in the urine. The bright yellow is usually the B2 riboflavin showing up. If you take B6 alone, the urine would be lighter with a greenish tint. Excess B1 can give a yeasty odor to the urine or sweat.

I think taking the others you list would be ok, unless those are being tested also.

re: B6
 

Thanks Mrs D for info. I dont fully grasp what your trying to say but anyway u mentioned
bf about there being 2 different lab tests for b6. Serum or blood cell would have different ranges. Is one of these tests more accurate than the other?
Thanks

Mainstream doctors don't as a rule use the cell tests.

Some holistic ones do however. There is pyridoxal in red blood cells and if they burst during handling of the sample, that is reading serum levels, then a false elevated result occurs. This also happens for potassium. Doctors know this and reorder another test if potassium results are high. The medical term for this is a "factitious elevation".

I really don't put much stock in B6 testing. It is only really valuable for extreme lows.