Nurse/medical administrator
 

I have been looking for information concerning B6 toxicity for months and stumbled on this forum. Good information given. I have been running a medical practice for 21 years for chronically ill patients. I discovered B6 toxicity by accident in Spring of 2010. I developled PN (severe sensory) to the point I was in severe burning pain. Few physicians are aware of the dangers of this. Many patients are taking low doses and the levels go over 130. (ref range 2.2-2.8). Noticed the higher the blood level, the worse the symptoms. Can't find any expert to address this or how to pull it out. Talk with a famous PHD who writes many books on Vitamins and never heard of it!! Began to wonder if it was an enzyme deficiency and the contacts were clueless. Next I suspected the liver. Any information on those going through this will be so greatly appreciated. My levels are rising again (double) and theP N is starting again. Few meds help with it, but ask you doc about clonazepam or Neurontin for painful neuropathy. Anyone got good news on recovery time? Again, thank you.

Greetings!
 

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help.

There are great number and caring fellow members here to assist you. Our shoulders are here for support in many ways. Check out the following forum for some assistance:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum34.html

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene :hug:

Welcome to NeuroTalk...

Please visit our Vitamin forum, where I have a thread devoted to this B6 question:

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

Serum levels of vitamins can be deceptive. If you are seriously concerned I would get a intracellular test to see what the cells contain.

Spectracell labs does this type of evaluation:
http://www.spectracell.com/

Elevated levels of B6 may be from your consumption of fortified foods. (ranges were made without fortification).
Or it might reflect that you are not activating pyridoxine (which is not active in the tissues) to its active form called P5P (pyridoxal 5 phosphate).

The neuropathies from extremely high intake of B6 are somewhat different in presentation than the neuropathy from LOW B6. Low B6 typically presents as sensory, paresthesias.
High as gait impairement and dizziness types. If you are not converting pyridoxine to P5P in vivo...you would have signs of B6 deficiency.

Vitamin B6 toxicity is not common, but was reported back in the days when 500mg a day or more was a treatment for PMS. Many women took this dose, and a very small number showed up in anecdotal papers on the PubMed as a result.

There are other possibilities for your symptoms. Have you had Cipro or Levaquin lately? One treatment course of a fluoroquinolone can cause PN. Use a statin? Flagyl?

Here is a link to other drug causes:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread122889.html
The subforum where this link is, has alot of other interesting information. So please do read there too.

I'd check your B12 and make sure your reading is at least 400.
Also your Vit D. Low D is showing up commonly now in many people, and we've had some on our PN forum!

Welcome to NT

We're glad you found this site. I know the people here, especially mrsD, are very helpful.

I think you would have lots of info to share with folks here if you wanted to participate.

The "SEARCH" feature at top is very helpful when searching for answers.

I look forward to seeing you around the forum.

There is a heap of good info here! USE IT! Please?
 

Mrs D is a 'resource' here and do please try to read her posts under the Vitamins etc forum: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum49.html
Just click on this blue and you're there!
I found out that I'd been getting too much B-6, as I took a good long look at all the fine print on my supplements? Found out I was getting about 4-6 times the MAX recommended dose for B-6 as it seemed to be 'put' into every supplement! So I started to get more selective and specific.
I took a look at B-6 in particular, thanks to Mrs D's advice and well? Got my eyes opened. Since I've a severe sensory neuropathy to begin with? I don't need any additional problems! As I'm sure you don't want either!
Take a look and also see our 'peripheral neuropathy' forum as well...
here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum20.html
You aren't alone. Some have it worse than others? But we help each other get by.
Good luck and see you soon, please? No question is too silly to ask! We've all had our share and still do at times.
Until later - :hug::hug::hug:'s - j