Getting Enough Vitamin B6 Without Taking Too Much

How much vitamin B6 should I take?

It's a common question, and the answers depend on whether you are just wanting a minimum of "vitamin insurance" or whether you are facing special circumstances that have caused you to experience a vitamin B6 deficiency. But first a word about the maximum dosage of vitamin B6:

And the reason you would ever take that much vitamin B6 would be that you suffered sideroblastic anemia and you needed a variety of B vitamins because of bone marrow problems. If you really need that much vitamin B6, you also need a doctor's supervision for your disease. And if you had certain kinds of mushroom poisoning, you might get a single dose of up 10,000 mg of B6 under doctor's supervision.

Dosages of 1,000 mg of vitamin B6 a day have been associated with numbness and breathing problems, but no one needs to take that much. If for some reason you do need to take high-dose B6, then it's important to remember:

But the real problem is an imbalance in the amino acids for which vitamin B6 is an enzyme cofactor, not the B6 itself.

Most of the time a much lower dosage of B6 will correct a deficiency. Here are some typical dosages of the pyridoxine form of B6 used in various diseases:

• 50 to 600 mg a day for sideroblastic anemia
• 100 to 500 mg a day, with other B vitamins, for people with high homocysteine
• 100 to 250 mg a day for luteal phase defect in women trying to conceive(read more about vitamin B6 and pregnancy)
• 50 mg a day for people with chronic liver disease
• 2 to 5 mg a day for people receiving dialysis or who have chronic kidney disease

Just avoiding vitamin B6 deficiency symptoms only requires 1 to 2 mg a day, more for people over 70 and lactating mothers, less for teens and adults under 50. Children under six usually need no more than 0.5 mg a day and infants who are fed formula (not breastfed) may only need 0.1 or 0. 2 mg of B6 a day(you may also be interested in vitamin b6 for children ). But any dosage under 10 mg a day is certain not to cause any side effects.

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