65 bananas or 10 kilograms of potatoes
What about vitamin B6 exactly: do you need it and when is it harmful? Time for fact finding. These are the five most important questions and answers about vitamin B6, thanks to Prof. Renger Witkamp, member of the scientific advisory board of the Vitamin Information Office.
1. Do we need B6?
Of course. Vitamin B6, also called pyridoxine, is a very important vitamin. It is involved in the resistance and digestion. It also plays a role in the formation of red blood cells. Vitamin B6 also provides energy and ensures proper functioning of the nervous system. A versatile vitamin!
2. How much do we need?
The recommended daily amount, the RDA, is set at 1.5 milligrams per day for adults. That corresponds, for example, to six whole-wheat sandwiches.
3. Who is at risk of a deficiency?
If you eat enough and varied, you will get enough B6. Only we know from research, this year by the Vitamin Information Bureau, that not everyone succeeds. The best advice is of course to eat a healthy and varied diet. A multivitamin can provide extra assurance that you are getting enough.
4. When is B6 harmful?
As is very often the case: only with very high doses and very long daily use. You can then suffer from, for example, tingling hands and feet.
The safe upper limit is 25 milligrams per day and you cannot reach that limit through food. That is the amount you ingest if you eat 10 kilos of potatoes or 65 bananas. A banana is healthy, but 65 bananas are not. It is the same with vitamin B6.
5. You can simply buy supplements in the Netherlands with 100 mg, so four times as much as the safe upper limit. How is that possible?
The safe upper limit has not yet resulted in a maximum amount for vitamin B6 in supplements in the Dutch Commodities Act. This is mainly due to the discussion about the available scientific research. In the US, that research is interpreted differently and the upper limit is, for example, 100 mg.
And there may be other factors at play as well. The scientific advisory board of the Vitamin Information Office collected vitamin B6 data from hundreds of patients in the AMC in Amsterdam and the UMCG in Groningen. Symptoms that seem to indicate an excess of vitamin B6 may be caused by the simultaneous use of vitamin B6 with multiple medications. It could also be that a high intake of vitamin B6 reinforces an existing deficiency of vitamin B12. In short: it is difficult to determine to what extent complaints are really related to the long-term use of over-the-counter, high-dose supplements with vitamin B6.
The label of a vitamin supplement will state how many vitamins and minerals it contains, plus the percentage of the recommended daily allowance. If it says between 100 and 300% RDA, then it is a supplement with a low dose and it is completely safe to use. Because that RDA is 1.5 milligrams per day and even with 300% of that you stay well below the safe upper limit.
Vitamin check
Are you unsure about the amount of vitamins and minerals in your vitamin supplement? Take a picture of the label and post it on the Facebook page of the Vitamin Information Office.
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