Vitamin B6 is found in a wide range of foods, including meat, poultry, legumes, bananas and foods that are fortified with a supplemental form. Adults need 1.3 to 1.7 milligrams (mg) daily to meet their requirements. To give you an idea of how you'd get that amount, you could eat one banana, one baked potato, one-half of a chicken breast and one ounce of nuts through out the course of the day.
Deficiency Symptoms
People with vitamin B6 deficiency could possibly suffer from inflammation of the skin, a sore tongue, depression, cognitive problems and eventually convulsions. Because vitamin B6 is needed for normal red blood cells, a deficiency could also cause anemia.
Causes
A true vitamin B6 deficiency is rare, but people who eat nutrient-poor diets or consume lots of alcohol may have low levels of vitamin B6 in their blood, which may indicate a possible insufficiency. Older adults whose diets have little variety for long periods of time may become deficient in vitamin B6. Alcohol speeds up the loss of vitamin B6 in the body, so alcoholics may be more prone to vitamin B6 deficiency symptoms.
Can You Get Too Much?
Vitamin B6 is available as a dietary supplement and in the past had been recommended in large doses of 100 mg per day or more for treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome, PMS and for reduction of homocysteine (a protein that is often elevated when a person is at a high risk for heart disease). Unfortunately, scientific studies don't indicate vitamin B6 is effective for either carpal tunnel syndrome or PMS, and although vitamin B6 will reduce homocysteine levels it doesn't appear to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Taking more than 100 mg vitamin B6 for a prolonged time can actually result in nerve damage, which is reversible when supplementation is stopped. You don't need to worry about getting too much vitamin B6 from diet - even with fortified foods - because a normal diet will supply just a few milligrams per day, which is all your body needs.
Source:
Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health. "Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin B6." Accessed October 19, 2010. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb6/.
