Vitamin B6 Use by Gareth J. Parry, M.D. (CMT expert)

[Guest guest]

(I am posting this from our FILES section at . Dr. Parry is a

CMT expert and specializes in vitamins, among other things) Persons

wishing more information on B6 use may wish to review our past

discussions by using our archived posts.

~ Gretchen

Vitamin B6 Use: Current as of 11/11/2004 – by Gareth J. Parry, M.D.

The RDA (recommended daily allowance) of vitamin B6 is 2 mg and the

MDR (minimum daily requirement is 0.1-0.2 mg). The amount in a typical

multivitamin is 5 mg although many have 10 mg and, obviously, some

have 8 mg. There are several products available over the counter that

contain 20 mg.

All the research that has been done indicates that all of these doses

are safe for normal people and I am not concerned for my CMT

patients at these doses. Larger dose tablets can be found - there

used to be a 500 mg tablet!

In our studies, the lowest dose that we found to be definitely toxic

to nerves was 500 mg daily; we had one patient who was adamant that

she was taking only 200 mg daily who developed nerve damage although

she was also taking a lot of B6-rich foods. One doctor in London,

England claims that 50 mg daily can be toxic to the nerves but no one

else has been able to show that.

In summary, I tell my patients under no circumstances should they

take more than 20 mg daily and I prefer them to take no more than 10

mg daily. 8 mg daily is certainly safe.

Gareth J. Parry

Department of Neurology

University of Minnesota