When it comes to B vitamins, you’re probably most familiar with vitamin B12, which helps prevent anemia and maintain bone health, and B9 (folic acid), which is necessary for a healthy pregnancy.
But vitamin B6, in a way, is “the forgotten vitamin,” according to Reem Malouf, a neurologist at the University of Oxford who has studied B6’s effect on cognition. As with the other B vitamins such as B12 and B9, it is an essential nutrient, but scientists do not fully understand how it affects mental health, and it is less well-known than the others.
That doesn’t make it any less crucial to how the body functions, said Katherine Tucker, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Vitamin B6 is involved in a number of chemical reactions that are important for the nervous system and brain function, including the synthesis of proteins, amino acids and brain chemical messengers, as well as the proper functioning of the immune system.
It’s also critical for pregnancy and postnatal care — it helps relieve morning sickness and is necessary for fetal and infant brain development. And vitamin B6 deficiencies have been linked to a number of neuropsychiatric conditions, including seizures, migraines, anxiety, depression, and memory failures.
What is the role of vitamin B6 in mental health?
“That vitamin B6 affects mental health is not a new concept,” said Jess Eastwood, a doctoral student in nutritional psychology at the University of Reading in Britain.
In a study of nearly 500 college students published in July, for example, Eastwood and his colleagues found that those who took high doses of vitamin B6 — 100 mg a day for about a month — reported feeling less anxious than those who took it. took a placebo.
Their findings also suggested that B6 may serve to stem the increase in brain activity that occurs with certain mood disorders.
But the sample size of that study was small, and there hasn’t been much research in general on how B6, whether supplemental or dietary, causes changes in mental health, Eastwood added. The conclusions of such studies, including this one, are often limited and do not prove causality.
It can also be difficult to study the effect, if any, of B6 supplementation on mental health, in part because measuring how well vitamins are absorbed into the bloodstream is challenging.
Should we all rush out to buy B6 supplements?
Probably not, experts said. For most healthy adults, the recommended daily intake of vitamin B6 is 1.3 to 1.7 mg.
As with the other essential vitamins, the body cannot produce B6 on its own, so you can only get it from food or supplements. However, most healthy adults get more than enough vitamin B6 from their diet alone, Tucker said.
“It’s widely available in whole foods,” she said, such as tuna, salmon, fortified cereals, chickpeas, poultry, dark leafy greens, bananas, oranges, cantaloupe and walnuts.
A cup of canned chickpeas, for example, provides 1.1 mg of vitamin B6, while 90 grams of roasted chicken breast provides 0.5 mg.
Most dietary supplements also tend to contain more than you need in a day. Some commercially available B6 supplements, for example, may have around 20 to 200 times more than needed.
Taking such high doses of B6 supplements likely won’t cause negative side effects in the short term, Tucker said, but the US National Institutes of Health recommend that adults take no more than 100 mig a day.
Taking much more than that, around 1,000 mg or more a day for long periods of time, can cause weakness, numbness and pain in the hands and feet, loss of muscle control, and nausea, although most symptoms go away once a person stops drinking. take such high doses.
Experts say that if you’re concerned about a lack of vitamin B6 in your diet, you should ask your doctor for a blood test. If you are borderline or mildly disabled, you may have only minor symptoms, or none at all, and no complications. But if the deficiency becomes severe or prolonged, it can lead to more serious conditions such as microcytic anemia, depression, confusion, fatigue, and weakened immunity, which may disappear after B6 levels are restored.
Certain medications or lifestyle habits can also contribute to B6 deficiency.
“The diabetes drug metformin, some hypertension drugs, certainly alcohol, tend to cause the body to lose B6, so you end up retaining less B6 than you need,” Tucker said.
Heavy drinkers, smokers and those taking certain medications should be much more aware of their B6 levels, he added. Those with renal or malabsorption syndromes, such as chronic kidney disease, celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease, may also be prone to B6 deficiency.
Keep in mind that those who are deficient in B6 also tend to be deficient in other B vitamins, Tucker said. So if you need to supplement your diet, you may be better off taking a B-complex supplement, which usually contains all eight B vitamins in one serving.
But if you’re not disabled, Tucker added, you probably don’t need to take a supplement.
Eastwood agreed.
“I always support a food-first approach,” Eastwood said. “If you are feeling more tired, not feeling very well and are aware that you may not be eating a lot of B6-containing foods,” this may indicate that you need to consume more B6-rich foods.
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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