vitamin B6

[eli]

ELI

I was watching Dr. Phil, and they were disscussing OCD. The doctor on the show sugessted taking vitamin B6, I''m not sure on the dose.

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ELI

vitamin B6, I''m not sure on the dose.

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See http://home.howstuffworks.com/vitamin-b2.htm for a table of B vitamins overall. For B6, I've seen various recommendations.

 

- The USDA RDA is 2 mg/da. See also http://www.hoptechno.com/book29d.htm. BTW: supplements might not help replace what you can get through regular food sources, esp. green veggies.

 

- One website http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-126a.shtml says: "Vitamin B6 is required for almost all metabolic processes involving amino acids, including the decarboxylation of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) formed from L-tryptophan (TRP).14 All three of these substances are available as separate supplements. A suggested daily dosage of vitamin B6 is from 10 to 100 mg, larger doses are preferred when chronic stress is present. "

 

- I've seen others that say up to 500 mg, especially during very stressful periods.

 

- Personally, I have been taking 20 mg/da, but that's along with several B vitamins, and I don't know whether the B6 is doing anything in particular, good or bad, but the overall set does, mostly because when I lapse, I feel I need to restart. I also take 5HTP, and that helps.

 

Maybe if you take 10-20 mg/da for a while you can tell whether that helps, but I would tend to doubt that. My experience is that an overall balance of all vitamins, minerals and even related precursors like 5HTP is needed, but unfortunately, it's a trial and error process, and you should make sure that there aren't any interactions with other drugs-- for example, 5HTP and SSRI's don't get along. I'm sure that anything taken to excess will have some kind of undesirable side effects, but I know that that's not much of a help, except to reinforce using caution.