PSA: B6 Overdose is Real — Please Read if You Take Supplements or Energy Drinks!

 

I live in northern Michigan with my family in a quiet, rural area. We’re pretty health-conscious and live an active, outdoorsy lifestyle — hiking, working on our land, and trying to keep up with the kids. Like many people, I’ve always tried to stay hydrated and healthy, especially with how physically demanding our days can be.

 

A few months ago, I started noticing strange, painful sensations in my hands and feet. Tingling, burning, numbness — like my nerves were misfiring. It wasn’t just uncomfortable — it was frightening, especially with no obvious explanation.

 

After a long road of researching, ruling things out, and finally putting the pieces together, I discovered the cause: vitamin B6 toxicity.

 

Here’s how it happened:

 

I was regularly drinking Liquid I.V. for hydration (which contains B6)

 

Occasionally grabbing an energy drink to get through a busy day (also packed with B6)

 

Taking daily supplements that included even more B6

 

None of these things seemed excessive on their own — but they added up.

 

Vitamin B6 toxicity, or pyridoxine toxicity, is very real. It can cause neuropathy (nerve damage), even at levels just above the recommended daily intake, especially if you're sensitive or taking it long-term.

 

I had no idea this could happen. Most of us are led to believe that water-soluble vitamins like B6 are just flushed out if we get too much. But in reality, B6 builds up in the body and can cause lasting harm.

 

I’m sharing my story because I don’t want anyone else to go through this. If you’re taking multiple supplements, drinking energy drinks, or using products like hydration powders — check the labels. Add up the total B6 you’re getting, and talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing strange symptoms.

 

I’m still on the road to recovery. Some days are better than others. But I’m grateful to have finally found the cause and hope this post helps someone else catch it early.

 

Written by: Jessica Thompson

I have been a serious athlete my entire life. A gymnast, marathoner, bodybuilder, and Iron Man triathlete. It is the only thing in my heart. It is every fiber of my being. B6 toxicity has taken it from me.

 

It would take me two hours to explain the details of my situation. So please find this very abbreviated story and heed my warning about the dangers of vitamin B6.

 

In the September of 2022, I was a 45 year-old female from Northern Kentucky training as usual for triathlons. I could run a 5K in 19 minutes. I would do a minimum of 100 pull-ups a day. In total, I spent roughly 20 hours a week training. I had been having some very low-key strange side effects for a while, but it was not impacting my life in any way.

 

Fast forward to December 2022. Yep, three months later. I was attempting to fall asleep for the night as I cradled a Bible and sobbed. I prayed to the Lord that I would wake up in the morning. I had full body severe pain. Neuropathy in arms, legs, hands, and feet. Full body muscle twitching. Hair loss, incontinence, night sweats, SEVERE anxiety, etc. I could go on. That is less than half of the horrible side effects I was having. I couldn’t brush my teeth, shower, vacuum or drive without resting my arms. I could only walk about a quarter of a mile. I thought I was going to die.

 

There were countless doctors and tests. To name a few… Multiple MRIs, upper scope, colonoscopy, CT scan, sonogram, and tons of labs. My liver enzymes and ferritin had been coming back quadruple normal for about two years. Only in hindsight do I see that this was caused by the B6. Aside from that, all tests were normal except for vitamin B6. It was five times the normal range. 

 

I had stopped taking supplements for over two weeks when the neurologist finally checked the B6, so it was probably even higher than that. Completely unaware of the dangers of B6, I was ingesting an incredible amount. Sports drinks, electrolyte drinks, amino acids, multivitamins (all containing added B6) and even large amounts of chicken (high amount of naturally occuring B6).

 

Most people, even doctors, think vitamin B6 is perfectly safe because it is water soluble. This is not true. It is a known neurotoxin. It is broken down in the liver and stored in the muscle. It can then spill over to the nerves. Vitamin B6 can cause sensory, motor and autonomic nerve damage.

 

It is now April, 2025. I have improved by approximately 80%. It is still a roller coaster of fluctuating symptoms. It is a vast improvement, but nowhere near what I was before. My neurologist tells me that most healing is done in the nerves on the front end, which is usually six months to a year. He says this is most likely my new baseline.

 

I still hope to find a doctor that knows how to treat B6 toxicity and I can be 100% again.

 

Vitamin B6 toxicity has caused me more physical and mental anguish & pain than I can even put into words.

 

Written by: Alexandra Eddins

 

Hello everyone!! I am David Cullom. I live in the United States in Crown Point, Indiana just 45 minutes outside of Chicago. This has been a long road for me. I’ve had underlying conditions which made it next to impossible to diagnose my B6 toxicity.

 

 In 2002 I was in a scaffolding accident where I broke my back and had severe head trauma. While I was not diagnosed with any neck injury, I had a neck fusion in 2010. By 2012, ten years later, I felt better again. I ran triathlons, half marathons and was an avid cyclist. I worked out daily. I was trying to be healthy as possible and started taking b6 supplements in 2012. Worst decison of my life. 

 

In 2015 I began my decline. I had my first of 3 Cryo ablations for a-fib. Last one in 2022 was successful and it seems to be behind me now. Elbow surgery in 2019 and felt good after that then covid hit. Had my second Cryo ablation in 2020. I was the second person at Northwestern University to receive that procedure when they opened it back up during Covid. I had heart rates up to 279 during that AFib cycle. While still having off and on a-fib issues, I started to have spinal issues late 2020. While fighting neck pain for 6 months it was decided by my neuro surgeon to have my second cervical spine fusion. I’ve now had C5-7 fused. 

 

Was B6 the cause of my heart issues? I’m not sure. I believe my neck issue was from the scaffolding accident. In 2022, I had my 3rd Cryo ablation and now seem to be symptom free of a-fib, but my peripheral neuropathy was becoming debilitating. I was having shoulder issues and that was being diagnosed as neck issues starting in the summer of ‘22. I had seen two different pain management doctors for about a year. I then felt it was more of a shoulder problem than a neck problem. I got the mri of my shoulder and fast forward, last week, I finally had shoulder surgery to repair my severely torn labrum complete tear of biceps tendon, rotator cuff repair and also had my bursitis removed. 

 

Now, I go back to 2023. Since then, I have seen 5 different neurologists at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, which is considered one of the best hospitals in the US. I had some severe peripheral neuropathy especially on the left side. I had MRI of the brain and cervical spine, thoracic spine and lumbar spine. Doctors saw I have stenosis and herniated disc compression of my L4-L5 nerve root. It was deemed mild so back to therapy etc. I got to the point where I can no longer tolerate PT.

 

 The same old story continued of my doctor saying “I don’t understand why the symptoms are so severe.” It was progressively getting worse so in July of 2024 I received another MRI. Now my stenosis in L2- S1 has worsened and so has my nerve root. Neurosurgeon says I need a laminectomy of L4-L5. It’s a spinal decompression surgery. I get it completed in October of 2024. My neuropathy is now getting worse so the neuro orders me another MRI. He looks at the imaging and concludes I must have another underlying condition causing my decline, because the spine doesn’t show any imaging that would result in my condition to be worsening. So I get sent to another neuro and he confirms, so then second neuro sends me to a neuro disease doctor. He tests my B6 and it was 207. Normal range is between 2-20. I was ten times over the high end normal range and 100 times above the low end normal range. He said this is the cause after seeing my lab work. I found this out a little over a month ago.

 

My peripheral neuropathy over the last few years has crippled me. Headaches have been brutal as well. Between my underlying issues and my B6 toxicity, it’s been a battle. I can no longer do much of anything. It is debilitating to even stand for more than ten minutes at a time. I’m hopeful that I can eventually make a full recovery. I am here for you all for support as I’m still learning about this awful disease. Best of luck to all of you and I wish you all a full recovery.

 

Written by: David Cullom

 

I spent most of the last year thinking I was going to die. My health has been ruined by Vitamin B6.

I am a married (20 years!) mother of 2 amazing teenagers from Washington State USA. I have a passion for helping others. The awful experiences I have had with my health have to mean something, so here I am sharing.

June 2024 I discovered I was taking 40 mg of B6 daily. (1.3 mg is the recommended daily allowance). Someone had posted about vitamin B6 toxicity in one of the POTS support groups I was in. I had a sick feeling in my stomach. After reading about it, I went and looked at all of my supplements and to my horror, seven of the supplements I was taking had vitamin B6 added. It was added to my daily multi, magnesium, sleep blend, and several fibromyalgia supplements I was taking.

I unfortunately did not get a blood test when I was still taking the B6, and it drops fast in the blood. So I will never know my original toxicity level. My first blood test had me at the very high end of the range at 2 weeks off all supplementation. At 6 months off, my blood test showed me in low normal range.

I ate a very high B6 diet as a child/teen (cereal, sunflower seeds, chicken, Flintstones vitamins). I have seen different health care providers over the years, many who prescribed me B vitamins, in excessive amounts. I have found many mostly empty bottles with at least 25 mg in B6 in a daily dose that I took from 2010-2024. It is my belief that I have been B6 toxic pretty much my whole life. And not one doctor knew about it or helped me figure it out, they all just kept prescribing me stuff that kept me sick. My OB prescribed me B6 and Unisom when I was pregnant 19 years ago! It didn't help the morning sickness and it made me couch ridden.

In 2020 I started seeing a doctor to help me figure out my issues and he diagnosed me with fibromyalgia and I did a bunch of genetic testing. He told me that I'm not processing vitamins well from my food and that I needed to supplement specific vitamins. He put me on a supplement protocol and at times I was taking 200 to 300 mg of B6 daily. As you can imagine I was not tolerating it well and I was often bedridden. I was told that it was me over methylating but there was no explanation of why this was happening to me and why my body couldn't handle the B vitamins. So I stopped taking B complex but I was still taking multiple supplements that had added b6. I was not taking b6 on purpose it was just part of the supplements that I was taking.

In May 2022 I had a major surgery. Hysterectomy with diagnosis and removal of endometriosis stage 3, and adenomyosis. I had a perineal revision, removing scar tissue that the surgeon thought was causing my pain. Instead the pain worsened. I have been unable to sit well and have had lots of pain issues ever since. None of the specialists could figure out why, and now I know... Nerve pain and polyneuropathy are symptoms of B6 toxicity.

Back in May and June 2024, right before I figured out the B6 toxicity, I was very, very sick. I actually thought that I wasn't going to make it. I did some blood work with a naturopathic doctor and she diagnosed me with long haul covid due to my high viral load (bloodwork showed high Epstein Barr virus, cytomegaly, hsv1 and strep A). She looked at every single one of my vitamins and did not flag the 40 mg of B6 I was taking even though it was right in front of her and she combed through each supplement. When I asked her about B6 toxicity after figuring it out, she said she had heard of it but it didn't click for her when she was looking at my supplements.

After stopping the supplements, I became bedridden. For 6 months. I had extreme fatigue, migraines, bad brain fog. I remember one time grabbing a knife to eat my food with fully thinking it was just as good as a fork. Another time I had a little brain glitch and I started moving and talking in slow motion. My family thought I might be having a stroke. I had extreme sensitivity to lights and sound, I almost didn't leave my house more than about five times the entire summer last year. And when I did I had to wear sunglasses and earplugs often. I could not go to the store or church. Everything was too loud and bright and overwhelming for my nervous system.

Thankfully I started going to acupuncture and it really helped me get through some of the hard bits. It's still continuing to help.

My hormones are absolutely messed up (Low progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. High cortisol and insulin) and nobody knows why. I currently went through testing for Cushing's and my results were not making sense. I have been diagnosed with Non-neoplastic hypercortisolism. It's difficult to find doctors that know anything about anything, and clearly as you can see by my history, I have put trust in a lot of doctors that have hurt me badly, unintentionally.

I go around and around and I have wonderful people that are also dealing with massive health issues like me to talk with. I'm very thankful for my support team because I'm clearly not getting the healthcare that I need. I stump every single doctor because I don't make sense.

Now I'm kind of at a crossroads. And maybe I just need some more time to clear this B6 out of my system. I know it can take one to three years to really see improvement. I'm at almost 11 months into my healing journey at the time of writing this, April 2025.

I'm still dealing with a lot of brain fog, low energy, fatigue, insomnia, inability to lose weight, insulin resistance, hirsutism, buzzing and tingly in my hands, feet and face at times though it's much improved in intensity. I go through periods of time where things get a little worse and then I'm better. But overall things are much better than they were 11 months ago.

I don't know what's next. I'm a very spiritual person and I'm really leaning into God's direction on my journey. I spend a lot of time in prayer and many times my prayers are wordless and I just send an urgent plea to guide and protect me. I don't have the answers. But, I'm somehow still waking up every morning.

Please learn from my mistakes. Read labels on every single thing you're putting in your mouth. Cereal, energy drinks, electrolytes, pre-made shakes, shoot I've even found B6 added to mints! If you are ingesting any, I recommend you stop immediately. Go get your blood checked at the doctor and see if you are toxic. And even if you are not, you shouldn't be supplementing with it. 

Most people have a very high B6 diet naturally. There's no need to supplement this one. Deficiency is a whole other beast but many people that become deficient then become toxic because they start taking too much. We need more research and eyes on this. The absolute wretched experience I have went through I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

I'm so grateful for my support group. I don't know where I would be without the other B6 toxic friends I have made on this journey. INCUDING several friends in my own circle who are also dealing with B6 toxicity.

One day at a time, I'm on my way to better health. Maybe my 40's will be the best years of my life. Here's to hoping, and healing!

Written by: Cariann Royall