B6 - from Dr. Gareth Parry

[Guest guest]

,

Now, here's the " official word " from Dr. Parry:

" 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

612 624 6145 (Phone)

612 626 2131 (FAX)