James...or anyone else taking VitB6 for that matter...how much Vit B6 are you taking? I'm not too sure about the other vitamins but I know we can overdose on B6. Years ago I went to a private clinic for PMT (PMS) and I was prescribed B6, which is also called Pyridoxine. It worked brilliantly with my depression and my mood swings and I was overjoyed at the result.

After a couple of months I began to get feelings of panic..it was like a real dread feeling (I even had suscidal thoughts..thankfully they only lasted a few seconds..but they were there) and my hands would shake terribly. I also had pins and needles in my hands and they would go numb sometimes, so much so that I was unable to type, which was not good seeing as I was a Secretary. I began to feel really ill on a daily basis. I became anxious and jitterly and was a complete wreck. I didn't feel like 'me' any more.

I went to see my GP and he wasn't sure what was wrong with me. He then asked me if I was using any 'over the counter' medication from the chemist. I told him that I wasn't but that I was taking Vitamin B6. He asked me what dosage and when I told him he nearly exploded!

The clinic had prescribed 2 x 250mg tablets of B6 per day. My GP said that I should only be taking 50mg per day and that nobody should take more than 100mg as this can lead to a number of health issues including numbness in hands and feet and permanent nerve damage....and there I was taking 1,000mg per day! I stopped taking the B6 completely (and used Evening Primrose Oil instead) and my symptoms went away.

Apparently, as B6 is water soluable and so isn't stored in our bodies it was thought at one time to have been safe to take such high doses but research found that it wasn't.

You may like to see this, it's from 1998, which is 20 years after my encounter with B6:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/117811.stm

If you are taking large doses then you really should cut down.

Lyn Rennick
www.LynRennicksAMPSsociety.co.uk
Lyn@LynRennicksAMPSsociety.co.uk