1. Please read this thread. It could make a difference to your health. Before I went away, I had a strange, persistent tingling in the soles of my feet. When I looked it up, there were some benign explanations, and some alarming ones. I resolved to see the doctor when I returned. 🧵 2. But soon after I left home, it stopped, and did not recur throughout my five weeks away. What was I doing differently? I had no idea. But by pure chance, one of the first things I read when I returned was this. It described symptoms very similar to mine: theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com
3. Huh, I didn’t take B6, so it must have been something else. Or did I? As is sensible for people with a plant-based diet, I do take B12 supplements. The ones I use contain a “High 12 B Complex”.
4. I checked the label, and found this. Ye gods. I had unwittingly been taking 14 times the recommended daily dose of B6! (I had stopped taking the capsules when I went away).
5. There is no reason for someone with a healthy diet and normal metabolism to supplement with B6, and no good reason that I can think of for Viridian or any other company to add it to their B12 formula. But boy do they add it! 6. I feel extremely lucky to have discovered this now, because, as the article explains, long-term overdosing with B6 can cause severe and irreversible nerve damage. 7. Because the supplements also provide 200 times the daily dose of B12, I’m now taking them once a month, rather than the recommended once a day. The symptoms have not yet recurred. I can't be sure that B6 was the cause, and I'm not a statistically significant sample. But it feels suggestive. 8. Given what we know, why is this over-supply legal, and what do supplement companies intend to do about it? In the meantime, check the label and reduce or eliminate your dose accordingly. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue
skywriter.blue