Why take Vitamin B6 supplements?
Pyridoxine is frequently used in combination with other B vitamins in vitamin B complex products. The Vitamin B6 form that is found most often in supplements, Pyridoxine, is required by the body for a healthy function of sugars, fats, and proteins. Pyridoxine is also necessary for proper growth and development of brain, nerve, skin, and other parts of the body. It can be found in foods like cereals, beans, liver, eggs, vegetables, and liver, but it can also be taken in its supplement form.
While it certainly is possible to get all the nutrients your body requires from eating a variety of healthy foods, taking vitamin supplements can be useful to help fill any ‘gaps’ in your nutrient intake! Vitamin B6 supplements play an important part in the body’s overall health and have been used for treating and preventing:
- low levels of pyridoxine (pyridoxine deficiency) and the “tired blood” or anaemia that may result
- heart disease
- high cholesterol
- reducing blood levels of homocysteine--a chemical that may be linked to heart disease
- helping clogged arteries to stay open after angioplasty
- PMS and other menstruation problems
- “morning sickness” in early pregnancy
- stopping milk flow after childbirth
- depression related to pregnancy or using birth control pills
- Symptoms of menopause
- Alzheimer’s disease
- ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder)
- Down syndrome
- autism
- diabetes and related nerve pain
- sickle cell anaemia
- migraine headaches
- asthma
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- night leg cramps
- muscle cramps
- arthritis
- allergies
- acne and various other skin conditions
- infertility
- dizziness
- motion sickness
- preventing eye disease and age-related macular degeneration
- seizures
- convulsions due to fever
- movement disorders (tardive dyskinesia, hyperkinesis, chorea)
- increasing appetite
- memory loss
Some people also use pyridoxine for boosting their immune system, healing eye infections, bladder infections, and in preventing cancer and kidney stones. Other uses are overcoming harmful side effects of radiation treatment and treatment with medications like mitomycin, procarbazine, cycloserine, fluorouracil, hydrazine, isoniazid, penicillamine, and vincristine.