Vitamin B6 is not known by many. You can get vitamin B6 in both forms; through diet as well as through health supplements.
Come, let us go in depth to understand, what exactly is vitamin B6
- Vitamin B6 is also called as pyridoxine.
- It is a water soluble vitamin.
- It is derived from the group of B complex vitamins
- Pyridoxal phosphate is the active form of this vitamin, which is used in many reactions
Vitamin B6 Health Benefits
Vitamin B6 benefits are many and some of them have been listed below:
- It helps to cure many types of skin diseases
- It is used for making serotonin and non-epinephrine hormones, which are mainly responsible for the mood.
- It is also used to make melatonin, the protein that is responsible for the color of the skin.
- Premenstrual pain and acne can be reduced, if the proper amount of vitamin b6 is being taken by females
- It is used for preventing nausea and vomiting symptoms in the early months of pregnancy.
After knowing the B6 vitamin benefits, it is not that difficult to guess what will happen if you are deficient in vitamin B6.
Come, let me take you in depth and enlighten you with knowledge about deficiency of vitamin B6. This knowledge will help you as well as people around you.
Low Levels of Vitamin B6 Leads To
Vitamin B6 deficiency leads to the following:
- Mental depression, stress and anxiety.
• All kinds of skin diseases.
• Ulcers taking place in your mouth
• Acne and pimples all over face.
• Trembling of hands and legs
We all have a recommended dietary allowances for everything which has been already given to us by the national institute of nutrition (NIN) to avoid vitamin B6 deficiency symptoms. This clearly states our daily requirements of macronutrients as well as micronutrients; means vitamins and minerals.
Requirement of Vitamin B6
As we all know that B vitamins are the vitamins which are soluble in the water, which means that they will get mixed with the fluids of the body. Vitamins which are not needed will be removed out as waste products in the form of urine. Hence the body is unable to store any vitamin from this B vitamin group for the future. You need sources of vitamin B6 as well as the other B vitamins every day.
Amount of Vitamin B6 will vary as per the age and also gender and the requirement varies if a person is pregnant and lactating. Hence the below chart is as per the recommended dietary allowances of Vitamin B6 levels.
| Children | New born-6months | 0.1mg |
| 7mths-1yr | 0.3mg | |
| 1-3yrs | 0.5mg | |
| 4-8yrs | 0.6mg | |
| 9-13yrs | 1mg | |
| Boys | 14-18yrs | 1.3mg |
| Girls | 14-18yrs | 1.2mg |
| Men and Women | 19-50yrs | 1.3mg |
| Men | 51yrs and older | 1.7mg |
| Women | 51yrs and older | 1.5 mg |
| Pregnant women | 1.9mg | |
| Breast feeding women | 2.0mg |
After reading the requirement, you must be wondering how to fulfill it, right? There are few foods available which has vitamin B6. Come with me, I will take you to the world of pyridoxine rich foods.
Sources Of Vitamin B6
Vegetarian Sources Of Vitamin B6
- Sunflower seeds
- Pistachios
- Prunes
- Banana
- Spinach
Non-Vegetarian Sources of Vitamin B6
- Lean Pork
- Fish (Tuna, Cooked)
- Turkey and Chicken
- Eggs
- Beef
- Oyster
I hope the information provided was good. Frankly, how many of these foods do you eat on a daily basis? Very few isn’t it. I think if you take most of these on the regular basis only then you can fulfil the daily requirement of your vitamin B6.
Always remember the following:
“Health is your priority,
Don’t take it as minority,
You are in charge of its security,
Once affected there is no guarantee”
If you feel, you are unable to take all such food sources, you can simply pop a multivitamin rich in vitamin B6. Catch you soon with my other topics.
For me this subject got very interesting was the reason where you highlighted the effect of low levels due to Vitamin B6.
I can say was totally unware of Vitamin B6 before and its source and importance.
The deficiency which you told are genuine and one can avoid it completely by following simple tips given by you or by using multivitamin tablets.
So for me Multivitamin tablets is a perfect choice and its showing great results.
Query- I daily consume 10 white eggs, 1Ltr milk, Banana. Is this source and quantity sufficient for me to complete 1.3mg of Vitamin B6 as illustrated by you in above table ?
Thanks Nikhil its good to know that my article could help you gain some knowledge.
About your query I would like to say sorry but the food items you mention would not take care of your RDA of vitamin B6 because
Milk has 0 mg of vitamin B6
Whole egg has 0.1 mg but egg white has 0 mg
Banana has 0.4 mg if you take 5 banana in a day then probably you will be able to meet your daily vitamin B6 requirement.
Dear Mukta,
All your posts regarding nutritional advice are very helpful to me as well as my family. Thanks a lot.
Please advise which Vitamin ( particularly multivitamin ) supplement should be taken daily for vitamin enrichment in human body without side effect.
If there is no deficiency of vitamin 6, and if taken, any side effects ?
Thanks Amulkumar for following my advice.
There is a supplement name Multivitamin and Mineral with Inlife health care which is rich in all the vitamins and minerals,this supplement should be taken one tablet daily after breakfast.
There are no side effects known till date.
As i have already mention in the article once again will explain you.
We all have a daily requirement of each vitamin and mineral
and hence you need to take 2 mg of vitamin B6 on the daily basis.
Each person should take a multivitamin in today’s scenario as we all know that eating right meals on right time has become a tough challenge.