Don’t Take Vitamin B-6!!

A few days ago the lovely ladies in the Health As It Ought To Be store sent me an email.

They let me know they had the opportunity to get a great deal on a proven supplement and wanted to check and see if I’d write an email extolling this vitamin’s benefits.

As someone who loves, and I do mean loves to talk about vitamins, I was happy to oblige their request.

As you likely guessed the article is about vitamin B-6.

Now, I’m never going to tell you outright not to take a vitamin supplement, unless there is no need to do so because you get enough through diet alone.

But when it comes to vitamin B-6 there’s a chance that even if you get enough in your diet you may still need to supplement.

I’ll explain the reason why in a moment.

If You Take Vitamin B-6 Make Sure It’s P5P

Vitamin B-6 is extremely important for the health of your body. It’s needed for more than 100 enzymatic processes.

Chief among these processes are how B-6 helps to protect lipids (fats that help to form cell membranes and other necessary formations) and proteins against glycation reactions...which while complicated to explain is easy to warn against as it’s less than ideal for continuing in good health.

When glycation reactions occur it can lead to less than optimal function in the nerves, cardiovascular system, eyes, kidneys and more.

Now, as I mentioned, there are plenty of people who should supplement with B-6 (but not any kind) because of the 2 following reasons.

The first is diet alone doesn’t always deliver the right amount of B-6 you need.
Many of the things we do to make food taste good, or to preserve it (such as canning, processing, freezing, and cooking) can rob the food of as much as 50% of its vitamin B-6.

The other thing is a fair number of people actually don’t have the biological capacity to convert B-6 into the end-stage form you need.

There are a few different kinds of vitamin B-6 that you can get from diet (and supplements).

These include: 

• pyridoxine hydrochloride
• pyridoxal
• Pyridoxamine

But the end stage form that you need, and that is the most bioavailable (meaning your body can use it with the greatest efficiency for the greatest effect is P5P (the scientific term here is pyridoxal-5-phosphate). 

P5P in supplemental form helps deliver a host of benefits that the other forms of B-6 would struggle to do when you A.) don’t get enough through diet or B.) don’t convert it well enough in your body.

For a lot of people the B-6 conversion issue has more to do with either not getting enough of the other important B vitamins (like B12 and folic acid) or if you have impaired liver function, deal with celiac’s disease, are an older adult, or are on the spectrum for autism you may suffer from low conversion rates.

Truth be told, almost anyone of any age (and any B-6 vitamin status) could benefit from taking this supplement as they support a variety of factors of health…

Including helping boost energy (which is something I know we all would love to have).

P5P Will Do So Much To Help Support Great Health

I wanted to revisit the fact that P5P can inhibit the glycation reaction.

In glycation, lipids or proteins end up having a carbohydrate added to them. That’s as basic as it gets and I don’t want to delve deeply into the chemical exchange and down-chain processes that occur after glycation.

The issue is what glycation produces.

These cross-linked proteins are called advanced glycation end products (AGEs).

AGEs are known to incite inflammatory responses and are even believed to contribute to advanced aging.

Yuck!

P5P can help mitigate the formation of AGEs by working against the glycation process. 

AGEs are not something you want proliferating in your body as they are associated with advanced aging.

Then there’s how it plays on the mind.

The Neuro Hacker Collective says this about P5P:

“It is a critical component of energy metabolism within the cell. As a result of this function, P5P may be able to help you improve your overall physical energy. People found to be suffering from chronic fatigue often have a deficiency of vitamin B-6 -- and by extension P5P -- in their diet. Should you feel lethargic in many of your daily activities, you may want to look at whether you’re getting enough P5P. A quick change in diet or use of dietary supplements that include P5P may change things and could help you feel more energetic throughout the day.”


In addition to that it also 

• Promotes heart, nerve & eye health
• Promotes memory formation and protection
• Supports healthy kidney function

And more.

I think that this is a highly valuable supplement to take.

For people who are focused on addressing those kinds of health concerns, it’s going to be one of those vitamins you add to your stack of vitamins.

And thankfully because of our close relationship with Life Extension you can get a great deal on it right here.