Vitamin B6 Deficiency Symptoms

Vitamin B6 is also known as pyridoxine is a water soluble vitamin that is very essential for the human body. It is essential for regular red blood cell production, nervous system functions and for other metabolic activities. And if you are eating a fair amount of a well balanced diet, then rest assured, your body contains adequate amount of this vitamin.

An average adult requires about 1.3 to 1.7 milligrams of vitamin B6 containing food regularly for a healthy diet. And unlike any other vitamins, vitamin B6 is stored anywhere in our body.

But Since It Is A Water based vitamin you need to replenish it regularly in order to prevent it from getting flushed away. Eat healthy food like bananas, meet, legumes and poultry. And to top it all off, you can detect the deficiency very easily. So follow these simple symptoms and find out if you are running low on this vitamin.

Vitamin B6 Deficiency Symptoms

Decrease In Brain Function

Notice if your brain is slowing down. Now, while brain deficiency can be caused by a number of agents, one of them is the lack of vitamin B6. The vitamin helps to ascertain a number of brain functions including healthy communication between the brain and the other parts of the body; hence lack of this vitamin causes these functions to go haywire.

So you might feel as though you are trying to lift your hand and it is not obeying, it’s probably a deficiency problem. However, it is strongly recommended that you consult a doctor with the proper source of these problems.

Energy Depletion

Vitamin B6 is responsible for the production of energy in our body. It works by breaking the protein particles into small smaller ones and releasing the stored energy.

This in turn increases our daily metabolic rate and gives us the energy to work. If you any time notice that you are abnormally lacking energy or getting fatigued away quickly over a long period of time then you probably have a vitamin B6 deficiency to blame.

High Levels Of Homocysteine

This is a bit hard to detect and you probably need to check up with a doctor whether you have high levels of the amino acid Homocysteine in your body. This amino acid is present more or less in every human body in minimum amounts.

However, when its quantity increases beyond a certain level it becomes dangerous and often fatal causing heart attacks. It is the job of Vitamin B6 to curb the amount of Homocysteine. Hence you are running low on the vitamin.

Blood Related Disorders

Since vitamin B6 is responsible for the production of Red Blood Cells, its deficiency causes blood related disorders like low blood pressure. It may even cause dizziness and in some cases anemia as a count of RBC greatly decreases.

Further renewal of blood also takes time. So it is advisable to either eat balanced diet or take vitamin supplements as normal blood count is very essential.

Other Symptoms

Other symptoms include sore tongue, inflammation of skin, cognitive problems, depressions which may later lead to convulsions. But whatever it is, you should first consult with your doctor before taking any Vitamin B6 supplements.