Day 76-99: Everyone's symptoms are different

My symptoms haven't changed much over the past few weeks. I think my previous theory was correct and my ulnar (elbow) nerves are "permanently" damaged. (I put "permanently" in scare-quotes because there's no telling what the future will bring. Maybe with enough healthy living, my body will eventually repair itself. But for the time being, the effects are unremitting.)

One thing I've discovered in researching B6 toxicity is that everyone's symptoms are a little different. Some people experience a lot of fatigue and brain-fog, while others experience a lot of neuropathy (which is probably the most typical symptom). But most people who experience neuropathy experience it in their hands and feet, whereas I experience it in my knees and elbows

Symptoms aren't the only thing to vary, either; remedies do as well. Some people feel better after exercise, while others report feeling worse (possibly because the B6 is being released from the muscles and into the blood stream).

All this just adds up to further difficulties for B6 toxicity sufferers. For the most part, we have to find what works for us.

Preventing Vitamin Deficiencies: Taking B6 out of your diet takes out a lot of other things too

One of the struggles of dealing with B6 toxicity is avoiding vitamin deficiencies. Unfortunately, when you take B6 out of your diet, you inadvertently take out a lot of other things too. Over the past few weeks, I've had to closely monitor my diet and make adjustments in order to cover all the bases.

The biggest trouble-spots for me have been calcium, magnesium, potassium, and niacin. Thankfully, I've found good solutions for most of these. For calcium, I drink soy milk. For potassium, I eat dried apricots. And for niacin, I eat peanut butter (1-4 tablespoons a day).

Yes, these things aren't exactly low in B6, but I make sure to spread them out over the day so my body has time to flush it out.

The best way to prevent a vitamin deficiency is to monitor your nutrient intake. You can do this with several free online tools -- just do a search for diet trackers. You will have to log everything you eat, which is time-consuming, but if you have B6 toxicity, it's worth it. A few times now, I have developed the beginnings of vitamin deficiencies, and if I hadn't been expecting such a possibility, the symptoms might have progressed much further than they did. Since I started tracking my diet, I've felt much more secure and less anxious overall. Knowing I'm not vitamin deficient is one less thing to worry about.

Day 61-75: On the Mend Again

In my last post, I talked about alarming new neurological symptoms. I'm glad to say that two weeks later, those symptoms have all but gone away. I credit my improvement to rigidly following a low-B6 diet. If I don't know what the B6 content of something is, then I won't eat it. In general, I try to keep my daily B6 intake at or under 1.3mg. I also try not to exceed 0.4mg with any one meal.

So, 2-and-a-half months after first developing symptoms and stopping supplementation, how am I doing? I would say fairly well, but not cured. At this point, I'm not sure I ever will be 100% healed. What B6 toxicity does (as far as I understand it) is deteriorate the protective myelin sheath around nerves (a process called demyelination). I seem to have suffered the worst demyelination in my arms (the ulnar nerve), which leads to almost constant tingling around the elbows. Maybe my arms will heal over time (it's still fairly early -- some people take years to heal), but only time will tell.

Other than that, I don't have any noticeable symptoms (unless I fall off the wagon and eat B6, that is). That's why I say I'm doing fairly well. Considering how bad B6 toxicity symptoms CAN be, mine aren't so bad.