In my last post, I spoke a little about the active form of vitamin B6, P5P. I sometimes take this vitamin, although it is something to be very careful with.
In college, I tried a couple of SSRIs. They did not work for me. B6, which assists in the synthesis of serotonin and dopamine, succeeds in supporting my mood where they did not.
I had a small cancer removed from my left shoulder in 2021. Even though it was removed, at times, especially when exposed to sunlight/radiation, the shoulder aches. When I take B6, the ache goes away. The active form of B6, pyridoxal-5’-phosphate, is also known as PLP.
“We examined the association of prediagnostic plasma concentrations of pyridoxal-5’-phosphate (PLP), an active form of vitamin B6, with postmenopausal breast cancer risk.
“Women with plasma PLP concentrations in the highest quartile had a 30% reduced risk of invasive breast cancer (CI: 0.50–0.98) compared to the women in the lowest PLP quartile (P for trend=0.02).
“These data suggest that higher circulating levels of vitamin B6 are associated with a reduced risk of invasive postmenopausal breast cancer.” Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3493882/
There’s more.
“Several studies have shown that insufficient intake of vitamin B6 is associated with increased cancer risk and growing evidence indicates that diabetes patients have a higher risk of developing various types of cancer.” Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2018.00388/full
And more.
“Patients with breast (4), or colon (5,6), bladder (7), or laryngeal (8) cancers, and or Hodgkin’s disease (1) have lower plasma PLP levels compared with healthy controls. In vitro studies have shown that pharmacologic doses of vitamin B6 (from 0.25 to 5 mM) inhibit cell proliferation and protein synthesis in HepG2 human hepatoma cells (9), human malignant melanoma (10,11), and human lymphocytes (12). Mice pretreated with pyridoxal followed by injection of B16 melanoma cells had a 62% reduction in tumor weight compared to controls (11). These results suggest that vitamin B6 may have potential use as an antineoplastic agent.” Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513048/
I have felt the anticancer effects of B6 in my own body. When the shoulder where I had cancer aches, it feels as if it is imploding. When I take P5p, the feeling of implosion goes away.
However, I cannot take P5P (the active form of B6) for very long. B6 supports heme synthesis, the rate at which I make new blood. When I take too much B6, I make new blood too quickly.
I don’t want to make new blood too quickly. I want the cell turnover rate of my blood to be on par (proportionate) with the cell turnover rate of the rest of me. If I am making blood faster than I make everything else, I have leukemia.
Researchers Find that Vitamin B6 Contributes to Survival of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center): https://www.mskcc.org/news/researchers-find-vitamin-b6-contributes-survival-acute-myeloid-leukemia-cells
Vitamin B6, Leukemia’s Deadly Addiction: https://www.cshl.edu/vitamin-b6-leukemias-deadly-addiction/
So it’s a question of balance.
Some people have been damaged by B6 (see “B6 toxicity”). I personally have never had a problem with it, but I have double mutations at a B6-dependent enzyme in the AGT family. Both my parents were kidney-stone formers. I have problems with oxalates. I may naturally need more B6 than most people.
That said, when I take B6, if I take too much, I do sometimes get a mild electric feeling in the teeth of my lower jaw, on the left. I believe this may have to do with the proton gradient. My left side is where I had Bell’s Palsy; and basal cell carcinoma; and it is where I had mercury fillings for 30 years.
My father died of squamous cell carcinoma (a tumor at the base of the tongue) at age 57 in 1995. When he died, he had a mouth full of mercury.
Mercury is a known neurotoxin and putting it in the mouths of children is a violation of our Hippocratic oath. Even before my health crashed while living in a moldy house, I had problems with mercury. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2626812/My-silver-fillings-poisoned-badly-I-thought-I-having-stroke-44-year-old-author-reveals-poisoned-mercury-based-fillings.html
This is not a screed against mercury. I do not think mercury is evil; I am just interested in understanding its effects in the body as a way of working toward a more comprehensive understanding of the big picture. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” —Marie Curie
In me, in the shoulder where I had cancer, it felt like a different metabolic gear. It felt like a hot metabolic rate against a cold (alkaline) terrain. At other times, it felt like a cold metabolic rate against a hot (acidic) terrain. B6 seemed to help me correct this.
I write more about the ways in which the metabolic rate and pH may “toggle” here: https://www.hormonesmatter.com/parting-the-veil-on-ph7-and-metabolism/
