What symptoms suggest I might be taking too much vitamin B6?

The main warning signs of B6 toxicity (pyridoxine neuropathy) are tingling, pins and needles, burning pain, or numbness — usually starting in the feet and hands. More severe cases produce difficulty walking, sensitivity to light touch, and pain that can persist even after stopping the supplement. Symptoms can take months to improve and may not fully resolve. If you experience unexplained peripheral neurological symptoms and regularly take B-complex supplements, energy drinks, or fortified powders, bring a list of your products to your GP appointment for a dose review.

Can I stop my B6 supplement straight away if I am worried?

If you are taking a general B-complex or multivitamin you can stop at any time — B6 is water-soluble and not dangerous to discontinue. If you are taking a high-dose standalone B6 supplement for a specific indication (nausea in pregnancy, premenstrual symptoms), speak with your GP first before stopping, as they can review whether there is still a sound reason to continue and at what dose. Either way, a GP review is the right next step if you have active neurological symptoms — numbness, tingling, pain — that might be consistent with toxicity.

B6 neuropathy: regulator proposes cutting safe limit by 72 per cent

What just happened

Australia’s supplement market may be about to get a quiet but consequential shake-up.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has recommended reducing the safe upper daily intake for vitamin B6 from 50mg to 14mg — a 72 per cent cut. The current 50mg ceiling has been in place since 2006, established when the scale of B6’s presence in consumer products was far narrower. In the twenty years since, synthetic B6 (pyridoxine) has been added to thousands of products — B-complex supplements, energy drinks, electrolyte powders, fortified cereals, and protein shakes.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has recorded 279 potential cases of peripheral neuropathy linked to high-dose vitamin B6 since 2020. Peripheral neuropathy means damage to the peripheral nerves — the pathways carrying signals between the brain and the rest of the body. Symptoms include tingling, pins and needles, burning pain, numbness, and in severe cases difficulty walking and persistent pain that can outlast the supplement habit itself.

The challenge in tracking this clinically is the stacking problem.

Both-and

The 50mg limit was always a working estimate

The original 2006 recommendation was not wrong, exactly — it was based on the best available evidence at the time. But the evidence base was thin, and the food environment has changed substantially. Nearly one-third of Australians’ daily B6 intake now comes from electrolyte drinks, energy drinks, and fortified beverages — a category that barely existed in its current form two decades ago.

A single energy drink can contain around 5mg of B6. Add a standard B-complex supplement (often 25–50mg in a single capsule), a fortified protein shake, and a recovery electrolyte drink across the day, and it becomes straightforward to exceed 50mg without intending to — well beyond what the proposed 14mg ceiling would permit. The people most at risk are not taking large standalone B6 supplements deliberately. They are stacking products that each, individually, present as normal.

Alexandra Jones, a food policy expert at the George Institute for Global Health, has noted that most consumers have no visibility over their cumulative B6 intake across products. That is a systems problem, not an individual knowledge gap.

What 14mg actually means for your shelf

The proposed 14mg ceiling does not mean supplements will be pulled from shelves tomorrow. Products containing up to 50mg remain legal for sale until at least June 2027, and the final NHMRC recommendation — which would trigger regulatory change — is not expected until 2027. The TGA has flagged it will consult on stricter labelling requirements in coming weeks.

This is also not a change to the nutritional target. The recommended daily intake for B6 — the amount needed to maintain health — remains at 1.3mg. The change is to the safety ceiling: the maximum dose below which the regulator believes harm becomes unlikely for most people. At 14mg, many standard B-complex formulations would exceed the limit in a single daily dose.

Dominic Noonan-O’Keefe, whose experience with B6 toxicity was reported in the ABC article, described debilitating pain and ongoing neurological effects that persisted years after discontinuing supplements. His is one of 279 reported cases. There are likely others never formally linked.

My two cents

There are two practical things you can do right now.

First: check your supplements. Turn over every bottle and look for pyridoxine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, or vitamin B6 on the label. If you are running a B-complex, a multivitamin, an energy drink, and a fortified powder daily, add up the B6 across all of them. If the total is north of 14mg and you have any unexplained tingling, burning, or sensory changes in your hands or feet — bring that list to your next GP appointment.

Second: if you are taking a high-dose B6 supplement for a specific reason — some women use it for nausea in pregnancy, others for premenstrual symptoms — this is not a prompt to stop without a conversation. The evidence for B6 in those contexts is what it is, and your GP can review the dose and the indication together, rather than you making changes in isolation.

Public submissions on the proposed safe limit are open until 30 September 2026. If this issue affects you directly, that is a legitimate avenue.

Verdict: yes — a 72 per cent proposed cut to a widely-used supplement’s safety ceiling, with 279 neuropathy cases on record, is directly relevant to anyone currently stacking B-complex products.

Sources cited

Move to reduce amount of vitamin B6 considered safe by 72 per cent. ABC News, 27 August 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-27/move-to-reduce-amount-of-vitamin-b6-considered-safe-72-per-cent/107073298