P5P vs Pyridoxine: Which B6 Should You Buy?

0:00 The short answer: both forms give you B6

P5P or pyridoxine? Two forms of vitamin B6. The form on the label matters less than you'd think. The number next to it matters more. Both forms can give you B6. Your body turns each one into the same working form. So if a DNA report lists B6 as P5P and your bottle says pyridoxine, that doesn't mean you bought the wrong thing.

0:28 Why a DNA report names P5P

Vitamin B6 is a family of closely related compounds. One of them, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, or P5P for short, is the form your cells actually put to work. It takes part in more than a hundred enzyme reactions, most of them in how you use protein, and it helps keep your methylation cycle turning.

So when a Noorns report lists B6, it's naming the vitamin by that working form. It isn't telling you that only a P5P capsule will do. B6 lands on your list because of your genes. In the Methylation and Diet Report, nine genes can move it up, and the more of them point the same way, the higher it sits.

That doesn't mean you're low. Your report looks at your genes, not your blood. If you want to know where your B6 stands today, a blood test for plasma P5P measures that.

1:17 Getting your B6 from food first

Before any bottle, most of the B6 you need can come from ordinary meals. Chickpeas are one of the richest sources, at about one point one milligrams a cup. A banana in the morning, a cup of chickpeas at lunch and three ounces of roast chicken at dinner add up to about two milligrams.

That's more than most adults need in a day. So if B6 sits high on your Focus list, that's a reason to make foods like these a regular part of your week first.

1:44 How your body turns each form into P5P

Pyridoxine is the form in most multivitamins, because it's stable and cheap. Your gut absorbs it, and your liver turns it into P5P in two steps. The second step needs a helper made from riboflavin, which is vitamin B2. That's one reason your report looks at these vitamins together.

A P5P capsule takes a roundabout route. Your gut strips the phosphate off before absorbing it, and then your liver adds it back. So a P5P capsule gets processed on the way in too.

2:14 Does the form make a difference?

The NIH fact sheet says absorption doesn't differ substantially among the forms. And we looked for a trial that gave healthy adults P5P and pyridoxine side by side, to see whether P5P gives better results. We couldn't find one. There is one setting where the form clearly matters.

A rare inherited condition called PNPO deficiency blocks that last step in the liver, and babies born with it can have seizures that respond to P5P, but not to pyridoxine. It's diagnosed by a doctor, and a common variant on a consumer DNA report doesn't tell you that you have it.

2:49 Is P5P the safer form?

You may have read that P5P is the safe form and pyridoxine is the one behind nerve problems. There's early lab work behind that idea. In cell studies, pyridoxine harmed nerve cells at levels where the other forms didn't. But Europe's food safety authority says the causes in people are still unknown.

It noted that pyridoxine can show up in the blood after P5P supplements too, and it set one limit that covers every form. So treat the limit as a limit on B6, whatever the label calls it.

3:20 Upper limits: US 100 mg, Europe 12 mg

No harm has been reported from the B6 in food. High-dose supplements are different. Taken for months, they can damage the nerves in your hands and feet, and the early signs are tingling, burning or numbness. Regulators don't agree on where the line is. The US upper limit for adults is a hundred milligrams a day.

Europe reviewed the research in 2023 and set its limit at twelve, after evidence that nerve symptoms may occur at fifty milligrams a day in some people. For comparison, most adults need about one point three.

3:53 How to add up the B6 on your labels

The easiest way to go over without noticing is stacking. B6 turns up in multivitamins, in B complexes and in blends you might not think of as B6 products. And some labels say pyridoxine or pyridoxal in place of the words vitamin B6. So check three things. How much B6 is in one daily serving, since some products count two or three capsules as a serving.

What else you take that has B6 in it. And how that total compares with the upper limit. If it's over Europe's twelve milligrams, or you plan to take more, talk to your doctor first.

4:29 Before you buy your next B6

So before you buy another B6 product, check the daily serving and add up the B6 in everything you already take. The full guide, with every source, is linked below, along with the Methylation and Diet Report, which runs in your browser. Your DNA file is never uploaded or stored.