Training & Nutrition - Can you overdo taking Vitamins, B6 & B12 ???

I wanted to use "overdose" but it sounds too harsh. Everything I take was bought at Walmart:
*Basic Centrum
*B6, 200 mg
*B12, 500 mcg
*Glucosamine- supposed to lubricate the joints & repair cartilage

I take these everyday & was told that anything in excess will just naturally be disposed of by the body?
Is this too much?????

You need to tell the dosages: mg etc.

It is known that high doses of Pyridoxine (B6) can lead to a neuropathy (it is reversible i.e. the symptoms (numbness, tingling) go away when the vitaimin is stopped). This is a bit of a paradox since if you are taking INH for TB exposure, Pyridoxine is supposed to help prevent INH induced neuropathy. 200 mg of Pyridoxine is not necessarily a high dose.

People with pernicious anemia would often take about 1000 mcg of B12 without long term problems. The RDA for B12 though I think is only 6 mcg.

B-vits are water soluable; docs consider them safe to high doses; but you get very expensive urine. As always drink lots of water.

In very general terms, the B-complex vitamins generally work together, so increasing one increases the bodies requirement for others, e.g. you could create a deficiency of the ones you aren't supplementing. As implied above, your body can't store any significant quantity of Bs. Even if you supplement B's it's a good idea to also take them them with a natural source, e.g. nutritional yeast, wheat germ, etc. etc.

B-vits are water soluable; docs consider them safe to high doses; but you get very expensive urine. As always drink lots of water.


200 mg of B6 is 100 times the RDA, there is strong scientific evidence that nerve damage can exists long after serum levels of B6 have dropped off. The damage done is not always temporary, and if it is, it can take weeks to years for full recovery if at all.

Anyone with a neuromuscular disorder can be significantly affected by a B6 overdose, and thus that is why it us recommended that people with such disorders avoid supplementing their diet with it.

So although you these vitamins may be flushed out of your system because they are water soluble, their effects last long after they have left your system.

an extreme excess of anything is harmful. Even drinking too much water can kill you. Better just stick to the guidelines, they've been researched and studied. The FDA is not trying to sell you anything so i'd trust them more than a vitamin seller. Though with all guidelines there is built in leyway. Like if you take five advils in 24 hours (instead of the four max), you're not gonna keal over.

If you take excess, it's just excreted from the body regardless. It would be a waste of money if you're just peeing it out the back end. ;)

Follow the recommended guidelines. They're recommended for a reason.

Koffee