How long to cycle Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) for dopamine boosting?

conkertheking

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I've been experimenting for the last few days with a 100mg daily dose of Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine form) and... Well, holy f*cking sh!t. Mood is up, energy is up, libido is through the ROOF, and I'm getting that excited / jittery "butterflies" feeling all the time over very mundane things. It feels absolutely epic. When I say libido is through the rood, I mean I feel like a 13 year old again quite literally, I'm developing crushes on every woman I meet and feel the urge to whack it multiple times a day with absolutely no reduction in quality. Amazing.

I've long attributed lethargy / mild depression to an ongoing slightly-elevated prolactin issue, so the most logical conclusion for this is that (apart from the obvious placebo possibility), the 100mg B6 every morning is causing a dopamine surge and suppressing prolactin release.

So that's the upside. The downside, obviously, is that as we all know, dopamine receptors get down regulated over time when they keep getting overly stimulated. Given the constant nervous butterflies I'm assuming that they're being fired almost constantly right now, far, far more than they're used to.

What I'm wondering is, how quickly do they get de-sensitised and down-regulated? And with that in mind, how long can one reliably take this kind of B6 dosage - and how long should one then cycle off it - to avoid the aforementioned tolerance issue?

For reference, I think I was around three days into this regime when I started really feeling the effects of it. And the day before, because of being super busy, I had to take B6 last thing at night, followed by first thing the next morning as usual. So some of it could be related to that, but that was Wednesday and despite only taking it once a day, and as I say fairly regularly engaging in prolactin-boosting activities (heh), it shows no signs at all of abating.

What do people think? How long can you sustain a B6 high like this, and how long should you cycle so as you can feel it repeatedly?
 

enraged_chris

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I'd switch to p5p, long term higher dose pyridoxine can have some negative nerve effects. It'll help keep prolactin lower long term for sure. Not sure how long the higher dopamine effects can be sustained but you could rotate between this and something like l-dopa.
 

conkertheking

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I'd switch to p5p, long term higher dose pyridoxine can have some negative nerve effects. It'll help keep prolactin lower long term for sure. Not sure how long the higher dopamine effects can be sustained but you could rotate between this and something like l-dopa.
Unfortunately I'm not sure if P5P is readily available in Ireland, but I'll look into it.

With regard to dopamine, I feel rotating with L DOPA would cause the same issue - what I'm worried about is de-sensitising the D2 receptor, which would surely happen regardless of which mechanism I used to increase my dopamine levels. I'm just really trying to figure out how long one can push the boundaries in this regard before needing a break - I can't really stress how epic I've been feeling over the last couple of days, and I have absolutely nothing to attribute it to other than the B6. It's literally that fluttering feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you're about to go on stage or kiss a girl for the first time, but it's just there in the background consistently, like I'm always anticipating something even if I'm not. I'm convinced that this is caused by a dopamine / adrenaline rush from the B6 but I'm also pretty sure the body can't maintain that level of sensitivity indefinitely, so really I just want to make sure I don't blow it.
 
Toren

Toren

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Have you ever had your vitamin and mineral levels checked? You may have been suffering from a specific vitamin B deficiency. You could also have low levels of other vitamins/minerals as well. Do you take a daily multi-vitamin? Even if you do, you may have absorption issues.

I like to take 1 day off per week from any extra vitamin/mineral intake (aside from food). I do this mainly for the fat soluble vitamins though.

If you are going to take high doses of one particular form of vitamin B, you should watch the levels of the others. The B's tend to interact with eachother and you shouldn't let any of them get drastically out of balance with the others. Personally, while cycling, I like to take a B50 vitamin (halved) 2 x per day with a meal and my other vitamins/supplements. I also take a B25 or B50 (halved) throughout the year and I've been doing this 5-6x per week for quite a while without any issues. I believe the recommended upper limit for B6 is 100 mg per day.

I'd also suggest splitting the tablet (if it's a tablet) and taking half with an am meal and the other half with a pm meal. I'd also stay away from timed-release vitamins as well.
 

conkertheking

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I'm cycling off B6 tomorrow, as in this morning's was my last one for a while.

The butterflies feeling has stayed with me all week (and I seem to have got a lot more work done as a result) but interestingly, it has begun to transition from the good-jitters I described in my OP, to the bad-jitters (as in, "for the love of God, can I just chill out and relax for five minutes") over the last two days. I've been finding it quite hard to sleep for instance because my mind has been so over-active just over the weekend. I wonder therefore if I overdid it - maybe I should take 100mg every second day instead - or if there was one morning in which I accidentally took it twice (there was one day when I had a morning nap and couldn't remember whether I'd had it upon first waking up or not so took it that time, and looking back I think it's likely that I did in fact dose it twice accidentally).

I haven't had my vitamins checked but I do take multivitamins, diet is fine. The one issue I'm wondering about is that I do drink a lot of milk (very Irish habit) and I know that excess calcium can cause absorption issues with zinc, so it stands to reason that it could potentially cause absorption issues with other things as well.

Regardless, i'll cycle off for this week and see if I settle down, then do another next week and see if the excitement fires up again. Be very interesting to see if there's a direct correlation. Given that this feeling began the day after I started B6 I struggle to think what else it might be, but I wonder if it could have been just a once-off thing which has persisted since then simply because I keep thinking about it and looking for it, in a self-reinforcing placebo effect. I know that can happen with other psychological phenomena so I wouldn't necessarily rule it out this time. We shall see.
 

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