pain from B vitamins?

[dminton]

For those of you who cannot tolerate B vitamins, what do you do to get enough of them from diet alone, or is this even possible?

Diana.

[Julie B]

HI there,

The problem with B vitamins is that the supplements often contain 100-150 times the normal dose needed for metabolism. Many food products are enriched with B vitamins these days, so taking a supplement is really unnecessary. :-) It is extremely rare these days for someone to have a B deficiency.

Does that help?

[Dianne]

I can't tolerate much of anything but I can take 1/2 of a Nature's Choice brand B complex. They break easily.

[dminton]

Thanks for the replies, folks. I just don't get what it is about B vitamins that hurts the bladder. Anyway, it's reassuring to hear that maybe I don't need them anyway. I am seeing a very cool doc next week and have a long list of questions, and this will be on the list. She isn't an IC expert at all, just a very good doc that thinks out of the box. I guess I worry about what all the stress of IC does to the body and if it depletes things like B vitamins that can help with stress.

Diana.

[Julie B]

Hi Diana,

The situation with B vitamins and IC is fairly simple really. IC doesn't cause depletion of B vitamins. B vitamins are water soluable, which means that when the body takes what it needs of the B vitamins from food or from a supplement, the rest is excreted in the urine. That is why mega-doses of B vitamins are often said to only affect the price of urine. ;)

It is this wasting of the extra Vitamin B that creates an irritating chemical urine and therefore pain for IC patients.

Does that make sense?

[dminton]

Hi, Julie,

I guess that does make sense. I just don't recall ever taking mega-doses of B, just low-dose supplements of certain types of B. I guess maybe the same is true of C, even buffered C? It is also water soluble so would be excreted by urine.

Diana.

[Julie B]

The same is with Vitamin C, although the body seems to be able to absorb more Vit C from foods than from supplements. The theory is that other nutrients interact with the C in foods to help the body retain more than it excretes. Even C from food products (not lab produced) is not absorbed as well. Also, C is acid...........and well I don't think anyone needs a theory on that! LOL

I love that everyone thinks about this stuff.........it helps us all.......

[lauraads]

So how much vitamin B does a body need each day?

Laura D in Florida

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