B5 Side Effects
Browsing through one particular health board today, I found an unusual amount of paranoia regarding B5 acne treatment. While there were some positive contributors talking about the benefits of B5, many users were concerned about the negative effects of taking B5 in high doses. This is understandable coming from people that have not studied vitamins or nutrition, but it’s still unfortunate in that it scares people away from trying a treatment that would probably really work for them, and one in which the potential side effects that could occur are actually much more mild (and rare) than with typical acne treatments.
Some of these supposed side effects include headaches, nausea, arthritis, and hair loss. One user even complained of unsightly hair gain. I should note that all these claims come from mega-dose users (I’ve so far had no reports of any ill side effects with All-in-1’s time-release formula, except the temporary stomach irritation that effects a small percentage of starters).
While there is some evidence for B5 causing headaches among an extremely small percent of users, it is unknown whether these are actually caused by the B5 or the combination of high levels of B5 and other conditions (such as a deficiency of another vitamin). In fact, because these claims come from users who are usually doing all sorts of other things to their bodies, it’s hard to place any cause-and-effect relationship between the problem and B5. Hair loss stands out as one claim that is often a false alarm, due to the fact that the very people who claim it often include details that make it impossible for B5 to be the cause. For instance, many (I’d actually say most) persons who have claimed hair loss resulting from B5 have also stated that their hair loss has continued for months or even years! B5 is a water-soluble vitamin and it cannot be stored by your body. It cannot continue to affect you more than a few weeks after you stop using it. Unfortunately, those who start experiencing hair loss for completely natural and genetic reasons are often so stricken with stress that they search frantically for a reason that they can fix. The fact is that hair loss is genetic and is not so easily fixed. If B5 was the cause, simply quitting B5 would return your hair to its natural growth cycle. So obviously, such cases are false alarms. If you think this is at all a concern, simply lower your dosage.
Nausea can occur when you’re first starting on B5 as your stomach adjusts, but if someone is really experiencing serious nausea (such as to induce vomiting), they are most definitely starting with a dosage much higher than necessary. Simply reducing your dosage will eliminate the problem unless your body has some unique aversion to B5 (personally, I would recommend switching to time-release ^_^).
I know of no medical reason how B5 could cause arthritis. Quite to the contrary, B5 is actually prescribed to help alleviate rheumatoid arthritis, as it naturally enhances your blood circulation, decreases inflammation, and also aids the absorption and processing of other vitamins that work to stop the painful swelling of arthritis. If someone has truthfully experienced arthritis as a result of B5, I would have to question what else they are doing (or not doing) that could be bringing about this strange reaction.
Enhanced hair growth is a possibility, particularly if you’re taking a lot of other vitamins that also contribute to strengthening your hair (such as Biotin). However, in this case it is likely that, should you wish to diminish this effect, you could simply lower your intake. B5 does not have a very noticeable effect on your hair for the vast majority of users, so I wouldn’t consider it a miracle cure to baldness or anything.
While I’m writing a lot here concerning mega-dose B5 - something that I don’t even promote - the fact is that B5 is extremely safe even AT mega-dose levels of 10 grams or more. Your body only absorbs as much as it can use, and being water-soluble, the rest is eliminated the same way as all liquid waste.
The question one needs to consider when looking at side-effect horror stories for this or ANY treatment is this: What else was this person doing that could have contributed to or caused this problem? Figuring out the answer to that is a lot better than illogically spreading fear about a medically safe treatment that could really help a lot of people, especially one that already has such a large number of satisfied users who haven’t experienced any side-effects whatsoever (myself included).
