Vitamin B5 Megadose and Alternative Delivery

[JD20]

Hey Everyone,

 

Hope I'm posting this in the right place. I have been taking a megadose of vitamin b5 for many years now. I take 10g a day in the form of 20 500mg capsules, spread out over 4 doses. So 5 pills about every 4-5 hours. I'm curious if there is a way to get that same 10g daily dosage without having to take 20 pills a day. Is there any way to make a highly concentrated delivery system, in any form? Thanks and looking forward to any ideas presented.

 

JD

[hypervalent_iodine]

Well, you could stop wasting your money and potentially harming your general health by not megadosing on vitamins.

[JD20]

Hypervalent- Thanks for the reply. Definitely not wasting my money, because it has been extremely effective in what it is doing for me. For about $25 a month so no complaints there. In regards to harming my general health, that could definitely be an issue, and I have seen a few doctors over the past 7 years to get checked for things such as liver/kidney/hormone function and everything seems to be in working order. Also a concern is cholesterol but that has consistently been fine. So its more of a convenience thing as well as a general curiousity; there are a lot of other people out there taking this exact same regimen as me, and are not as good at swallowing pills as I am. It would just be really cool to come up with some alternatives. Any thoughts?

[swansont]

Definitely not wasting my money, because it has been extremely effective in what it is doing for me.

 

Curious as to how you know this to be true.

[JD20]

Swansont- Well without getting too personal in what exactly my personal "ailment" is...In the 8 years before using the B5 megadose, my condition was pretty bad. In the 7 years since using the B5 megadose, my condition is completely under control. Sometimes I stop taking the B5 to kind of test it out, and the condition almost immediately rears its ugly head.

[swansont]

How would you account for the possibility that it's a placebo effect? You can't really do a double-blind experiment with yourself.

[hypervalent_iodine]

A quick Google search suggests that it is used at such doses for acne in the alternative medicine circles. I did a cursory search and didn't note any decent scientific literature in support of this, though I did notice a lot of anecdotes reporting that any outcome was both temporary and came with side effects (hair loss, dermatitis around the nose and diarrhea were a few). Even if it does work, I would question whether it is actually worth it.

 

Putting aside the fact that this endeavor is mostly without grounds and seems a bit pointless and given that you yourself are fine with swallowing the pills, I'm not sure what your specific problem is. There are of course many ways to skin a cat, but taking it in pill form seems the easiest route to me. What exactly would you envisage as a good alternative?

[Phi for All]

If diarrhea is a side effect, I wouldn't put them in a smoothie.

 

 

Is this supposed to be because people with B5 deficiency have trouble metabolizing fat? I don't think the correlation with megadoses of B5 and increased metabolization has been established.

 

Also, there's no established connection between fat consumption and acne. There have been connections established with excessive carbohydrate consumption, however. The idea that excess fat finds its way through the skin as sebum is unfounded.

[JD20]

Alright so yes, I take this for acne...

 

Swanson-t: I would say that the placebo effect is not in play here. I say this because prior to using this treatment, I tried many other things, either prescribed by a doctor or not, and my mindset was the same upon trying each one: hopeful that it would work. None of them ever did except this one.

 

Hypervalent: The only scientific literature I've ever found on this, and the reason I actually started this treatment, is based on research done by Dr. Leung. His findings were actually pretty interesting. I've also read about the side effects you mention, but have not personally experienced any of those (or any others). But different people respond to things differently. I've also read that it is temporary, but I've been using it for 7 years and it still works for me. I think there is a lot of misinformation out there on the subject, because a lot of people don't do it properly (for example, once their acne goes away, they will do a "maintenance dose", which involves taking less pills, and it just doesn't work). Also, anti-acne is a huge business and I'm sure Proactiv, Clearasil, and Accutane don't want you to know that their products are BS and you can get rid of acne for $25 a month.

 

I see why you may feel that this endeavor is pointless, but while I don't necessarily mind swallowing the pills, its a pain in the buns to always be planning ahead, travelling with the pills all the time, and always remembering to take them every 4-5 hours.

 

As far as my vision for an alternative, that's why I posed the question here! It would just be great to take less pills less often, or having something in a liquid form. But its tricky because its such a high dose. I guess I'm just wondering if there is a way to have a super concentrated vitamin delivery system.

 

Phi- I think you are on the right track here. There are a lot of questions out there that don't have answers. Very frustrating for acne sufferers. My theory: People break down the fats and oils from the food we eat differently. For some people, all the excess fats and oils turns into fat stored on the body easier than for others. There are people like me who don't get fat, but break out with acne. Some people get both, and some people just handle it a lot more efficiently and don't get fat very easily and dont break out ever. I don't know what the exact mechanism is, but I believe that B5 is helping my body process the fats and oils from food better. When I'm not on the B5, my skin and hair is actually oilier to the touch than when I'm using it. The change is significant.