Vitamin B6
Nutrition & Diet · Reviewed August 2026
Definition
Vitamin B6 exists in three natural forms, pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine, all of which the body converts into the active coenzyme pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP).[1] PLP is a cofactor in more than 100 enzymatic reactions, including amino acid metabolism and neurotransmitter synthesis.[1][2] The body can't store it, so it needs regular dietary intake.[2] Go Go Gaia's food logger tracks it from the meals you log.
Educational content, not medical advice. For personal or fertility concerns, please consult your doctor.
What Vitamin B6 Does
Vitamin B6 exists in three natural forms, pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine, and all three convert into the same active coenzyme, pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP or P5P), inside the body.[1] PLP is the form that does the work: it functions as a coenzyme in amino acid, protein, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism, and in neurotransmitter synthesis.[1] Altogether, it's a cofactor in more than 100 enzymatic reactions, catalyzing processes including transamination, decarboxylation, racemization, and elimination.[1]
That range of reactions reaches beyond metabolism narrowly defined. Vitamin B6 also contributes to neurotransmitter synthesis, interleukin-2 production, and hemoglobin formation, and it's involved in the first steps of porphyrin synthesis through its role in transamination and decarboxylation.[2] Like other B vitamins, it's water-soluble, and the body can't store it, so a daily supply is needed to keep up with demand.[2]
How It's Logged
Go Go Gaia's food logger breaks the meals you log down into their nutrients, including vitamin B6, so your dietary intake shows up alongside the rest of your nutrition data over time.
Why People Track Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 comes up often in conversations about premenstrual syndrome, and the research base behind it is comparatively solid next to some of the other nutrients in that conversation. A 2025 systematic review of randomized controlled trials looked at nutritional interventions for the psychological symptoms of PMS and found that treatment with vitamin B6, calcium, and zinc consistently had significant positive effects on those symptoms across the trials it reviewed.[3] That's a notably more consistent result than the same review reached for magnesium, where the evidence was judged insufficient to support an effect. For more on what typically drives PMS symptoms, see our guide to PMS.
How Go Go Gaia Tracks Vitamin B6
Go Go Gaia doesn't run lab work, and there's no blood test for vitamin B6 in the app. The food logger is how vitamin B6 enters your data: log a meal, and its vitamin B6 content is broken out and added to your nutrition totals for the day, charted next to your cycle, symptoms, and other logged nutrients over time. Go Go Gaia doesn't offer supplement or treatment advice. It tracks what you log so you can see it alongside the rest of your data.
See your dietary vitamin B6 next to your cycle and symptoms
Log meals for vitamin B6 and other nutrients, then see them charted next to your cycle, symptoms, and habits.
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What the Research Shows
Vitamin B6's mechanism is well characterized: as PLP, it's a cofactor in more than 100 enzymatic reactions spanning amino acid, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism, along with neurotransmitter synthesis, interleukin-2 production, and hemoglobin formation.[1][2]
On premenstrual symptoms specifically, a 2025 systematic review of randomized controlled trials drew on multiple trials of vitamin B6 for the psychological symptoms of PMS and concluded that vitamin B6, alongside calcium and zinc, showed a consistent positive effect across the trials reviewed, a stronger and more consistent finding than the same review reached for magnesium.[3]
Related Terms
PMS
The symptom pattern most often linked to vitamin B6 in the research.
Magnesium
A nutrient with a less consistent PMS research record in the same review.
Vitamin B12
Another B vitamin tracked with its own page in the encyclopedia.
Folate
The B vitamin that partners with B12 in DNA synthesis.
B Vitamins
The other five B vitamins Go Go Gaia's food logger tracks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Educational information based on published sources. Not medical advice. For personal concerns, please consult your doctor.
Does Go Go Gaia track vitamin B6 from a blood test?
No. Go Go Gaia doesn't offer a lab test for vitamin B6. The app's food logger tracks vitamin B6 from the meals you log, based on their nutrient content, and charts your intake over time.
Does vitamin B6 help with PMS?
A 2025 systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that treatment with vitamin B6, calcium, and zinc consistently had significant positive effects on the psychological symptoms of PMS, a more consistent result than the same review found for magnesium. Go Go Gaia doesn't offer supplement or treatment advice. It tracks your dietary vitamin B6 intake so you can see it alongside your logged symptoms.
What does vitamin B6 do in the body?
As its active coenzyme form, PLP, vitamin B6 is a cofactor in more than 100 enzymatic reactions, including amino acid, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis, and hemoglobin formation.
References
- Abosamak NR, Gupta V. Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine). StatPearls. NCBI Bookshelf. NBK557436
- Brown MJ, Daley SF, Beier K. Vitamin B6 Deficiency. StatPearls. NCBI Bookshelf. NBK470579
- Robinson J, Ferreira A, Iacovou M, Kellow NJ. Effect of nutritional interventions on the psychological symptoms of premenstrual syndrome in women of reproductive age: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Reviews. 2025;83(2):280-306. DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuae043
Sourced from peer-reviewed research and, for basic mechanism claims, established references like NIH and StatPearls. Every citation above is checked to confirm it resolves to a real source and supports the sentence it's attached to. Last reviewed August 2026. See our full methodology on the Encyclopedia hub.