# B-Vitamins

> The B-vitamins are eight water-soluble cofactors that between them run one-carbon metabolism, the citric-acid cycle and neurotransmitter synthesis. The Institute's 2021 material treats them through…

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Last updated: 2026-10-20
Publisher: Library of Ashurbanipal (Van Kush Family Research Institute), https://wiki.soapbox.community

The **B-vitamins** are eight water-soluble cofactors that between them run one-carbon metabolism, the citric-acid cycle and neurotransmitter synthesis. The Institute's 2021 material treats them through one specific compound and one general method.

## Picamilon

**Picamilon** is niacin covalently joined to **GABA**. It exists to solve a specific problem: **GABA taken orally does not meaningfully cross the blood-brain barrier**, which makes plain GABA supplements largely pointless. Attached to niacin, the molecule crosses, and is then hydrolysed centrally into its two halves — GABA plus a vasodilator.

It is a neat illustration of the bioavailability theme running through this whole section: the same molecule, made useful by changing what it is attached to.

Picamilon was developed in the Soviet Union in 1969 and remains a medicine in Russia. In the **United States the FDA determined in 2015 that it is not a lawful dietary ingredient**, and it was removed from the market — it is a synthetic drug that was never a food.

## "Read your urine"

The method paired with it. Because the B-vitamins are water-soluble and excess is excreted, the body gives a crude visible signal of saturation — **riboflavin (B2) turns urine bright yellow-green** within a few hours of a dose past requirement.

This is a real observation and a genuinely useful folk biomarker, and it should be understood for exactly what it is: it tells you that **B2 is in excess**. It says nothing about B12, folate, B6 or thiamine status, and it is not a saturation signal for the B-complex as a whole. Presented as such, it is a good heuristic. Extended past B2 it is false.

It echoes the **T-0 method** of the 2016 material: watch the body's readouts rather than trusting the number on the label.

## The individual cautions worth knowing

- **B6 (pyridoxine)** — the exception to "water-soluble means safe". Chronic intake above roughly 100 mg/day causes **irreversible sensory peripheral neuropathy**. This is the most under-recognised supplement toxicity in common use, and B6 is in most B-complexes and most energy drinks. Pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P5P) is the active form and is often assumed exempt; it is not established to be.
- **B3 (niacin)** — the flush is harmless; sustained-release niacin at gram doses is **hepatotoxic**. Niacinamide does not flush and does not lower lipids.
- **B9 (folate)** — masks the anaemia of B12 deficiency while the neurological damage proceeds. **Check B12 first.** See L-Methylfolate.
- **B12** — deficiency is common in vegans, in metformin users and after 60 through loss of intrinsic factor; the damage is neurological and can be permanent.
- **B1 (thiamine)** — the deficiency to know is Wernicke's encephalopathy, in alcohol dependence and after bariatric surgery. See also the thiaminase warning under horsetail.

See also: L-Methylfolate · The Amplification Framework · Racetams · Stack Substances