# Vitamin B and sense of smell

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-and-sense-of-smell/48445>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 4, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-and-sense-of-smell/48445 "2001-01-04T19:45:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ElDestructo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@ElDestructo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElDestructo)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-and-sense-of-smell/48445/1 "2001-01-04T19:45:12Z")

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I’m not a big vitamin nut, but I do take a daily multivitamin and ginko biloba for the old brain. A couple of days ago I was in a hurry at the drug store and accidentally got a different brand of multivitamin than usual. I didn’t think anything about it until I noticed my urine was that dark yellow color you get when you take a lot of B vitamins. When I looked on the label, I found that my new vitamins had something like 500% of the FDA daily dose for B6 and B12. It’s the “active lifestyle” formulation. No big deal, I think. I might even like these better.  
The next day the weirdness started. I found that my sense of smell had become very, very acute, so that things that normally did not smell bad to me suddenly were repulsive. I walked home from the supermarket with a nice big slab of tuna to grill up for dinner and I could smell the tuna in the bag all the way home (in a stiff wind, wrapped in butcher paper and a plastic bag in a grocery bag with other assorted food-type stuff). (And no, the tuna hadn’t gone bad or anything. I cooked it up and it was just fine)  
So my question is, could my sudden, unexpected increase in vitamin B intake be responsible for this sudden, unexpected increase in my sensitivity to smell? I have never heard of anything like this before, but the two events do seem to be related.

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**Author:** ![ultrarugular](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@ultrarugular](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrarugular)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitamin-b-and-sense-of-smell/48445/2 "2014-12-23T05:55:18Z")

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Excuse me for reviving an old thread, but I took more vitamin B than usual yesterday and today found the taste of arugula too peppery to abide although I normally love eating it. Does anyone know why this is?