Vitamin B-6

BMJ 1999;318:463 ( 13 February )

Letters

Vitamin B-6

Many have found relief from disorders for which no effective treatment exists

Government guidelines are not based on scientific evidence

Many have found relief from disorders for which no effective treatment exists

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Collier is right that the border between nutritional and medical uses of vitamin B-6 is blurred and needs fresh examination.¹It is therefore disappointing to note that a number of membersof the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products,and the Environment, whose report on pyridoxine was so roundlyrejected by the Commons Agriculture Select Committee, will nowsit on the new expert group on vitamins and minerals.²

However, I disagree with Collier on two specific points. Firstly, submissions to the Commons committee clearly showed thatthere is no scientific evidence that neuropathy results from theprolonged use of pyridoxine in doses of less than 500 mg/day.³Whatever Dalton and Dalton observed, it was clearly not pyridoxineneuropathy.⁴ Secondly, I believe that Collier's "centralistand restrictive" approach to the control of pyridoxine runs contraryto the widely held view that individuals should be responsiblefor their . . . [Full text of this article]