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Letters

Vitamin B-6

BMJ 1999; 318 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7181.463 (Published 13 February 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;318:463

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

  1. J Marks, Fellow
  1. Girton College, Cambridge CB3 0JG
  2. Vitamin B6 Scientific Task Group, 73 Endowood Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S7 2LY

    EDITOR—Collier is right that the border between nutritional and medical uses of vitamin B-6 is blurred and needs fresh examination.1 It is therefore disappointing to note that a number of members of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment, whose report on pyridoxine was so roundly rejected by the Commons Agriculture Select Committee, will now sit 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 that there is no scientific evidence that neuropathy results from the prolonged use of pyridoxine in doses of less than 500 mg/day.3 Whatever Dalton and Dalton observed, it was clearly not pyridoxine neuropathy.4 Secondly, I believe that Collier's “centralist and …

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