essay on FDA vs Vitamin B6 (P5P)

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*/essay on FDA vs Vitamin B6 (P5P)/*

http://www.anh-usa.org/main-menu/campaigns/vitamin-b6-p5p/

*/Alert: Protect Your Right To Natural and Bio-available Vitamin B-6!/*

April 6, 2010

http://www.anh-usa.org/alert-protect-your-right-to-natural-and-bio-available-vit\

amin-b-6/

*/Abnormally high plasma levels of vitamin B6 in children with autism

not taking supplements compared to controls not taking supplements./*

JB, F, Audhya T.

J Altern Complement Med. 2006 Jan-Feb;12(1):59-63.

BACKGROUND: There have been many studies of the effect of high-dose

supplementation of vitamin B6 on children and adults with autism, with

all but one reporting benefits. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to

investigate the biochemical basis for vitamin B6 therapy by measuring

the level of total vitamin B6 in the plasma of unsupplemented children

with autism spectrum disorder compared to unsupplemented control

subjects. PARTICIPANTS: Children with autism spectrum disorders (n = 35,

age 3-9 years) and unrelated typical children (n = 11, age 6-9 years),

all from Arizona, were studied. (This includes the data from 24 children

with autism from our previous study.) METHODOLOGY: A microbiologic assay

was used to measure the level of total vitamin B6 (including

phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms), in a blinded fashion.

RESULTS: Children with autism had a 75% higher level of total vitamin B6

than the controls (medians of 56 versus 32 ng/mL, respectively, p =

0.00002). Most of the autistic children (77%) had levels that were more

than 2 standard deviations above the median value of the controls. The

autistic girls (n = 5) also had elevated levels (mean of 54.6 ng/mL,

median of 60 ng/mL). DISCUSSION: These results are consistent with

previous studies that found that: (1) pyridoxal kinase had a very low

activity in children with autism and (2) pyridoxal 5 phosphate (PLP)

levels are unusually low in children with autism. Thus, it appears that

the low conversion of pyridoxal and pyridoxine to PLP results in low

levels of PLP, which is the active cofactor for 113 known enzymatic

reactions, including the formation of many key neurotransmitters.

CONCLUSIONS: Total vitamin B6 is abnormally high in autism, consistent

with previous reports of an impaired pyridoxal kinase for the conversion

of pyridoxine and pyridoxal to PLP. This may explain the many published

studies of benefits of high-dose vitamin B6 supplementation in some

children and adults with autism.

PMID: 16494569