Some more info from the polymath researcher Marshall Smith on this complex nutrition topic. As synthetic B6 is included in many foods and supplements I would look carefully at what you are consuming, including supposed "health" foods and beverages and "natural" supplements.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090130063942/http://brojon.org/DigestArchives/060421.html
THE FACTS ABOUT THE B6 BOMBER
"The Greatest Source of Disease and Death in the World"
~~~~~~~~ UPDATE ~~~~~~~~
I have placed a link to the first part of "The B6 Bomber" on the BroJon front page. You can read the updated version from that link.
I have received a flurry of email from concerned readers who don't understand how B6 could do all those things. It doesn't say anything about that in all the nutrition books or medical textbooks. So how could it be true and how could so many health professionals be wrong?
To be blunt, most of those Docs and health purveyors were only reading the product "handouts" from the drug makers. That is not a good source for medical or biochemical information.
The big problem is biochemical confusion. Most people, including doctors and biochemists, don't know the difference between tryptophan and tryptophane. Why does one have an "e" on the end? Are they the same? No they are not the same and they don't work the same way in the body. Why is one called L-Tryptophan. What does the "L" mean and does it work differently in the body than does tryptophan or tryptophane? And what about the commonly sold "metabolite" 5-hydroxytryptophan or 5-HTP? It is sold as a replacement for L-tryptophan to get around the "illegal" CDC ban on tryptophan sales. The CDC cannot "ban" products, only the FDA can do that, but no FDA ban was ever issued. That whole story was a 1989 hoax. Why?
It turns out from my studies, that only the L-tryptophan form of the amino acid is psychoactive and acts as a precursor for serotonin and melatonin. None of the numerous "replacements" on the market are active at all, and they are a waste of money. And they are dangerous.
The other primary confusion is -- what is B6? There are many forms of "natural" B6 found in plants and some meats. The major forms are pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and peridoxamine, but there are many other related forms. They don't all work the same way. Most of the "natural" forms are in such small amounts as to be almost non-existent. The easiest and cheapest form is the synthetic form of pyridoxine. This one single form is what is added to 1-a-day vitamin pills, to most breads and breakfast cereals and even sold separately as B6 dietary supplement pills.
But pay attention now -- what happens if you add pyridoxine B6 to L-tryptophan or tryptophane? Pyridoxine converts the L-tryptophan to Niacin and thus limits almost all the amount of serotonin or melatonin which can be produced in the brain. Definitely not a good thing. The pyridoxine converts most of the tryptophane into fibrinogen. And what is fibrinogen?
Fibrinogen is what creates those fibers in the blood which make your blood clot and stop the bleeding. But what happens if you overdose with B6 and then produce too much fibrinogen? The result is random blood clots or thrombosis, leading to coronary thrombosis or catastrophic heart attacks, or strokes in the brain or random brain damage caused by blood clots.
The excess fibrinogen also intermingles or combines with the fibers of cholesterol in the blood to produce plaque or hardening of the arteries, leading to constriction of the blood flow and destruction of the heart and circulatory system. Thus excess fibrinogen is the cause of a severe degradation of health and even sudden death. And excess fibrinogen is caused by an overdose of B6. You never knew that since nobody wanted you to know. I will show you the documented source and evidence for that information.
Those are only a few examples from my research journal about the B6 Bomber. Did anybody notice the sudden increase in heart attacks and strokes following the introduction of pyridoxine B6 as a food additive. Did anybody notice the sudden increase in the incidence of obesity, pancreatic damage and adult onset type-2 diabetes about the same time as the introduction of pyridoxine B6 as a food additive in most prepared foods. Did anybody notice the sudden increase in ADD, ADHD and prescriptions for Prozac and Zoloft following the introduction of pyridoxine B6 additives in most foods in the mid-1980's? Big Pharma didn't want you to notice, which is why you never noticed. But now you have.
What that means is don't always believe everything you read in nutrition books, food additive books and handouts, nor even much of the information touted on "medical websites." It could be fatal.
I have in my library a collection of most of the old Merck Manuals dating from about 1915 to the latest version. One thing I learn from my old medical manuals is not to believe half of the information in them. They are completely outdated and wrong and filled with mis-information. But back in 1915 they thought they were completely correct, but they were wrong. I simply apply that same observation to my latest Harrison's and DSM when I read them cover-to-cover. They are good for a laff, but in several years we will know they were actually mostly wrong, just like all the earlier manuals. It's my job to find out where they are wrong, before the Docs kill another million patients based on the false and incorrect information in the latest med manuals.
Well, I could go on and on with stories from my B6 research journal, but I will do that in the next update to The B6 Bomber...
Marshall Smith
Editor, Brother Jonathan Gazette
newseditor@brojon.com
