Oct 25 2008
Preventing Colon Cancer, a look at B-6
Filed under Health,Western diet,cancer,colon cancer,food,health benefits of food,health care,nutrition,nuts,wellness,women's health by continuum wellness
Many of us are not getting nearly enough B6 from our diets. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (May, 2008) published a study of nearly 8,000 people showing that B6 inadequacy is common throughout the United States. “Across the study population,” the authors said, “we noticed participants with inadequate vitamin B6 status even though they reported consuming more than the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin B6, which is less than 2 milligrams per day.” Three out of four women using oral contraceptives are vitamin B6 deficient, unless they also take vitamin B6 supplements. Smokers and the elderly are also especially likely to be at risk. Remarkably, even among people who take B6 supplements, one in ten is still B6 deficient. (4)
This indicates that we might better take more B6. But many won’t. This is because the public has been warned off of supplementing with this vitamin. So irrational is this fear that, at one point, a so-called “Safe Upper Limit” for daily B6 intake was set at only 10 mg. (6) That was only about six times the US RDA/DRI. Who set such a “limit”? Not the voters, that’s for sure. An unelected committee did it, one created by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. (5) They have, in a manner of speaking, recently admitted that they were wrong. The “Safe Upper Limit” is now 100 mg.
That is more like it, but still too low. Alan Gaby, M.D., in reviewing B6 toxicity, wrote that adverse effects from B6 (pyridoxine) were occurring in people taking “2,000 mg/day or more of pyridoxine, although some were taking only 500 mg/day. There is a single case report of a neuropathy occurring in a person taking 200 mg/day of pyridoxine, but the reliability of that case report is unclear. The individual in question was never examined, but was merely interviewed by telephone after responding to a local television report that publicized pyridoxine-induced neuropathy.” Dr Gaby adds that there have been no reports of B6 side effects at under 200 mg/day. (6)
Modern processed, low-nutrient diets are not providing anything close to 200 milligrams. In fact, they typically provide less that 1% of that amount. You can get some B-6 from food, if you really like to eat whole grains, seeds and organ meats. A goodly slice of beef liver contains a whopping 1.2 mg of B-6. Chicken liver is only 0.6 mg per serving, and most other foods contain less. Avocados (0.5 mg each) and bananas (0.7 mg each) lead the pyridoxine league for fruits. Potatoes (0.7 mg each) and nuts (especially filberts, peanuts and walnuts) are fairly good vegetable sources.
But people are not eating nuts, seeds, vegetables, and liver. What they are eating is way too many nutrient-poor junk foods. Our diets are low in B6, yet B6 reduces risk of colon cancer. Clearly supplementation is the way to go.
Orthomolecular Medicine News
Orthomolecular.org
