Misleading Titles on Vitamin B Supplements

The title of this article is as follows: Supplements a solution for B6 deficiency, says study

But the study said nothing of the kind. This is a glaring example of the slippery slope of inferrance. Here is the opening line, which follows the misleading header:

“Researchers at Tufts University have suggested inadequate vitamin B6 levels across large sections of the US population, which could be reduced via supplementation.”

All they found was that vitamin B6 levels are lower than the US RDA. The authors speculate that they could be corrected by pills, but that study has not been done and has no basis here.

It seems like we want this to be true, and the search for a product (pill/supplement/drug) to correct a process (poor food/low exercise/high stress lives) forms the core of our current paradigm on health.

This is not a productive strategy, and should be replaced. In fact, we just read the article stating that vitamin B supplementation does not protect against heart disease. This adds to other examples where supplementation products did not correct health problems that are induced by an unhealthy process, or lifestyle.

Source: American Journal of Clinical NutritionVolume 87, pages 1446 -54.”Trends of Vitamin B6 Status in US Population Sample”Authors: Morris MS, Picciano, MF, Jacques PF, Selhub, J.