In brief: double-blinded research at the University of Reading (UK) with about 470 adults —18–58 years of age (mean 23.0, median 20), roughly 80% female— randomly assigned for one month to placebo or to B12 as methylcobalmin (1000 μg i.e., one mg ) or to B6 as pyroxidine Pyridoxine- Wik- Redirected fr Pyroxidine hydrochloride (100mg) FOUND
Results
Vitamin B6 supplementation reduced self-reported anxiety and induced a trend towards reduced depression, as well as increased surround suppression of visual contrast detection, but did not reliably influence the other outcome measures. Vitamin B12 supplementation produced trends towards changes in anxiety and visual processing.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that high-dose Vitamin B6 supplementation increases inhibitory GABAergic neural influences, which is consistent with its known role in the synthesis of GABA [gamma-aminobutyric acid].
<big>Note: if you consider trying B6 (alone or with B12) for yourself, PLEASE be sure to read the warning note at the foot of this diary that gives advice on a SAFER form of B6 than pyridoxine/pyroxidine.</big>
“FOUND” links to the full-text article in Human Psychopharmacolory: Clinical & Experimental, published by Wiley Online Library. It does not appear to be peer-reviewed but rather editorially overseen; possibly this was due to a slightly nonrigorous approach to the work that the authors are candid about.
It’s well worth reading, though, perhaps especially <big>the introductory section’s thorough discussion citing and detailing earlier studies upon which the authors’ experiment rests. (This kind of background is a standard feature in virtually all the scholarly research I’ve read, but it often goes unmentioned in popular articles, leading many readers to wonder how researchers choose what to investigate, not realizing that research projects don’t just come from out of the blue with someone wondering what happens If ____ and deciding to test it,)</big> More pragmatically, research doesn’t get funded or resourced if that’s all it comes from … except possibly by promotionally/commercially minded backers.)
That introduction does a nice job with the role of B vitamins in neurology as relates to mood and cognition. I’ve tried to follow the literature on B12, B6 and folate(B9) in mood and cognition for some years, though, so I may be biased about how interesting it is.
Medscape (no paywall, but you may have to register) offers a pretty readable, mostly-plain-English write-up on the research, in which study investigator David Field, PhD, associate professor, School of Psychological and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News,
"My relatively small study can only be considered as an initial proof of concept … before practicing clinicians would recommend taking high doses of vitamin B6, a full-scale clinical trial would have to be carried out to verify the findings, assess any side effects, and find out which types of patients do or don't benefit,"
Medscape makes a major point of how Marmite figured in the origins of this particular project, so here’s another illo.<big><big><big><big><big>⇒</big></big></big></big></big>
Field decided to test B6 and B12 individually and to compare them to placebo, adding...
...measures of anxiety and depression that were not in the Marmite study because I reasoned that if GABA levels were altered, this could improve those disorders, because we know that decreased levels of GABA in the brain occur in both of those conditions..."
(emphasis mine.)
The experiment was conducted over the course of 5 years by successive cohorts of BSc and MSc student experimenters. Participants were recruited in exchange for course credit, via adverts, word of mouth, and social media …
Participants
completed the Screen for Adult Anxiety Related Disorders (SCAARED) and the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) long version at baseline and following supplementation ("post-test"), and they underwent three sensory tests that acted as assays of inhibitory function at post-test.
In addition, 307 participants completed the Visual Contrast Sensitivity and Surround Suppression...
Wikipedia notes that
Vegemite ... is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives … developed by Cyril Callister in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1922. A spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets, and cracker biscuits, as well as a filling for pastries, <big>Vegemite is similar to <big>British Marmite,</big></big> New Zealand Marmite, Australian Promite, MightyMite, AussieMite, OzEmite, German Vitam-R, and Swiss Cenovis.
Vegemite is salty, slightly bitter, malty, and rich in glutamates – giving it an umami flavour similar to beef bouillon. It is vegan, kosher, and halal.[4]
Many of us have been interested in these health issues for a long time.
And of course, everyone’s mileage may vary! :)
For readers interested in the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s free- access online collection of published bioscience research, PubMedCentral is available to all.
That link gets you to the <tt>Advanced Search Builder</tt> page, where you can fine tune a search reasonably well for your topic of interest. My own usual methods is to go for articles with my topic in the title, since that’s a pretty good guarantee of pertinent results, although professionals routinely have to dig far deeper.
You build this kind of search by typing a key word or phrase of your topic (e.g., Vitamin B6) in the topmost white bar/field, then click on “all fields” to the left of it, to get a dropdown alphabetical list of all the possible places in an article where search terms can appear. I would select <big>TITLE</big> from near the end of the list, and then do similar for an additional key word or phrase I would type into the next white bar/field, e.g., in this example probably Pyridoxine, because that’s the form most common in supplementation including for research purposes. But see the UPDATE note about highdose toxicity and a safer form, from kosak wilderness voice (a few paragraphs below).
We can choose between AND — OR — NOT (far left grey dropdown list button, below the brown word “Builder”) in order to “tell” the search engine how to use our terms for the hunt. In this hypothetical search I’m describing, I would choose OR for the term —Pyridoxine— I typed into the second white bar/field, because so far I’m trying to make sure to not miss articles merely because some authors choose “B6” for the title while others choose a more specific term for it.
Each time one line/bar is filled in, the screen automatically makes another additionally visible. For this hypothetical search, I would probably type depression on the third line, and then hit the brown SEARCH button.
Noodle around with PubMedCentral’s search engine to get a feel for it. You’ll discover that are additional buttons & activities on the search-builder page, and that after you hear SEARCH and get results displayed, you can use choices in the far left margin of the results page to “filter” by —for example— how recent the publication date of articles found. And you can bookmark or copypaste (to email to yourself, for example) the URL of a completed search, to help keep track of the ways you’re hunting. And so on!
Whatever resources you use, verify that they’re reliable, and study up verrry carefully before putting anything new near, on, or into your body. We only get one body per person. Take good care.
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UPDATE: It should be kept clearly in mind that this study only involved one month on B6 for the participants receiving it. wilderness voice points out in the comments that