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Vitamin B6 may reduce the cytokine storms of Covid

Maybe getting enough Vitamin B6 will reduce deaths

The main two things that kill people with Covid are blood clotting and an out-of-control inflammation known as a cytokine storm. A group of researchers noticed that both of these were things Vitamin B6 was known to reduce — blood clotting, and inflammation. In particular, there’s a molecule called Interleukin 6 which is a “masterplayer” signal in our immune system and — what do you know —  B6 reduces it. Mice that weren’t fed enough B6 got mouse pneumonia more than mice who were fed enough. B6 is anti-inflammatory, anti- and reduces reactive oxygen species (ROS).

The Big Black hole in medical research?

I hoped this paper was report on experiments with Covid patients, but the paper and press release is essentially a literature review of many pre-covid studies and a plea for research into whether vitamin B6 might help stop the deadly cytokine storm.

The bigger, global question they don’t ask, is why despite the millions (billions) going into vaccine design and drug research, hardly anyone is studying the cheap unprofitable and obvious questions? Perhaps we need some government funded research that’s not driven by profits… oh. wait.?  What happened to the idea that public funded University science could be a foil against profit hungry large corporations? Instead, it’s almost like they’ve jumped into bed with them.  It’s not a radical new idea that B6 could reduce lung infections. The mouse study, forgoodnesssake, was done in 1949. Potentially people may have been getting sicker than they needed to be for 70 years. That’s a crime.

A B6 tablet costs about 7 cents or practically nothing compared to $3000 a dose Remdesivir. 

Great comment, Mike Jonas:

The western world is being destroyed by a sickness – corruption. The coronavirus is bad, but it pales into insignificance beside corruption. The coronavirus can be combatted with a vaccine or with vitamins or with various cheap drugs (get a Budesonide inhaler prescription now, take as instructed as soon as you get a coronavirus symptom).

Corruption can be combatted with a free press or with genuine universities or with integrity in government, or even with open social media. We now have none of those defences.

The researchers make the case that a B6 deficiency is also associated with lots of the conditions which predispose people to severe covid-19

Vitamin B6 may help keep COVID-19’s cytokine storms at bay

by Chris Melore

Along with promoting healthy blood cell creation, study authors say there’s evidence vitamin B6 can also protect the body from chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Their report finds B6 can suppress inflammation, inflammatory proteins from the immune system, oxidative stress, and carbonyl stress.

“Coronaviruses and influenza are among the viruses that can cause lethal lung injuries and death from acute respiratory distress syndrome worldwide. Viral infections evoke a ‘cytokine storm,’ leading to lung capillary endothelial cell inflammation, neutrophil infiltration, and increased oxidative stress,” researchers explain.

Kumrungsee adds there are two serious symptoms which can lead to death in COVID-19 patients, thrombosis and the cytokine storm. This storm, or hyper inflammation, takes place when the patient’s own immune system goes into overdrive and attacks healthy cells. Thrombosis, or blood clotting, can block off capillaries and damages organs like the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys.

Scientists say vitamin B6 is a natural anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting nutrient.

Vitamin B6 is involved in around 150 reactions in your body involving energy, fat, sugar, DNA, neurotransmitters — you get the idea. There are six different forms of B6 (things are never that simple in biochemistry). Best to look for the PLP form of B6, not the cheap multivitamin form “Pyridoxine”.

B6 may or may not help with Covid, but it’s an experiment worth doing. B6 seems to play a role in protection against diabetes and cancer and heart disease. It helps to regulate homocysteine levels. Even if it doesn’t help against Covid, it seems pretty handy.

Don’t remember your dreams? — if you don’t, try B6.

Best is to eat more, rather than just pop a pill, but people with gut inflammation, IBS, women on the pill, or long term cortiocosteriods, and alcoholics need more B6 than the other people. The richest foods in Vitamin B6 are Salmon and Tuna, meat, potatoes, spinach and bananas.

The RDA is about 2mg a day. The upper tolerable intake limit is set at 100 milligrams a day. Long term use of 500mg a day generates toxicity. It’s rare to see people with a severe deficiency — where the afflicted get convulsive seizures, but moderate or mild deficiencies seem to matter too.  Chris Masterjohn recommends a catch up dose if you think you might be deficient, but for the long term to reduce the dose to 10mg/day.

For symptoms of a mild deficiency — see here. The test, apparently, is to just take the vitamin and see if it helps.

 

REFERENCE

Kumrungsee T, Zhang P, Chartkul M, Yanaka N and Kato N (2020) Potential Role of Vitamin B6 in Ameliorating the Severity of COVID-19 and Its Complications. Front. Nutr. 7:562051. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.562051

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2020.562051/full#B21

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