Possible Beneficial Effects of Vitamin B6 in Rheumatoid Artiritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Vitamin B6 or pyridoxine is a water soluble vitamin, available from most of the foods. Though, meat and poultry are the richest source of this vitamin, it is also available from plant sources in good amount. It is heat labile and a good amount is lost in cooking. It has many functions as regards protein metabolism. Its daily requirement is 2 mgms/day in male and 1.6 mgms/day in ladies. Its active form is pyridoxal 5'phosphate (PLP).
Recently vitamin B6 has generated much interest in its possible role in the treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune collagen disease affecting the joints. It gradually involves other organs as the disease progresses.


Researchers have seen that low plasma vitamin B6 (PLP) level is seen in case of rheumatoid arthritis, where inflammatory markers of the disease are seen increased. They postulate that increasing intake of vitamin B6 may help in reducing the disease activity.

Image via WikipediaThey administered it in a relatively high dose i.e.100 mgms/day for 12 weeks and found that the level of plasma inflammatory markers for the disease decreased to a considerable extent. This dose also falls within the safe limits which is 200 mgms/day.

The original article was published in; European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2010) 64,1007–1013,www.nature.com/ejcn,as "Vitamin B6 supplementation improves pro-inflammatory responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" by S-C Huang, JC-C Wei, DJ Wu and Y-C Huang.

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