Can Vitamin B6 Reduce Anxiety and Depression?

In this interview, we’ll talk to Dr. David Field about his latest research on anxiety and depression and whether vitamin B6 supplements can help alleviate it.

What influenced you about your self-introduction and your latest research on anxiety and depression?

I am an associate professor at the University of Reading, UK. Over the years, functional brain imaging, how to visually recognize the world and perform complex actions such as using sensory information to catch the ball, what affects brain function, and more. I have studied a wide range of topics. We eat. I am now bringing the broad scientific perspective I have developed by working in these various areas to the question of whether diet can improve mental health and well-being.

For inspiration for my current work, about five years ago, I was a peer reviewer for a study investigating the effects of eating marmite (!) Daily for several weeks on visual processing. Notably, the results of that study suggest that eating marmite increased levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the visual part of the brain and slightly reduced levels of neural activity. However, marmite contains many different B vitamins and other ingredients that may explain this result. In addition, many people dislike the taste of marmite.

B6 and B12 were the most plausible candidates because I wanted to know which ingredients of marmite were working, so team up with Inopure, who donated vitamin tablets, and test them individually compared to placebo. I made it. Added measurements of anxiety and depression that were not in the marmite study. It is known that when GABA levels are changed, the decrease in GABA levels in the brain occurs in both states, and we thought that these disorders could be improved.

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Despite the fact that both anxiety and depression are common mental health conditions, our knowledge of their mechanisms is limited. Why is this?

In my opinion, the underlying mechanisms of anxiety and depression require multiple different levels of explanation to understand their causes, and therefore take longer for science to elucidate, so relatively. Not well understood. Let me explain what I mean. Some conditions have a completely genetic cause, while others can be completely caused by exposure to certain environmental factors such as chemicals. However, some of the explanations for anxiety and depression are socio-economic, some are psychological, and some are metabolic levels.

For the sake of explanation, it is convincing that the increased prevalence of anxiety and depression over the last few decades is due to the increased wealth inequality and income inequality created by political choices. There is evidence. For example, we find that the increase in mental illness is greater in more unequal countries. However, at the same time, it is also true that the brains of people with depression and anxiety neurosis have changes in the levels of neurotransmitters (signal transduction molecules) that have a causal relationship at a level different from that of socioeconomic causes. Unraveling the relationship between the various levels of explanation that applies is a very difficult scientific problem, and I am unaware that everyone is actually trying to do this.

Previous studies have been conducted on various vitamins, as well as marmite, and their effects on anxiety and depression. What is the difference between your research?

One of the differences in my research is that I examined the effects of individual vitamins (both vitamin B6 and vitamin B12) compared to placebo. Previous studies have examined the effects of vitamins, minerals, and sometimes other ingredients in cocktails on anxiety / stress / depression. Examining the effects of individual vitamins is not only scientifically useful EffectivenessYou can also get clues about the mechanism. When using multivitamins and foods, it is very difficult to guess the mechanism.

Another difference in my research is that it not only measures anxiety and depression, but also assumes that the underlying mechanism by which B6 may help these things may increase GABA. .. Also, included in the lab task, GABA in the brain changed. Previous studies measured anxiety and depression.

My visual science background influenced the lab tasks I used to see if GABA was changing. Our effortless ability to ignore the background of the visual scene and focus on what is important depends on inhibitory neurons that use the neurotransmitter GABA. Lab as a strength of “visual surround suppression”.

Your research has specifically focused on vitamin B6. What kind of food can this vitamin be found in general?

Before answering this, it is important to clarify that we have given a dose of vitamin B6 that is very difficult to obtain from food sources alone. It is also important to say that many foods contain vitamin B6 and complete deficiency is rare. (However, what is often ignored in official advice based on RDA and similar indicators is that the question of what is the optimal level of vitamin given is not the same as the question of minimum intake to avoid complete deficiency. It means that there is no such thing).

Foods high in B6 include chickpeas, liver, tuna, salmon, chicken, fortified breakfast cereals, bananas, turkeys, and yeast-based spreads. But there are many more.

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Your latest research focuses on reducing anxiety and depression with vitamin B6 supplements. Tell us more about your research and its results.

By randomly assigning participants to three groups, the effect of taking high doses of vitamin B6 was compared to the effect of taking placebo or high doses of vitamin B12. We used questionnaires and laboratory-based tasks to measure the effectiveness of these interventions. There was a decrease in the average level of anxiety and a decreasing trend in depression. Our lab task showed subtle changes in visual processing. It is worth noting that our sample had a high level of anxiety (on average) at baseline, but this was not the case for depression. Due to the high baseline levels, it is plausible to suggest that we were able to find a (mean) reduction in anxiety.

Our evidence is most consistent with the following explanation, but we do not yet believe that this is 100% proven as the causal route. In the brain, nerve excitement and nerve suppression are constantly competing. Anxiety is associated with reduced levels of inhibitory levels, more specifically the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. You can think of GABA as having a calming effect on the brain. Reducing neurosuppression in anxiety can increase excitatory nerve activity above normal levels. Some recent theories have also directly linked depression to lower GABA. In addition, depression and anxiety have been found to be highly associated conditions.

Vitamin B6 is attracting attention because it is a cofactor for the metabolic pathways in the brain that convert the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate into inhibitory (soothing) GABA. Increasing the amount of cofactors slightly speeds up this metabolic process. Therefore, GABA neurotransmitters are a little higher and glutamate is a little lower. The net effect of this is to slightly reduce brain activity.

Your study is small, but it has shown the power of nutrition-based interventions. What are some of the benefits of individuals who first try these interventions rather than relying on medicines?

Currently, there is no data comparing B6 supplements with other treatments for anxiety and depression, so this can only be answered with plausible guesses that you would like to test by collecting data. I think the reduction in anxiety achieved by taking high doses of B6 is less than that achieved by patients taking medications such as SSRIs.

Moreover, it is not yet known whether vitamin B6 was effective for most of our research participants or only for a subset. This is a general limitation of studies like us to analyze the “average” effect of a sample. To evaluate vitamin B6 as a treatment for anxiety that doctors consider diagnosing, a large clinical trial must first be conducted.

One possible benefit of vitamin B6 over things like SSRIs is that they have far fewer side effects.

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What further research needs to be done before this becomes a viable choice for the patient?

See clinical trials above. However, I don’t think taking B6 alone is the most effective strategy, so see also below. It should be combined with others.

What are the next steps for you and your research?

High doses of vitamin B6 have been shown to affect the balance of important metabolic pathways in the brain and slightly reduce anxiety in participants. But the most important implications can be seen by going beyond this and thinking about other micronutrients that may also affect other metabolic pathways involved in calming the brain. If they are also rigorously tested, we can proceed to assess the combined effects of some such interventions-hoping that the combined effects are clinically more meaningful to the patient than vitamin B6 alone.

However, significant financial support is needed to implement the scientific research and clinical trial programs needed to implement the above proposals. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry cannot benefit from funding this study because it cannot patent the effects of taking high doses of vitamins, minerals, or plant-derived compounds, and as a result. The industry is motivated to continue to promote pharmacological solutions. This is a big issue and the government needs to consider what can be done to change it.

Where can readers find more information?

Please provide links to materials that may be relevant to your audience.

They could read:

• Kalueff, AV, and Nutt, DJ (2007). The role of GABA in anxiety and depression. Depression and anxiety, twenty four(7), 495-517.

Or you can take a look at the marmite research that first made you think about this.

• Smith, AK, Wade, AR, Penkman, KE, and Baker, DH (2017). Dietary regulation of cortical excitement and inhibition. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 31(5), 632-637.

About Dr. Davidfield

In addition to the broad scientific background mentioned above, I play a regional leadership role in the UK Research and Evaluation Framework and I am also the regional leader of the UK Academic Trade Union UCU.