All 18 studies known to me in which vitamin B6 has been evaluated as a treatment for autistic children have provided positive results. This is a rather remarkable record, since the many drugs that have been evaluated as treatments for autism have produced very inconsistent results. If a drug shows positive results in about half of the evaluation studies, it is considered a success and the drug is then advocated for use with autistic patients.
However, despite the remarkably consistent findings in he research on the use of vitamin B6 in the treatment of autism, and despite its being immeasurably safer than any of the drugs used for autistic children, there are at present very few practitioners who use it or advocate its use in the treatment of autism.
Dr. Bernard Rimland - (1964) - At the end of the four-month trial it was clear that vitamin B6 was the most important of the four vitamins we had investigated, and that in some cases it brought about remarkable improvement. Between 30% and 40% of children showed significant improvement when the vitamin B6 was given to them. A few of the children showed minor side effects (irritability, sound sensitivity and bed-wetting), but these quickly cleared up when additional magnesium was supplied, and the magnesium confirmed additional benefits.
In 1966, Dr. Rimland, Professors Enoch Callaway of the University of California Medical Center at San Francisco and Pierre Dreyfus of the University of California Medical Center at Davis ran a second trial. The double-blind placebo-controlled crossover experiment utilized 16 autistic children, and again produced statistically significant results.
For most children dosage levels of B6 ranged between 300 mg and 500 mg per day. Several hundred mg/day of magnesium and a multiple-B tablet were also given, to guard against B6-induced deficiencies of these other nutrients. (In all probability, the temporary numbness and tingling resulting from B6 megadoses, reported by Schaumburg in his 1983 report; were the result of induced deficiencies of other nutrients caused by taking B6 alone in enormous amounts—a foolish thing to do.)
In both studies the children showed a remarkably wide range of benefits from the vitamin B6. There was better eye contact, less self-stimulatory behavior, more interest in the world around them, fewer tantrums, more speech, and in general the children became more normal, although they were not completely cured.
Children showed a remarkably wide range of benefits from the vitamin B6. People vary enormously in their need for B6. The children who showed improvement under B6 improved because they needed extra B6. Autism is thus in many cases a vitamin B6 dependency syndrome.
Super Nu-Thera 500 (A tasty vitamin B6 formula)
Super Nu-Thera 500 comes in a powder, caplet and liquid. The liquid is a strawberry flaovoured concentrate which seems to be well accepted by autistic children. The caplets are oval shaped (1/2 inch long each) designed to be swallowed not chewed. I would not recommend them for smaller children who may have difficulty swallowing pills. The powder has a citrus flavoring to it and can be mixed in any food or beverage. To overcome the bad taste of the B vitamins in the powder, we use coated viatmins which are then not water soluble. This will result in some grittiness or texture. To conceal this texture, many parents mix the product in apple sauce, pancake batter or other products which already have a texture.
Super Nu Thera P5P
At the suggestion of Dr. Rimland, Kirkmans have added a new formulation of Super Nu Thera. Most experts agree that P5P is 3-10 times more absorbable than the standard form of B6. A super fine texture and an improved taste.
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