wolit@rabbit.UUCP (08/26/83)
Given the interest in any kind of pseudoscientific nonsense about caffeine, VDTs, accupuncture, etc., seen on this net recently (it seems the only forbidden subject is MEDICINE), I'm not surprised that no one has yet mentioned the report in yesterday's New England Journal of Medicine that indicates that "megadoses" of vitamin B-6 can cause serious nerve damage. (Health faddists claim that high doses -- 2 to 6 grams per day -- help put on muscle, reduce premenstrual swelling, and make you feel better.) The effects of the vitamin poisoning were so severe as to be mistaken initially for multiple sclerosis, and included difficulty in walking, and numbness in the feet, legs, or hands. Although the symptoms were said to start subsiding as soon as the victim stopped taking the vitamin, recovery takes over a year, and is not known to be complete. Jan Wolitzky, BTL Murray Hill
jmg@houxk.UUCP (08/29/83)
Right on Jan Wolitzky! I've had enough of these pseudo-scientific quacks and rascals. I suggest we pick out some of the bigger ones and make an example of them so the rest will fall in line. I have two in mind specifically. One was a known drunk and a lecher who constantly brawled and held continuous drinking parties. This guy even lost his nose in one of these brawls (it was apparently bitten off!) and thereafter he wore a false nose made of silver to hide his ugly deformity. The other rascal was dragged up in a home where his mother practiced witchcraft and several times he had to go and get his mother out of jail after she was arrested by the authorities for practicing witchcraft. To top it all off these two pseudo-scientific quacks got together and worked for years on some half-baked scheme about astronomy. But old silver nose would never let the other guy in on all his secrets and the son-of-a-witch had to wait until old silvernose died to complete this scheme. So then he came out with this cockeyed theory that the planets travel in elliptical orbits. Lets dig these two up and give them a fair trial for scientific heresy. Old silvernose goes by the name of Tyco Brahe and the son-of-a-witch calls himself Johannes Kepler. Another thing that bothers me is that the reason why we get all these crackpot articles on the net is that the people who really know what they're talking about, like you Jan, seldom submit articles. So lets hear it from you guys! But seriously Jan, most people who know anything about vitamins have known for years that you can't take any one of the B vitamins by itself because it causes a depletion of other B vitamins in your system. You must take B vitamins in a balanced group called vitamin B complex. Here's another item for your trivia bag. Taking large quatities of vitamin E causes a depletion of vitamin A in the system, so you really must take vitamin E and A together. Vitamin E also causes a slight temporary rise in blood pressure after it is taken. Hope to hear more of your contibutions soon Jan. Joe McGhee