Another anomaly - liver

[Chickens44]

just had results of a liver function test through Medichecks. Most are okay, but the GGT result was high. Any thoughts. I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease a few years ago, but never really had any problems. Do B12 or any of the cofactors affect this test?

[WIZARD6787]

My fatty liver resolved with my use of B6 which is know to happen but not by many.

[Kowbie in reply to WIZARD6787]

Hello can I ask how much b6 to take as I have fatty liver they was going to. Do a biopsy now they decided they weren’t gonna do one , but I thought I would like to try to see if it helped thankyou

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Kowbie]

I take 50 mg of 5-P-5 five to six times per day. This is based on my evaluation of the information available and that I have all but gone from debilitating polyneuropathy to no pain. I experienced polyneuropathy at age 3.5 and am 69 years of age.

This amount is 100 mg more than most people tolerate well according to NIH. (Goggle NIH B6) This is in conflict with many who give advice on this forum.

"The FNB noted that although several reports show sensory neuropathy occurring at doses lower than 500 mg/day, studies in patients treated with vitamin B6 (average dose of 200 mg/day) for up to 5 years found no evidence of this effect."

I found the work of Helvella below to be helpful in my self-treating to heal as much as I can.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

I weight 170 pounds. 12.143 stone. 77.111 kg

My evaluation is for 5-P-5 only. My evaluation is it is not worth any possible risk that may exist with other forms.

The normalization of my liver was incidental to my self-treating of my peripheral neuropathy.

I do not advise or instruct I share and appreciate those on the forum that share. The advice and instruction of how to self treat, not at all.

[Kowbie in reply to WIZARD6787]

Thankyou for that I’ve had a read of helvella,s report but I can’t take it all in , I have something wrong with my liver also so much pain in my joints I know it could well be arthritis but do you think I could try 5 p 5 to see if it helps, because I keep thinking by next year I’m not gonna be able to walk , that’s my fear ,thank you x

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Kowbie]

I do not give advice. In part due to the 'bad' advice on this forum. In part as what I would advise changes as I do my work. I am improving my suplimentation with experience and knowledge gained.

That being said 5-P-5 eliminated my Peripheral Neuropathy for the most part. It was linier for me unlike other supplements. There was no downturn or the agony of reversing out caused between doses I find due to under supplementation.

100 mg worked quickly and each increase worked better. I stopped at 50mg 5-6 times a day when symptoms were resolved.

I did on advice on this forum three times stop the B6 and each time my Peripheral Neuropathy returned. Good news is it resolved fairly quickly.

[Kowbie in reply to WIZARD6787]

Thanks for getting back to me , I have ordered some now , I think you’ll try anything to improve yourself if you can thankyou glad you had some benefit x

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Kowbie]

I could not use the methodology of trying anything as there are too many things I know to try. Vitamin B6 deficiency is a diagnosis. It seldom happens without other deficiencies. It is characterized by peripheral neuropathy + severe mouth sores. I did not have severe mouth sores but I had minor ones which are now gone. My review of professionals that did diagnose B6 by symptoms often commented. It's rarely diagnosed. There is no test to determine B6 deficiency that can eliminate the possibility. I did trials and determined that I was B6 deficient.

[Kowbie in reply to WIZARD6787]

Oh I see anyway thankyou

[WIZARD6787 in reply to Kowbie]

You are most welcome. I hope you are a successful with your work with B6.

[Chickens44]

Or could a glass of red wine or two the night before have affected the result?

[Technoid in reply to Chickens44]

yes

"Don’t consume any alcohol for at least 24 hours before the test. Even small amounts of alcohol can increase your GGT levels."

my.clevelandclinic.org/heal...

[Chickens44 in reply to Technoid]

Oops!

[Technoid in reply to Chickens44]

I'm amazed you can touch alcohol only months into treatment, I didn't venture that for quite some time. I didn't want to ask the body to handle extra toxins when it was really busy trying to fix so much other damage.

Alcohol would be the first thing I would knock on the head once feeling at all unwell, but whatever works for you I guess.

[LynneG in reply to Chickens44]

Hi Chicken, I always think it helps to understand why. Thinking alcohol. Alcohol is converted back to sugar in the body. And quickly. So hits the blood stream like any other refined carbs as i understand it. So products made from refined flour (bread pizza pasta pastry) rice (look on the glycemic index) rice is 95 if i remember correctly. it's not sensible to eat any food over 50points especially if have a fatty liver diagnosis

So all these high sugar foods raise your blood sugar. Insulin is released to get the sugar out of your blood stream or you will die. Insulin takes sugar to the liver. The liver can only hold a little sugar and so converts the sugar to fat and stores the fat around your waist and organs. The liver gets overloaded with dealing with so much sugar and hence diagnosis of fatty liver. Fatty Liver is caused by eating too many carbs not fat. Wine is a carb, ferments sugar into alcohol. Then is converted back to sugar. A slice of toast equals 12 teasp sugar. Maybe you know all this and if so I appologise, but alcohol has the same effect.

[Chickens44 in reply to LynneG]

No apologies necessary, always interested in new information. I have always had large ‘mid section’ and drank wine. I don’t have so much refined carbs in the way of cakes, biscuits etc. and I do make my own bread these days. And am trying to cut down how much of that I eat. I have definitely cut down on pasta too, although saying that, I’m actually having pasta tonight!

I have a note on my medical records that I am pre diabetic, and have been for a long time. So hopefully by cutting down on these carbs, it may reduce my risk of full blown diabetes.

[LynneG in reply to Chickens44]

Hi , and fatty liver. However if have a diagnosis of pre diabetes and fatty liver I think it would be best to have no refined carbs. You make your own bread so obviously are very capable. I make my own bread with almond flour (so nuts) and not a high sugar grain like wheat, corn etc. Almond flour is 1 on the glycemic index I make with bicarb to rise so basically a soda bread , no yeast, no needing, takes 5 mins to make, 50 mins in the oven

Functional doctors do state, fatty liver also means fatty pancreas and so more problems down the line.

Google Dr Mark Hyman, lots of advice. Author of Eat Fat get thin. Grains and any food made from grains are what are not conducive to health. Which means no cereals or toast for breakfast. I have free range duck or hens eggs for breakfast. Or bacon and eggs. Grass fed meat (available in supermarkets , printed on the packets) No bottled oils eg sunflower oil, so called veg oil and veg margarines as inflammatory, preventing healing. I have lots of butter, coconut oil and natural fat such as dripping. Fat is filling, less likely to snack because of sugar spikes from carbs and the slump following the spikes

Go down the rabbit hole and listen to the presentations online from eminent British GP's doctors , scientists ,health proffesionals who years ago formed

The Public Health Collaboration. (website) All past conference speaker presentations online/you tube

Formed by Liverpool GP Dr David Unwin who was fed up of his diabetic patients only getting worse and requiring more and more prescription meds. So he dived into the research, and healed them all through scrapping dietry guidelines

[Chickens44 in reply to LynneG]

I am actually doing some of that already. I use olive oil, butter and coconut oil. I quite often have bacon and egg, with avocado or hummus. I get most of my meat from a local farm shop. I hardly eat anything out of a packet these days, the occasional M&S ready meal. I don’t eat cereals. I used to keep chickens and loved the fresh eggs, lost my last girl a year ago, she was 12! But sadly had stopped laying a few years before. I have trouble finding local fresh eggs, but do buy free range. And I do eat a lot of fish and seafood too.

So hoping I am already on my way to a healthier liver!

[Technoid in reply to LynneG]

It's difficult to respond to every point made by LynneG as there is a very high quantity of nonsense so I apologise if I skipped over some points.

"Alcohol is converted back to sugar in the body. "

No, Alcohol is converted to Acetaldehyde, then to Acetate and then to Acetyl CoA. Take a look at this quick blog on alcohol metabolism and glucose from a registered dietitian:

type1traveler.com/2016/02/0...

Extract from the blog:

"Although many popular alcoholic beverages contain carbohydrates and may raise blood sugars, alcohol itself is not a carbohydrate. While alcohol is produced from carbohydrates, yeast convert sugar into ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and CO2 through a process called fermentation. Neither of these fermentation products are carbohydrates and therefore neither is metabolized by the body as a carbohydrate.

Alcohol is a completely different nutrient, although use of the word nutrient is controversial. Alcohol provides energy (7 kilocalories/gram); however, it performs no essential functions in the body. Basically we can get energy from it, but we don’t need it to function as we need fat, carbohydrates, and protein."

With regard to glycemic index:

"the [glycemic] index of an individual food is not necessarily reflective of the quantity in which that food would be consumed, because it's always against a reference 100 grams to glucose. And it's not a reflection of the metabolism of a different quantity of that food or a lower quantity of that food in the context of a mixed meal particularly, that can be modified by the amount of protein in that meal and the fat composition and amount of fat in that meal. So that limitation of GI is well established, which brings the focus onto glycemic load, which considers more the kind of dose and actual amount that will be consumed of any carbohydrate meal."

^ excerpt from Alan Flanagan from Sigma Nutrition in the transcript of an episode on Insulin Resistance

sigmanutrition.com/wp-conte...

See "Why Glycemic Load matters more than Glycemic Index"

m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOPHv...(Not working as expected?)

In general it is better to focus on overall diet quality rather than the GI/GL of every food you consume. Increasing overall diet quality and keeping overall calories consumed under control will have a much higher impact than a poor quality diet which focuses unnecessarily on GI/GL numbers. Limiting refined carbohydrates is certainly a good idea and is part of all dietary guidelines. Healthy, unrefined carbohydrates, such as whole grains, legumes, fruit and vegetables can be part of a healthy dietary pattern and do not have any negative effects on health.

Insulin does not transport sugar to the liver as you have claimed. Insulin is a hormone, not a transporter. It has many effects but the most significant short-term effect is the binding of insulin to insulin receptors on cells. This causes a specific transport protein for glucose called GLUT4 to move from inside the cell to the cell's surface, where it can remove glucose from the blood - lowering blood glucose.

It is not correct to state that "Fatty Liver is caused by eating too many carbs not fat". In fact, in overfeeding studies, saturated fat results in greater hepatic (liver) fat storage than overfeeding of carbohydrates. See this research:

Saturated Fat Is More Metabolically Harmful for the Human Liver Than Unsaturated Fat or Simple Sugars

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...

It doesn't make any sense from a nutrition perspective to say that "A slice of toast equals 12 teasp sugar.". Granulated sugar and a slice of (lets say) wholegrain toast are NOT the same nutritionally speaking. You can't abstract the sugar content of a food and imply that the food is literally equivalent, metabolically or nutritionally speaking, to the same amount of granulated sugar.

With regard to your statement : "Grains and any food made from grains are what are not conducive to health." - this is total nonsense - diets rich in wholegrains have beneficial health outcomes in virtually every nutrition study every conducted, it is farcical to suggest that they are "not conducive to health".

The UK "Public Health Collaboration" you refer to is a cholesterol denialist organisation which features many of the "usual suspects" in this space.

Vegetables oils are not "inflammatory", this nonsense has been pushed for years with absolutely no human outcome evidence to support it. See:

alineanutrition.com/2020/09...

Extract:

"The putative mechanism with regard to inflammation is that the omega-6 linoleic acid [LA] acts as a precursor to arachidonic acid [AA]; AA acts a substrate to form eicosanoids, and the eicosanoids AA is used to form may be pro-inflammatory. Ergo, as the logic goes, increasing PUFA – particularly LA – increases inflammation.

Except there is no evidence that either increasing or decreasing LA levels alters levels of AA in humans. A review of 36 human intervention studies highlighted that neither increasing LA levels by up to 551%, or decreasing LA levels by 90%, altered concentrations of AA in plasma, serum, or red blood cells [erythrocytes], despite increasing LA intake resulting in increased membrane phospholipid LA content. Putative mechanism does not = biological effect"

You've "gone down the rabbit hole" indeed, LynneG, I suggest that you come up for air!

[LynneG in reply to Technoid]

Well, that's told me Technoid - thank you. It's interesting to see and acknowledge a different point of view to one's own.

However, I may not have used the correct scientific/medical terminology but I stand by the pemise that consuming alcohol is not health conducing especially if have a diagnosis of fatty liver and pre diabetes. Which is the point.

Neither is consuming chemically refined 'vegetable' oils with the commercial choice of naming being ostensibly to conjure up a healthy choice and which flooded the market in the 1970's . No matter what cherry picked studies state, we all know how fraudulent studies can be, dependant on the funders required outcome. ALA derived from saturated fat is the healthy choice for the body not LA , and not unstable, free radical forming polyunsaturated oils . For which the original market was purely industrial machinery. Shall we here mention the fraudulent 7 countries study conducted by Ancel Keys which has led to the ridiculous Cholesterol hypothesis and promoted low fat diets making today the majority of populations obese and unhealthy once adopted. Omega 3 and 6 should be in balance with respected professionals stating a balance of 1:1 being ideal. Unfortunately 'vegetable' oils and over consumption of grains has led to a ratio of 1:20 in many

Personally speaking and that's all I was doing, I find looking at the Glycemic Index if, as in this instance I was wishing to make bread from a flour which I do, I chose almond flour having a rating of 1 on the index therefore hoping to not create a sugar spike. I could have chosen Gram flour being almost as low. The index gives people an informed choice and is useful for those interested in making choices which is why I mentioned.

It is obvious that an overall quality, healthy diet should be the focus unless someone has a particular health issue such as autoimmune, diabetes, PA , disregulated microbiome etc and may therefore need to focus on including and omitting certain foods by going down that rabbit hole. Government advice - the food plate / the food pyramid founded on fraudulent information 40 yrs ago and which is still going strong because of vested, reputational and financial interest cannot be relied upon

And finally the Public Health Collaboration should be held in high esteem . A collective of British health professionals and globally renowned scientists who are trying to make changes within the health care of British people from prescription pushers and corporate Government lobbyists

It seems technoid that you still believe in the Cholesterol hypothesis despite all the evidence, the retraction of by Ancel Keyes himself in his later years and even the FDA announcing , was it 2years ago, that cholesterol was not a major issue. But good to see your links that I will evaluate

[Technoid in reply to LynneG]

"Well, that's told me Technoid - thank you."

You're welcome.

Its not a terminology confusion though. You made the false claim that alcohol is "converted back to sugar". You went on to describe supposed metabolic problems from intake of refined carbohydrates and the supposed importance of the gylcemic index. But your whole chain of logic here depends on the idea that alcohol is a carbohydrate and is metabolized like carbohydrates. But alcohol is not a carbohydrate is not metabolized like one.

You ignored the fact that I pointed out that saturated fat, when consumed in excess, is more damaging to the liver than unsaturated fat or simple sugars. Sugar is not the demon you want it to be in order to fit your worldview.

Alcohol has many negative effects on health, especially when consumed in excess and there is emerging evidence that even moderate amounts of regular alcohol are not entirely without risk of harm. But none of those risks have anything to do with carbohydrates or blood sugar.

You just want to tie it back to carbohydrates and insulin because you're seeing everything through the myopic lens of insulin resistance. You're just shoehorning things you don't understand into a cause which is the familiar obsession of the low carb community.

You can learn more about the impact of sugar in the absence of a caloria surplus in this episode from Sigma Nutrition: sigmanutrition.com/episode468/

You then move the goalposts backwards to claim that your "real point" is that "consuming alcohol is not health conducing especially if have a diagnosis of fatty liver and pre diabetes."

Let me remind you again, your argument was that alcohol is "converted to sugar" (its not) and that this is the reason why alcohol intake should be of concern to someone with fatty liver disease (its not).

Alcohol is literally a toxin which makes heavy demands on the liver and other organs to process it and allow it to be safely eliminated. The first step of alcohol metabolism produces acetaldehyde, a highly reactive and toxic compound.

"High concentrations of acetaldehyde in the brain and other tissues are responsible for many of the damaging effects of excessive alcohol intake"

from "Understanding Nutrition" (2024) ; Whitney, Rolfe

To explain in full how alcohol contributes to fatty liver disease:

"The reactions from alcohol to acetaldehyde to acetate produce hydrogens and electrons. The B vitamin Niacin, in its role as a coenzyme, picks up these hydrogens and electrons and escorts them to the electron transport chain.

During alcohol metabolism, the multitude of other metabolic processes for which the Niacin coenzyme is required, including glycolysis, the TCA Cycle, and the electron transport chain, falter."

"The accumulation of coenzymes with their hydrogens and electrons slows the TCA cycle, so pyruvate and acetyl CoA build up. Excess acetyl CoA then takes the pathway to fatty acid synthesis and fat clogs the liver."

also from "Understanding Nutrition" (2024) ; Whitney, Rolfe

[Technoid in reply to Technoid]

The basic statement that alcohol intake is not conducive to health in cases of fatty liver or pre-diabetes is certainly inarguable, perhaps even obvious.

But you are attempting to obfuscate the fact that the entire logic of your argument that alcohol is harmful to the liver has been invalidated because it rested on the false premise that alcohol is "converted to sugar". Every point you made that followed, about glycemic index, insulin (which you don't understand the function of ) and the liver getting "overloaded dealing with so much sugar", made no sense because alcohol is not a carbohydrate, is not converted to sugar and does not lead to fatty liver disease by the mechanisms which you claimed.

The mechanisms by which alcohol contributes to fatty liver disease are explained above.

My larger point is : instead of trying to explain things which you don't understand, why not ask a question and someone (maybe me, maybe another forum member) might be able to help you understand it or clarify a misunderstanding. When you are not clear about something, it is no shame to admit : "I don't understand that mechanism or process, does anyone know how X works?".

Switching gears a bit, on the "Cholesterol Hypothesis", actually it's no longer considered a hypothesis - according to the 2019 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) Guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias:

"there is no longer an ‘LDL-C hypothesis’, but established facts that increased LDL-C values are causally related to ASCVD, and that lowering LDL particles and other ApoB-containing lipoproteins as much as possible reduces CV events."

from academic.oup.com/eurheartj/...

It's wild that you bring up Ancel Keys as if the science on cholesterol has stood still since the publication of the Seven Countries study decades ago and the formulation of the diet-heart hypothesis.

I suggest you review this page from RationalWiki on cholesterol denialism which has some excellent information : rationalwiki.org/wiki/Chole...

It is not necessary to "balance" Omega 3 and Omega-6 - if you are getting enough Omega-3 (especially long chain omega 3's like EPA/DHA), then there is no need to be in the least concerned about Omega-6 intake.

You state that "ALA derived from saturated fat is the healthy choice for the body not LA".

This is another example of where you simply have no grasp of the science. You can't derive an Omega-3 essential fatty acid (ALA) from a saturated fatty acid.

There are only two essential fatty acids, Linoleic Acid/LA (an Omega-6) and Alpha-Linoleic Acid/ALA (an Omega-3). BOTH are essential. I will repeat that. Linoleic Acid, an Omega-6 is an ESSENTIAL fatty acid. It MUST be part of the diet as it cannot be produced endogenously.

The best sources of Alpha-Linoleic Acid (the essential Omega-3 fatty acid) are plants or plant-derived and include flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, rapeseed/canola oil 😁 soyabean oil, soybeans and avocados.

You will notice that the dreaded seed oils which you fear so much are among the best sources of ALA, and according to you ALA is the "healthy choice for the body". Have you changed your mind and now want to recommend the consumption of seed oils? Or are you willing to admit that you're just hopelessly confused?

Provide a reference to your claim that Ancel Keys retracted the cholesterol hypothesis "in his later years". It makes no difference to the weight of evidence that currently exists for the cholesterol non-hypothesis which is now accepted as fact but it would be interesting to see you back that up.

Please also provide a reference to the "FDA announcing , was it 2years ago, that cholesterol was not a major issue". Make sure you understand the difference between dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol.

To save time you might also want to review a historical post on this forum from a poster who made strikingly similar arguments and had the same problems with basic understandings of nutrition science, lipidology and the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. In fact, your argumentation so similar that I wouldn't be surprised if you are the same person 🙃

See: healthunlocked.com/pasoc/po...

[LynneG in reply to Technoid]

Thanks Technoid for the explanation of how alcohol metabolism works and I will happily admit that I was wrong. We all need to do so, we do not learn if always right.

It does seem though from your explanation that metabolism of alcohol in the end clogs up the liver with fat. Which obviously is not desireable, however we get there.

NAFL is I had always believed caused by the consumption of excess refined carbohydrates. And with the limitation of the liver to store an inexhaustable amount of glucose , converts the excess not used for energy production to saturated fat to store within the body usually around organs and middle area. Hence if have a diagnosis of fatty liver or pre diabetes/ diabetes or wish to prevent such, it is better to lower or even not consume refined carbohydrates. Insulin is known as the fat storage hormone and as far as I had learned from listening to doctor conference presentations and reading their and many others books. But it cannot be denied that countless cases of Type 11 diabetes have been reversed by not eating refined carbohydrates and thus not needing to stimulate insulin production Would you say that is correct?

With reference to cholesterol. Cholesterol is required for so many functions in the body including dealing with inflamation, repair, defence, making of hormones and on and on. It is obvious that cholesterol is so crucial or we wouldn't have evolved receptors for on most of our cells. You are testing me as I have no intention of getting some of many of my books out to quote information read. I am too busy and just posted to try and help someone. But I remember the basics which is , the older you become the need is far greater that cholesterol is higher. You have lived longer and the body has suffered more insults requiring a higher cholesterol, not lower as Pfizer and the pharmaceutical companies would have us believe. I would refer you to British Dr Malcolm Kendrick 's work of 30+ years to grasp the cause of heart disease. 'The Clot Thickens' He, Zoe Harcombe, and Dr Aseem Mahlotra have just won their libel court case when accused of the harm they caused by being Statin deniers. Dr Kendrick was an advisor on the European Board of Cardiology.

However I do apologise, the FDA statement was that there no longer needs to be any concern over consumption of dietary cholesterol. Which is obvious but always previously a mantra.

I did give advice on this post that eggs are an excellent food to eat if diagnosed with a liver condition due to the choline content of eggs which is required to help clear/clean the Liver. Would you agree with that view. I don't want to be wrong again - thanks

Oops forgot to say. No I was not the same person that you refer to as posting previously . I did check your link

[Collie007]

what has the doctor prescribed as a result of fatty liver (other than cutting down)? I haven’t been prescribed anything for mine.

[Chickens44 in reply to Collie007]

Nor me! It was years ago and no one mentioned it again. It is on my list of conditions.

[LynneG in reply to Collie007]

Eggs, contain a high amount of choline which cleans the liver (I believe) I have 2 duck or hens eggs for breakfast and cut out the refined carbs as much as you can. (wheat flour, corn flour products such as cereals, bread, pasta, also rice) Anything that will raise your blood sugar rapidly. I believe fruit , starchy veg such as potatoes will digest more slowly if eaten more with the soluble fibre peel left on and with fat such as butter as this slows digestion and therefore should not be a problem.

[scnuke]

NAFL (non-alcoholic fatty liver) is a known effect of PA/B12 deficiency. In many cases, it resolves itself after frequent B12 injections, in my case it was daily cyano. That was five years ago and now I am injecting 1mg, twice daily hydroxo. Liver has remained clear on U/S and CT and all functions are within normal limits.

[Technoid in reply to scnuke]

makes sense!

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

[Myoldcat in reply to scnuke]

Good news about your liver scnuke. May I ask roughly how long it took to resolve once you started daily injections?

[scnuke in reply to Myoldcat]

It's difficult to put an exact time on it. My physicians at the time only ordered the CT and U/S at two year intervals, so after two years no mention was made of the NAFL. That was about five years ago and all has been clear since then.

[Myoldcat in reply to scnuke]

Very pleased for you and hope mine will go the same way 🤞

[B12life]

If you are b12 deficient, tech kid is right, alcohol is not good as it inhibits b12 absorption.

Wizard is right about b6 helping with fatty liver and improving glucose tolerance

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

[Oneash]

I'm not medically trained, but what I recently understood from trawling the Internet is low B12 causes high homocysteine, that's an indicator of B12 deficiency (or a genetic issue too).

Homocysteine is created when a specific essential protein amino acid , methionine, does not break down the right way. It needs all 3 vitamins B12, B6 and folate to be metabolised properly in the liver.

High homocysteine promotes the creation of low density lipoprotein LDL cholesterol. This comes as non alcoholic fatty liver disease, the wrong sort of plaque in your arteries, and weight gain.

Fructose - fruit sugar gets metabolised into fat in the liver, where glucose goes to muscle and brain for energy. Table sugar, sucrose, breaks down to glucose and fructose. Alcohol is frequently made from fruit and metabolises back into fructose. (Think Bears eat lots of berries to get fat in the autumn.)

So make sure you are getting enough vitamin B6, along with B12 and folate. Keep the sugar, alcohol and even fruit, particularly dried fruit, thinking of Christmas, low.

Wheat germ, yeast extract, sesame seeds, salmon and walnuts are all good sources of B6.

I've been unable to stop eating walnuts I bought recently! I've literally ordered a B6 pill supplement today, as ever there are better ones out there absorbtion wise. You can get injection ampoules too, so if there's been no effect I might try them. I'm hoping it might help clear up my poor skin problems, that I were told were psoriasis, but might be a symptom of B6 deficiency.

I'm just guessing as I now have adequate B12 in the system, B6 is in demand for the healing process. Fingers crossed.

Anyone out there who thinks I'm barking up the wrong tree, please do say.