Vitamin B15 ???

[Rachel]

Does anyone out there know anything about Vitamin B15 and the effect it has on your body's ability to absorb oxygen? I've heard a vague rumour that it may be beneficial for divers, could this be true....?

 

[BillP]

Hi Rachel:

Vitamin B 15 (pangamic acid) can potentially be extremely beneficial to a diver! If you can manage to sell enough of it to gullible people with money to spare who are in the habit of falling for false claims of trumped up health benefits from pseudoscientific products you can make a killing and finance several exotic dive trips per year.

By definition a "vitamin" is an organic substance (other than proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and organic salts) which is essential for normal metabolism, growth, and development of the body. Vitamins are not a source of energy, but they often help energy reactions and are indispensible for normal function. They principally act as regulators of metabolic processes playing a role in energy transformations, usually acting as "coenzymes" (reaction helpers) for enzymatic reactions. Deficiency of a vitamin leads to disease.

Pangamic acid does not meet this definition of a vitamin. It not been shown to have a vitamin-like function. Anyone who tries to sell you pangamic acid as "vitamin" B-15 has already tried to mislead you so I would take anything else they say about the product (or anything else they're selling for that matter) as suspect. Pangamic acid does seem to have an effect on oxygen use in the petri dish, but this finding has not translated into any performance enhancement in humans. Also, commercial formulations of "vitamin B-15" often contain chemicals which have been found to be mutagenic (possibly cancer causing) in the petri dish.

If you want to enrich yourself by selling this product, or finance someone else's dive vacation by buying it from them, that's OK with me, but I seriously doubt that it will improve diving any other way.

HTH,

Bill

I found some links for you. Try:

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Article 4

and

Article 5

Hope they work!

 

[Rachel]

Many thanks for the very informative reply, Bill, and the links. I just heard about pangamic acid in passing and idly wondered if it would be of any benefit to a diver, there are no plans to sell it as a wonder drug. I'm a smoker and have noticed the effect it has on my air consumption so am interested in anything that may help. I guess the only thing for it is to give up the evil weed

Thanks again for the info.

Rachel

 

[regman]

hi rachel, the idea of giving up the nico-demon is the best way to improve your diving. being a recent quitter (Jan 1, 2001), i've noticed increased bottom time and ease in breathing resulting in a so much more pleasant dive experience. good luck to you.

 

[BillP]

Glad to help, Rachel. Yup, I'm afraid you're right. Your problem definitely falls into the "Doc, it hurts when I go like this" category. ("Don't go like that.") There are plenty of quacks and charlatans out there willing to prey on the desperate and sell products that promise to negate the bad effects of smoking (and allow you to continue to smoke). But believe me, if there really was something that worked you would hear more than a rumor about it. A healthy dose of skepticism comes in handy when you hear marketing hype about miracle pills. You were smart to check it out.

Good luck with quitting smoking.

Bill