From ALAN THURLEY
Your readers may need to know that the drug Salazapyrin/Sufasalazine
is actively antagonistic to folic acid. This drug is frequently prescribed
for bowel disorders such as colitis and Crohn’s disease. My experience in
the early 1980s was that no warning is given by the GP, resulting in gradually
increasing stress and irritability over a period of weeks, leading to twitching,
irrationality and weakness. The cure was simple: high concentration B vitamins
twice daily.
I have no doubt at all that there are other drugs which affect folic
acid levels in the body. I have little confidence that the medical profession
will see fit to inform its patients of this fact. The only sensible course
of action must be for those patients taking drugs also to take a multi-vitamin
supplement each day, as a prophylactic.
Alan Thurley Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
