What is a medical food?

I’m having issues with my superficial peroneal nerve. My doctor referred me to a neurologist but on the way out he also said a drug called EB-N6 could help….the notes of the visit did not include this referral, it’s not covered by insurance, and I can’t find much about it online. I also was contacts basically immediately afterwards about it by the company. The website that sells it deems it a “medical food.” My hunch seems like this isn’t very sciencey or evidenced based-y…please feel free to delete the link before approving the post if so.

For my and everyone else’s benefit though, what is the take on “medical foods” and their effectiveness?

https://ebmmedical.com/

Welcome to the forum, Michael. Thanks for the post!

Dietary supplements can be sold as “medical foods”, which are foods to be consumed under a doctor’s supervision for a specific medical condition. To the crux of your question, medical foods are not subject to additional regulations, research on efficacy or safety, or monitoring like medications are.

Tl;dr- It’s a supplement.

This particular supplement contains calcium, vitamins b12, b1, and b6, and alpha lipoic acid.

Alpha lipoic acid has been used as an adjunct treatment for diabetic neuropathy for some time now, though there is little supporting evidence for its use.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency can cause neuropathy, as it plays a role in the initiation of nerve impulse propagation. It’s mostly a consideration for children with neuropathy due to dietary deficiency.

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) deficiency is also rare, and may produce a walking issue consistent with some forms of neuropathy. When it does occur, it’s typically in adolescents and causes issues with the skin, tongue, and later, may produce seizures. Related to neuropathy, there may be an issue with nerve fiber density.

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency can occur in both children and adults and produce neuropathy, i.e. issues with loss of reflexes, vibration and positional sense, and so on in addition to other systemic signs.

It seems like your doc may be concerned for neuropathy due to vitamin deficiency, which is reasonable amongst an extensive differential diagnosis. Whether you would benefit from this specific medical food during the workup of your symptoms is not something I’m prepared to comment on at this time.

-Jordan

Thanks Jordan - it wasn’t mentioned any form of possibly deficiency: the charts for my blood work don’t seem to indicate that but appreciate the additional context.

Mike

Copy that. I try to be charitable to health care providers, as lots can get lost in translation. Still, not sure this particular medical food is a great idea.