Vitamin B12 might battle Alzheimer's, says study

BBC News Health accounts that vitamin B12 may help slow the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. A seven-year study of 271 Finnish subjects ranging in age from 65 to 79 found the possible connect of B12 deficiency and increased chances of dementia, states the journal Neurology. None of those surveyed had dementia at the time the study commenced. They did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. Yet many experts at this early stage point out that vitamin B12 health supplements shouldn’t be considered cure-all pills for dementia before additional tests can ascertain the veracity of the claim.

You can obtain the B12-homocysteine vitamin too

Fortified cereals have Vitamin B12 in it which is also found in most meat, fish, eggs and milk. Scientists have found that Alzheimer’s is linked to B vitamins and the body chemical homocysteine. Presence of homocysteine is believed to raise the risk of strokes and dementia. Increasing the amount of vitamin B12 within the blood is known to lower homocysteine levels and slow brain shrinkage, a condition associated with Alzheimer’s illness

Prior to the study had been over, numerous got Alzheimer’s

17 of the 271 study correspondents got Alzheimer’s disease. This had been after just seven years of the study. Levels of homocysteine were much higher when there was a deficiency of B12 vitamins. There was a much better mental health among those who had more B12 vitamins. Professor Helga Refsum of the University of Oslo told the BBC that when the Alzheimer’s sample had been “relatively small, (this study) should act as another incentive to start a large scale trial with homocysteine-lowering therapy using B vitamins.”

STEP up

We got some advice as to stay away from Alzheimer’s from Alzheimer’s Research Trust CEO Rebecca Wood. She says the best things to do are have a balanced diet, exercise and keep your blood pressure and cholesterol low. Vitamin B12 might be proven effective via future trials, however. In the meantime, scientists might want to try human trials with treatments that lower a protein called “STEP” that induces Alzheimer’s disease-like conditions in mice. There aren’t any facts on the reactions of humans. Nobody knows what will happen.

Articles cited

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/health-11569602