Vitamin B12 might help delay Alzheimer's disease, study states

BBC News Health indicates that increased levels of vitamin B12 within the body may help stave off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. A recent seven-year study of 271 subjects in Finland published within the medical journal Neurology found a relationship between vitamin B12 deficiency and increased likelihood of dementia. Study participants ranged in age from 65 to 79. Thorough screening for dementia had been performed before the study had been undertaken. Yet many experts at this early stage point out that vitamin B12 supplements shouldn’t be considered cure-all pills for dementia before additional tests can ascertain the veracity of the claim.

The vitamin B12-homocysteine connection

Vitamin B12 is most typically found in meat, fish and eggs, also as milk and fortified cereals. The body chemical homocysteine is linked to Alzheimer’s, based on scientists. It had been also discovered that B vitamins link. It isn’t good to have too much homocysteine. This is because it raises the risks of dementia and strokes. Alzheimer’s illness is linked with brain shrinkage which won’t take place as quickly by getting more vitamin B12 in the blood which will lower homocysteine levels

Throughout the study, Alzheimer’s had been developed by some

After just seven years, 17 of the 271 study respondents had Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that vitamin B12 deficiency and increased homocysteine levels were common elements among those afflicted, when those with the highest levels of B12 tended to be healthier mentally. BBC spoke with professor Helga Refsum of the University of Oslo. She said that although the Alzheimer’s sample was “relatively small, (this study) ought to act as another incentive to start a large scale trial with homocysteine-lowering therapy using B vitamins.”

STEP it up

To keep away from Alzheimer’s ailment, you have to exercise, have balanced diet and keep cholesterol and blood pressure at the right levels, based on Alzheimer’s Research Trust CEO Rebecca Wood. Vitamin B12 could help also. We’ll discover this after more trials though. In the meantime, scientists may want to try human trials with treatments that lower a protein called “STEP” that induces Alzheimer’s disease-like conditions in mice. It is currently unknown whether such treatments would be viable on human beings.

Citations

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/health-11569602