Alzheimer's and vitamin B12 link may occur, study displays

BBC News Health reports that vitamin B12 might help slow the onset of Alzheimer’s illness. 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. The age ranges of the study group correspond to ages of those at greatest risk for creating dementia. Mental tests and health screenings proved that none of the participants had dementia at the start of the study. At this stage, most experts are hesitant to advocate vitamin B12 health supplements as any kind of “miracle cure” for Alzheimer’s disease.

The vitamin B12-homocysteine link

In milk and cereal, it’s easy to find the B12 vitamin. It’s also found in meat, fish and eggs. B vitamins and the body chemical homocysteine are linked to Alzheimer’s for some time by scientists. Strokes and dementia are more likely to occur with more homocysteine. Increasing the amount of vitamin B12 in the blood is known to lower homocysteine levels and slow brain shrinkage, a condition associated with Alzheimer’s ailment

Before the review was over, numerous got Alzheimer’s

After just seven years, 17 of the 271 study respondents had Alzheimer’s disease. Amounts of homocysteine were much higher when there had been a deficiency of B12 vitamins. There had been a much better mental health among those who had more B12 vitamins. Professor Helga Refsum of the University of Oslo told the BBC that while 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.”

Try out STEP

We got some advice as to stay away from Alzheimer’s from Alzheimer’s Research Trust CEO Rebecca Wood. She claims the best things to do are have a balanced diet, exercise and keep your blood pressure and cholesterol low. Vitamin B12 could help also. We’ll discover this after more trials though. In the meantime, scientists may want to attempt human trials with treatments that lower a protein called “STEP” that induces Alzheimer’s disease-like conditions in mice. It is at the moment unknown whether such treatments would be viable on human beings.

Citations

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/health-11569602