B vitamins could head off conversion from MCI to Alzheimer's
(due to poorer absorption)
(due to poorer absorption)
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Large doses of B-vitamins could slow the cognitive decline in older people that is the precursor to dementias such as Alzheimer's disease, according to a study.
Speaking at the British Science Festival in Bradford on Tuesday, Celeste de Jager, a neuropsychologist at Oxford University, said that taking vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid in medicinal quantities reduced the overall shrinkage of a person's brain by 30% over the course of the two-year study.
Her work, published recently in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, was carried out on 270 men and women over 70 who had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that affects one in six elderly people and which can interfere with memory, language and other mental functions. About half of the people with MCI go on to develop Alzheimer's within five years of the initial diagnosis.
Taking B vitamins and folic acid is known to control the levels of an amino acid called homocysteine in the blood. High levels of this chemical can damage blood vessels and are associated with increased risk of dementia.
"High homocysteine is a known risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly and Alzheimer's disease and also for other kinds of dementia like vascular dementia," said de Jager. "It can be damaging to the endothelial lining of the blood cells. It also binds to receptors in the brain that are on the neurons and it seems to contribute the atrophy that's associated with Alzheimer's.". Continue to read: guardian.co.uk
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