Okay, I’m guilty as charged. I’m very attracted to studies that show naturally occurring and readily available (read inexpensive) nutrients can help people avoid any illness, particularly dementia. I find one such study, now in the news, very exciting.

According to an article titled, Vitamin B Tablets Help Prevent Dementia And Alzheimer’s Disease, which was recently published on the Medicalnewstoday.com site, Vitamin B complex may help our aging population retain memory function longer.

Researchers from Oxford University, England, in an article published in Plos One (Public Library of Science One, a peer reviewed medical journal) have found that, ” Elderly individuals with mild cognitive impairment who take huge doses of B vitamins everyday may reduce the rate at which their brains shrink by 50%, resulting in a much slower progression toward dementia, and eventually Alzheimer’s disease.”

Mild cognitive impairment affects approximately 16 percent of the population over 70 years old. People with MCI can function normally in day to day activities, however they may have trouble recalling people’s names or keeping up with a conversation. They may also have more problems than the average aging population remembering where they put things. For details on the study, click on the link above.

What excites me the most about these studies is that there is hope we can help people right now. I hear from legions of people who have some stage of dementia, or even just MCI, and they say that these drug studies “in the pipeline” are all well and good, but they want help now. I don’t blame them. I want to start working on preventable deterioration right now, as well! Why not?

In the article, Maybe It Isn’t Dementia, I discuss, among other concerns, the role of Vitamin B-12 in aging humans. Low B-12 levels have long been recognized as a cause for a type of anemia in elders. However, a large amount of research has resulted in many books and papers that strongly suggest that low levels of Vitamin B-12 may lead to falls, brain damage and other issues in elders.

This new Oxford study will be followed my others, to be sure. How many studies will be funded remains to be seen, as vitamins aren’t patentable, and drug companies fund many of the studies now being done. It would be a rare drug company, indeed, that funded a study on a substance they cannot patent. Therefore, in my view, researchers who can get funding for studies on vitamins and other naturally occurring substances are heroes. They are scratching for funding without big corporations for support.

Of this exciting study, David Smith, University Department of Pharmacology and Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, trial co-leader, said:”This is a very dramatic and striking result. It’s much more than we could have predicted…It is our hope that this simple and safe treatment will delay development of Alzheimer’s in many people who suffer from mild memory problems.”

One thing we need to know is that the levels of B vitamins used in the study are so high they are classified as drugs. Just popping a couple of extra B vitamins may not halt MCI, and some doctors caution against overuse of vitamins. However, talking with your doctor, or a holistic doctor (a doctor who generally includes non-traditional elements in treatment along with the type of treatments we’d expect from our general doctor), may be worth your time.

Also, any type of doctor you see should be told if you are taking large amounts of any substance, including vitamins or over-the-counter drugs, as you may have a specific condition that could make high doses of any vitamin dangerous.

I will be watching this information. The B vitamin supplements are here to stay. They are reasonably cheap, and could be accessible to most people, should these studies prove right. To me, that is exceptionally good news.

Posted in Dementia, Diet, Studies | 2 Comments »
Tags: Dementia, medical studies