Vitamin B for Alzheimer’s and dementia delay and protection, new research study

Vitamin B for Alzheimer’s and dementia delay and protection, new research study Credits: Bloomberg

The results of the study about the effects of Vitamin B on Alzheimer’s and dementia surprised even the author of the study.

Vitamin B for Alzheimer’s and dementia delay was the subject of a latest research study that showed that Vitamin B is “the first and only disease-modifying treatment that’s worked.” A. David Smith, professor emeritus of pharmacology at Oxford University in England and senior author of the research study said that “we have proved the concept that you can modify the disease,” reported Bloomberg on May 20, 2013.

The new study about the effects of Vitamin B on Alzheimer’s and dementia was conducted by a team from the Oxford Project to investigate Memory and Ageing (Optima) and was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The results of the study about the effects of Vitamin B on Alzheimer’s and dementia surprised even the author of the study.

“A cheap regimen of vitamins in use for decades is seen by scientists as a way to delay the start of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a goal that prescription drugs have failed to achieve.”

The study published today showed that vitamins B6 and B12 combined with folic acid slowed atrophy of gray matter in brain areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Brain shrinkage and thus the shrinkage of gray matter in the brain is responsible for mild cognitive impairment which often leads to dementia.

Half of the volunteers who participated in the research study on the effects of Vitamin B on Alzheimer’s and dementia took a daily tablet that contained levels of the B vitamins folate, B6 and B12 well above the recommended daily amount. The other half of the volunteers received a placebo.

All of the participants showed signs of mild memory lapses and language problems that are often seen as a precursor to dementia and Alzheimer’s and that were due to more than just normal ageing. “The average brain shrinks at a rate of 0.5% a year after the age of 60. The brains of those with mild cognitive impairment shrink twice as fast. Alzheimer’s patients have brain shrinkage of 2.5% a year.”

After participating in the study for two years, the rate at which the participants’ brains had shrunk was measured.

The Optima research team discovered that in those taking the vitamin supplements, brain shrinkage slowed by 30%. In some cases brain shrinkage slowed more than 50%.

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