Brain Takes Multiple Hits from Low B12 Levels

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/GeneralNeurology/28740?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=join-the-conversation-B12&utm_source=WC&userid=322971&email=im1dc@chartertn.net&eun=g322971d0r

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: September 26, 2011
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and
Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

Low levels of vitamin B12 may contribute to cognitive problems for older adults in more than one way, according to a cross-sectional study.

Markers of B12 insufficiency all predicted lower global cognitive scores over nearly five years of follow-up, Christine C. Tangney, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues found.

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"Insufficient vitamin B12 is very common in older people," she explained. "The older we get we have a decreased ability to absorb vitamin B12 from our diet. ... Medications can also impair absorption."

But middle age adults may be another important population for screening and possible supplementation, Morris suggested.

Although her group's observational study couldn't say whether boosting B12 would prevent or reverse cognitive effects, a prior randomized trial demonstrated that high-dose B complex supplements could slow down brain atrophy in older adults.

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After adjustment for age, sex, education, race, and serum creatinine levels to control for renal function problems that could have an impact on homocysteine, all of the B12-related markers affected global cognitive scores.

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Although clinical screening typically relies on serum B12, Morris warned that this may not give a full picture of whether the effects of insufficiency are accumulating.

"You might be in the normal range, say in the low normal range, of vitamin B12 in your blood but still have evidence of insufficient vitamin B12 based on these biomarkers," she told MedPage Today.

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tags: dementia, Alzheimer's

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