Homocysteine is an amino acid that is in the blood. High levels of homocysteine are associated with brain shrinkage (atrophy), cognitive impairment and dementia. B vitamins have been shown to lower homocysteine.
To see what effect B vitamins could have on brain health, researchers at Oxford conducted a 2-year trial among 168 participants, where they gave half of the group a placebo and the other half a pill containing a megadose of B vitamins. The brains of the group who took the vitamin shrank by only 0.76 percent per year, compared to the brains placebo group, which shrank at a rate of 1.08 percent a year. That is 53% less shrinkage.
The subjects with the least shrinkage performed better on cognitive tests. The people who had the most dramatic slowing of atrophy were the ones who had the highest levels of homocysteine at the beginning of the study.
While it is easy to get excited and be tempted to take these results to a bigger conclusion, such as the potential role of B vitamins in preventing or delaying Alzheimer's disease, I don't think we can go there just yet. Certainly, it is not advisable to start taking huge doses of B vitamins on your own without your doctor's approval. The researchers themselves say that they are not quite sure which B vitamin is the most important.
However, this is certainly an important finding, made even more exciting by the fact that the "treatment" is a supplement that is safe and inexpensive.
Read the full-text original article: Homosysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Once i had read the story about the fire fighter who had serious injury in his head.After taking the treatment he was conscious but unresponsive of talking.His heart beat also blood pumped but his brain was.?Neuro specialist doctor gave the treatment as for Parkinson`s disease such as B12 and folic acid.The medical team waited and kept moving on patient.One morning his both legs shaking violently.His nurse checked closed to him and listen he was asking his beloved wife.No one had ever heard him say anything, his first words in nearly ten years.He remembered all his family member`s name with good memory.Vitamin B12 is one of the essential vitamin for neuro and memory.
The B vitamin cocktail has already been tested as a treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer disease over 18 months, and it failed.
Sorry.
-Steve
Reference: Aisen, P.S., et al. High-dose B vitamin supplementation and cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300 (2008): 1,774-1,783.