Alzheimer's disease: an easy way to prevent
Vitamin B can delay Alzheimer's disease
Copper news based on New Scientist: B vitamins may slow the advance of Alzheimer'sPeople who have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) can delay its onset by taking B vitamins daily.
These are the results of a study conducted by scientists at Oxford University, which showed that vitamins of this group more than seven times reduce the level of atrophy of the gray matter of the brain in those areas that are most vulnerable to this disease. The work was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Douaud et al., Preventing Alzheimer's disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment).
Earlier, the same authors proved that B vitamins help reduce the level of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood, which is one of the risk factors for AD, and also demonstrated that high doses of these vitamins slow down the decrease in brain volume by 53 percent in patients with elevated homocysteine levels.
This time, the authors tried to clarify whether taking B vitamins can slow down the progression of moderate cognitive impairment and its transformation into AD, and which areas of the brain will be better protected in this case. To do this, they tracked changes in the brain of 200 elderly volunteers who were diagnosed with moderate cognitive impairment for two years using magnetic resonance imaging. Half of them received high doses of vitamins B12, B6 and folic acid during this period – 300, 20 and 4 times higher than recommended in the UK, respectively. The rest of the study participants received a placebo.
As a result, it was proved that vitamin supplements have a significant positive effect on those regions of the brain that are particularly affected by AD, including the hippocampus, cerebellum and median temporal lobe, reducing the degree of their atrophy by more than seven times. In particular, this effect was manifested in those participants who initially had a high level of homocysteine in their blood plasma. In those of them who took vitamins, the level of gray matter atrophy was only 0.6 percent, and in those who received a placebo, this indicator was 5.2 percent.
As the authors noted, taking vitamins entailed not only a decrease in homocysteine levels, which, in turn, led to a decrease in gray matter atrophy, but also, as a consequence, to a slowdown in the loss of cognitive abilities – the participants of the "vitamin group" showed better results in various tests to assess their brain function.
"For the first time, we were able to visibly demonstrate the possibility of influencing the development of Alzheimer's disease," said one of the authors, David Smith, adding that he sees no reason why all elderly people who have memory problems should not take group B vitamins as a prevention of AD.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.05.2013