Posted on 02/21/2025 9:50:39 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Meeting the minimum requirement for vitamin B12, needed to make DNA, red blood cells and nerve tissue, may not actually be enough—particularly if you are older. It may even put you at risk for cognitive impairment.
A new study found that older, healthy volunteers, with lower concentrations of B12, but still in the normal range, showed signs of neurological and cognitive deficiency.
These levels were associated with more damage to the brain's white matter—the nerve fibers that enable communication between areas of the brain—and test scores associated with slower cognitive and visual processing speeds, compared to those with higher B12.
Lower B12 correlates with slower processing speeds, brain lesions In the study, researchers enrolled 231 healthy participants without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, whose average age was 71.
Their blood B12 amounts averaged 414.8 pmol/L, well above the U.S. minimum of 148 pmol/L. Adjusted for factors like age, sex, education and cardiovascular risks, researchers looked at the biologically active component of B12, which provides a more accurate measure of the amount of the vitamin that the body can utilize.
In cognitive testing, participants with lower active B12 were found to have slower processing speed, relating to subtle cognitive decline. Its impact was amplified by older age. They also showed significant delays responding to visual stimuli, indicating slower visual processing speeds and slower brain conductivity.
MRIs revealed a higher volume of lesions in the participants' white matter, which may be associated with cognitive decline, dementia or stroke.
Alexandra Beaudry-Richard, MSc, said that these lower levels could "impact cognition to a greater extent than what we previously thought, and may affect a much larger proportion of the population than we realize."
"Clinicians should consider supplementation in older patients with neurological symptoms even if their levels are within normal limits," she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Being in the upper end of the Normal range is best.
Your brain’s white matter acquires more damage when not getting enough B12.
What is causing the white brain cell damage?
Banging one’s head against a wall should sufice.
Oxidative damage is part of it.
In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled 'Healthy' vitamin B12 levels not enough to ward off neuro decline: Experts call for new recommendations for older adults, jonrick46 wrote: What is causing the white brain cell damage?
Kamala Harris.
I can see listening to too much Kamala Harris word salad being damaging to brain cells.
Taht wloud casue hte bairn ot wrok hadrer
See what I did there? Cambridge study found that it doesn’t matter how words are spelled, the brain can work and figure it out in most cases, but ti takes more work, execercising the brain in th process. So I order all my books with spelling errors only 😆
Alcohol abuse lowers b12 absorption, so Kamala is a prime candidate
RDA requirements are grossly low, they are absolute minimums but those minimums are too low to begin with. The food we eat now is severely deficient in nutrients.
There is a really good article on this on the Mayo clinic website that goes into detail about the various problems with b12 and how often doctors get it wrong and why testing for it is problematic. I think the many faces of cobalamin is part of the title
B12 is also crucial for red blood cell production.
Sharp thoughts...
you want to ward off cognitive decline? don’t take statins, keep your blood sugar balanced without resorting to meds...
Given what I see in modern publishing and journalism, we should all be Einsteins by now.
I take 500mcg daily - is that enough?
Try the sublingual version too- might be absorbed better.
We take a super B complex vitamin from CVS everyday as part of our regimen. Its mostly B12 with some B6 and a bunch of other trace minerals.
Volume 3, Issue 2P200-214
June 2019
The Many Faces of Cobalamin (Vitamin B12) Deficiency
Autors:
Bruce H.R. Wolffenbuttel, MD, PhD
Hanneke J.C.M. Wouters, BSc
M. Rebecca Heiner-Fokkema, PhD
Melanie M. van der Klauw, MD, PhD
That is it. I found it very informative.
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