Posted on 02/24/2025 6:19:34 AM PST by Red Badger
Your brain might not be getting enough B12 — even if your levels are considered “normal.”
A new study suggests that older adults with lower B12, even within the accepted range, show signs of cognitive decline and brain damage. Researchers found that these individuals had slower thinking and reaction times, along with white matter lesions linked to dementia.
Normal B12 Levels Still Linked to Brain Deficiency
Getting the recommended amount of vitamin B12 is essential for making DNA, red blood cells, and nerve tissue. But new research suggests that meeting the minimum requirement may not be enough — especially for older adults. In fact, having lower B12 levels, even within the normal range, could increase the risk of cognitive impairment.
A study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that healthy older adults with lower B12 levels showed signs of neurological and cognitive decline. These individuals had more damage to the brain’s white matter — the nerve fibers that enable different parts of the brain to communicate — and performed worse on tests measuring cognitive and visual processing speeds compared to those with higher B12 levels.
The study was published in Annals of Neurology on February 10.
Rethinking B12 Guidelines for Brain Health
Senior study author Dr. Ari J. Green, from UCSF’s Departments of Neurology and Ophthalmology and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences, says the findings raise concerns about current B12 recommendations.
“Previous studies that defined healthy amounts of B12 may have missed subtle functional manifestations of high or low levels that can affect people without causing overt symptoms,” said Green, noting that clear deficiencies of the vitamin are commonly associated with a type of anemia. “Revisiting the definition of B12 deficiency to incorporate functional biomarkers could lead to earlier intervention and prevention of cognitive decline.”
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. They were recruited through the Brain Aging Network for Cognitive Health (BrANCH) study at UCSF.
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 generally slower brain conductivity.
Cognitive Decline Could Affect More People Than Expected
MRIs revealed a higher volume of lesions in the participants’ white matter, which may be associated with cognitive decline, dementia or stroke.
While the study volunteers were older adults, who may have a specific vulnerability to lower levels of B12, co-first author 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.” Beaudry-Richard is currently completing her doctorate in research and medicine at the UCSF Department of Neurology and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa.
Rethinking B12 Deficiency and Supplementation
“In addition to redefining B12 deficiency, clinicians should consider supplementation in older patients with neurological symptoms even if their levels are within normal limits,” she said. “Ultimately, we need to invest in more research about the underlying biology of B12 insufficiency, since it may be a preventable cause of cognitive decline.”
Reference:
“Vitamin B12 Levels Association with Functional and Structural Biomarkers of Central Nervous System Injury in Older Adults”
by Alexandra Beaudry-Richard, Ahmed Abdelhak, Rowan Saloner, Simone Sacco, Shivany C. Montes, Frederike C. Oertel, Christian Cordano, Nour Jabassini, Kirtana Ananth, Apraham Gomez, Azeen Keihani, Makenna Chapman, Sree Javvadi, Shikha Saha, Adam Staffaroni, Christopher Songster, Martin Warren, John W. Boscardin, Joel Kramer, Bruce Miller, Joshua W. Miller, Ralph Green and Ari J. Green, 10 February 2025,Annals of Neurology.
DOI: 10.1002/ana.27200
Authors: Co-first author is Ahmed Abdelhak, MD, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Neurology and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences. For a full list of authors, please see the study.
Funding and Disclosures: Westridge Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research. There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Can we trust getting an MD b12 injection anymore?
Will big pharma add mrna to simply b12 therapy?
I took a supplement that had high vitamin B12. It gave me heart rate issues. Too much is bad also.
That is why the globalists are pushing plant based food. Less B12, more control over the population.
Bird flu is a hoax just like the scamdemic as well.
Interesting article. Couldn’t find a supplement dosage recommendation in the article though. I am on a typical 50+ mens multivitamin and the B12 is like 1000% of RDA, so maybe not too bad?
Just start taking the super B complex from CVS. We take it everyday as part of our supplement protocol.
Just checked my vitamins and it’s 260% of RDA......
B12 only does the body good when injected
Turns your Pee bright yellow ,LOL
Wife and I each take a 5000 mcg supplement each day. You put it under your tongue and let it dissolve. Supposedly you get more B12 letting it absorb into your mouth's membranes. Stomach acid destroys most of it (I guess).
I have a stash of B12, take half a dose now and then, but the label says 1 pill is 200,000% of the MDR and I really don’t feel that needy.
"education"?
“I took a supplement that had high vitamin B12. It gave me heart rate issues. Too much is bad also.”
I take a 1000 mg tablet of B12 every day. I also take Zinc and Turmeric.
I think I need more zinc. My vitamin says it’s only 35% of RDV...
Correction, that’s DV not MDR.
Given the sources of B12 in food, the primary group vulnerable are the stupid (i.e., liberals).
Given my diet, there’s no risk whatsoever.
So, thanks for the health affirmation bump!
B12 is not bioavailable orally, that’s why any elevated doses are useless. Intravenous is a way to go with B12.
It appears that the author of the study did not consider that stomach acid destroys B-12, especially if the parietal cells in the fundus of the stomach that produce the acid don’t also produce “intrinsic factor.”
Thus, people who are taking proton pump inhibitors often are B-12 deficient as they influence the production of acid in the parietal cells.
Intrinsic factor attaches to the B-12 like an enteric coating that stops the stomach acid from destroying the B-12. When the chime from the stomach passes the bile ducts and enters the small intestine, the alkaline solutions from the liver, pancreas, and gall bladder neutralize the acid so the intrinsic factor can dissolve.
Thus if the chime stays acid in the small intestine, B-12 will not be absorbed.
The injections bypass the stomach and small intestine, thus they have been used for years to treat B-12 deficiency.
Problem is, there are medical problems that need to be addressed such as stomach cancer that causes the parietal cells to malfunction, causing the B-12 deficiency.
It is better to find the root cause and treat it, rather than just treat the deficiency.
I think that the B-12 deficiency is the leading cause of depression in the elderly.
People who have intestinal bypass also must address vitamin deficiencies due to lack of absorption.
The G-cells or gastrin cells in the lining of the stomach indirectly cause the stomach to produce acid. I say indirect as the G-cells cause a histamine increase in the bloodstream (they function like a hormone) that stimulates the parietal cells to produce acid and intrinsic factor.
Sorry for typo.. AI changed chyme to chime...
I was taking 25mcg which is 1042% of recommended daily amount. I also take zinc. I didn’t stop the zinc but when I stopped the high B supplement the heart rate issue went away in 24 hrs.
I did have a heart attack so I may have been particularly vulnerable to excess B.
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