Posted on 08/03/2025 4:19:02 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Eight essential nutrients make up the suite of B vitamins also known as the B complex. Research has revealed that these B vitamins influence a vast spectrum of human health and disease.
"It's hard to study the B vitamins in isolation," says gastroenterologist Joel Mason. "Four of these B-vitamins cooperate as co-factors in many critical activities in cells in what we call 'one carbon metabolism.'"
One of the most active areas for B vitamin research is cognitive health. By the age of 75–80, 40% of people have a diminished ability to absorb food-bound B12, says Mason. This deficiency leads to a decline in nerve health, particularly in the spine and brain, which can contribute to the risk of developing dementia in older adults.
Mason says, while many elderly people may have B12 levels that are in the "low to normal" range, they are simultaneously developing neurological deficits linked to vitamin B12 deficiency.
"The contribution of vitamin B12 deficiency to cognitive decline and the vascular disease that results in many cases of dementia is under-diagnosed and under-reported," says Irwin H. Rosenberg.
"Age-related cognitive decline is not just Alzheimer's," says Rosenberg.
Yet Rosenberg says cerebrovascular disease and small vessel disease, which in some cases are connected to B vitamin deficiency, is more prevalent with cognitive decline and dementia than Alzheimer's disease.
To pinpoint a B12 deficiency requires two additional tests. One, called the MMA test, measures levels of methymalonic acid, an acid produced during certain aspects of metabolism requiring adequate B12.
A second test measures levels of an amino acid, homocysteine, which is also a byproduct of metabolism requiring B12. If only homocysteine levels are elevated, a folate deficiency may be the problem. If both MMA and homocysteine are high, a B12 deficiency is the likely culprit.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
ugh, I just purchased a year’s worth. Oh well. Thank you!
I avoid the cyano form of cyanocobalimin.
(cyanide, baby)
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