Low Vitamin B12 and Cognitive Aging

Nisarg Joshi

B12, Uncategorized

VitaminB12

Do you ever get surprised when you see your colleagues and friends abruptly changing behavior once they cross 30s? Their cognitive responses to situations are much more disappointed when you compare them with same situations in their 20s. They take shortcuts. They do not accept challenges easily.

One of the prime reasons is declining ability to digest Vit B12. Low vitamin B-12 status is associated with more rapid cognitive decline.

As a well-wisher and being part of society, what should we do when we encounter rapid cognitive decline in our groups?

1) Inspire them to stop bad habits like smoking and drinking
2) Together, find out food grown organically using desi cow-dung and include it in regular diet [Research suggest that crops grown using cow-dung has more B12 content compare to crops grown using chemical farming]
3) Include ethically obtained desi gau ghee, butter milk and milk in diet


Research


Low vitamin B-12 status and risk of cognitive decline in older adults

Background: Elevated total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations have been associated with cognitive impairment, but it is unclear whether low vitamin B-12 or folate status is responsible for cognitive decline.

Objective: We examined the associations of cognitive decline with vitamin B-12 and folate status in a longitudinal cohort study performed from 1993 to 2003 in Oxford, United Kingdom.

Design: Cognitive function was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination on ≥3 occasions during 10 y and related to serum concentrations of vitamin B-12, holotranscobalamin (holoTC), tHcy, methylmalonic acid (MMA), and folate with the use of linear mixed models in 1648 participants who provided blood in 1995.

Results: Cognitive function declined abruptly at younger ages in some participants but remained intact in others until very old age. In multivariate regression analyses after adjustment for established risk factors, concentrations of holoTC (a marker of reduced vitamin B-12 status), tHcy, and MMA predicted cognitive decline, but folate did not. A doubling in holoTC concentrations (from 50 to 100 pmol/L) was associated with a 30% slower rate of cognitive decline (−0.137 to −0.083), whereas a doubling in tHcy (from 10 to 20 μmol/L) or MMA (from 0.25 to 0.50 μmol/L) was associated with >50% more rapid cognitive decline (−0.090 to −0.169) and (−0.104 to −0.169), respectively. After adjustment for all vitamin markers simultaneously, the associations of cognitive decline with holoTC and MMA remained significant.

Conclusions: Low vitamin B-12 status was associated with more rapid cognitive decline. Randomized trials are required to determine the relevance of vitamin B-12 supplementation for prevention of dementia.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/5/1384.abstract

5 thoughts on “Low Vitamin B12 and Cognitive Aging”

  1. Hey Marut,
    But can one get enough B12 from only milk,ghee,butter milk alone without taking any B12 supplements ? Have you ever got a B12 blood test done ?

    Reply
      • Oh , very interesting. A doc once told me that low -normal B12 even after adequate animal food is a sign of SIBO(assuming no pernicious aneamia , liver disease etc)which you have written somewhere I guess

        Reply

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