Vitamin 12 boasts brain benefits

[Celebration]

http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080908/vitamin-b12-boasts-brain-benefits

The researchers collected blood samples to check the levels of vitamin B12, a nutrient found in meat, fish, and milk. Participants underwent yearly brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), memory testing, and physical exams.

None of the people in the study had a vitamin B12 deficiency.

When the researchers compared the results, they found that people who had higher vitamin B12 levels were six times less likely to experience brain shrinkage compared with those who had lower levels of the vitamin in their blood.

The researchers write that they were unable to investigate whether lower vitamin B12 could cause cognitive impairment by its effect on brain size.

"Many factors that affect brain health are thought to be out of our control, but this study suggests that simply adjusting our diets to get more vitamin B12 through eating meat, fish, fortified cereals, or milk may be something we can easily adjust to prevent brain shrinkage and so perhaps save our memory," says study author Anna Vogiatzoglou, MSc, with the University of Oxford.

[LeftishBrit]

1. That is interesting info!

[willing dwarf]

2. B-12 helpd with some anemia

And lack of oxegen getting to the brain can make you feel pretty dull witted.

B-12 is hard to absorb though if you need it and get a shot of it, it makes you feel great, like a thirsty impatiens plant that's given water!

[greenman3610]

3. vegans take note

I'm all about eating lower on the food chain, but
this is why still do the occasional fish or egg.

supplements a good idea, too.

[AllieB]

4. It's better to try and get the vitamins from the foods you eat.

Especially B-12. Here's an interesting article from the Independent:

Meat, fish and milk 'protect against memory loss'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2705148/Meat-fish-and-milk-protect-against-memory-loss.html

[AnnaLouise]

5. loyal opposition

Vegan B12 is Hydroxylcobalamin Nonvegetarian B12 is Cyanocobalamin

That hydroxylcobalamin is more efficient is indicated by its creation
of more blood cells per cubic centimeter. Vegan blood is more purplish
in color, according to several Red Cross nurses. www.pcrm.org

[AllieB]

6. PCRM has an agenda obviously.

It's funny that the minute someone posts something that may go against your chosen diet, you quote PCRM. PCRM has a pseudo-scientific agenda being camouflaged in the usually reputable garb of medical respectability.

I was a vegan, and vegetarian for many years. I wish I could still be one because I love animals. However, I would be very sick or dead if I continued to eat that way. You may be healthy, especially if you're still in your 20s or 30s. Everyone's bodies are different.

[Hannah Bell]

11. hydroxycobalamin isn't any more "vegetarian" than cyanocobalamin.

not sure why they're saying that.

[BuddhaGirl]

7. very interesting!

I have been using a topical B12 cream...I get the equivalent of 5000mcg of oral B12 with each application. Really gives me a boost! I think it's a great way to get B12, since absorption is so poor when taken orally.

[Celebration]

8. our acupuncturist

regularly gives B12 injections, B vitamin injections, and Vitamin C injections. He gives them bilaterally at acupuncture points. I wonder if they are better absorbed there.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Back in the 1960s, my great-grandmother's old family doctor

gave her B-12 shots regularly. He considered it a preventive against dementia.

I don't know whether it was coincidental or not, but she remained alert (although ornery) till the day she died.

[Hannah Bell]

10. except the reason it's a problem, esp. with the elderly, is absorption issues,

not generally lack of consumption.