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The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By Jenny Thompson on 10/04/2010
Ever feel like you're working with less brain power than you used to have?
Unfortunately, that's absolutely true. For most of us, anyway.
Typically, we start losing brain mass in early adulthood. And--wouldn't you know it?--much of that mass is lost in areas of the brain that support memory.
What's worse, shrinkage can be pushed along by several factors, including obesity, chronic stress, chronic back pain, depression, and heavy alcohol consumption.
Of course, this shrinkage sometimes causes cognitive impairment. But new evidence shows that a few of the right supplements at the right time can help slow your rate of shrinkage AND impairment.
Exciting news
For years I've been telling you about studies that observed a link between dementia and high blood levels of the amino acid homocysteine. And researchers have known for some time that certain B vitamins help metabolize and lower homocysteine levels.
Many of these studies also suggested that a good intake of B vitamins was not only linked to lower homocysteine, but also to a reduced risk of dementia. Other studies linked low B levels with high homocysteine and higher dementia risk.
In study after study, this probable cause and effect was clear. But there was no evidence.
Now we have evidence.
University of Oxford researchers divided more than 270 elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) into two groups. For two years, one group took placebos while the other group took daily supplements of folic acid (0.8 mg), vitamin B-12 (0.5 mg), and vitamin B-6 (20 mg).
Nearly 170 subjects agreed to have cranial MRI scans at the beginning and end of the study. This allowed the Oxford team to track brain atrophy. As they note in their study, accelerated brain atrophy is common in patients with MCI who later develop Alzheimer's.
Results: Brain atrophy progression was significantly slower in the B supplement group. Subjects with a greater rate of atrophy also had lower cognitive test scores than supplement subjects.
This is very exciting news for anyone experiencing MCI. You now have clinical evidence that taking additional B vitamins will help you keep your cognitive health intact.
Printer-friendly versionAbout the author
Jenny Thompson is the Director of the Health Sciences Institute and editor of the HSI e-Alert. Through HSI, she and her team uncover important health information and expose ridiculous health misinformation, most notably through the HSI e-Alert.
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Comments
Dr Dahler
As someone who works with the physical and spiritual contents of the brain, I would like to pass on the fact that homocystine levels in the blood is easily managed by eating foods (of which there are plebty!) that contain BETAINE.
The many tribes in my Foundation's energy, have large gardens of BEET plants, because the YOUNG, FRESH leaves of them are the best suppliers of betaine.
Homocystine is a metabolite of the amino acid methionine.
Homocystine cannot be converted to beneficial methionine if there is not enough betaine.
So if one has upon blood examination a high homocystine reading, they may need to consider a food source first before being prescribed a drug to control inflammtion and worry about heart disease. It may be something benign first to consider.
I would be highly worried for those ELDERLY patients having been subjected to MRI scans...that could cause a rise in homocystine! The magnetic blast to their brains is not kindly received by brain cells.
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