Your brain needs vitamin B-12 protection

The Incredible Shrinking Brain‏
by: Al Sears, MD (Alsearsmd@alsearsmd.com)

I just came across a study that reveals a vitamin deficiency you need to know about...
The study, published in the prestigious journal Neurology, used M.R.I. scans to measure brain volume and blood tests to record vitamin B12 levels.1 They divided the subjects into three groups, based on their level of the vitamin, and followed them for five years with annual scans and physical and mental examinations.

The group with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 lost twice as much brain volume as those with the highest levels. The difference was significant, even after controlling for initial brain size, age, sex, education, cognitive test scores and various measures of blood chemistry.

This underscores a point I emphasized in my book, The Doctor’s Heart Cure.

Vitamin B12 is crucial to brain function and the overall health of your nervous system. It’s the engine behind your body’s ability to make blood. Every cell in your body uses it to convert fuel into energy. It’s also the key to DNA synthesis and regulation, and enables your body to produce life-giving fatty acids.*

If you don’t get sufficient amounts, you’re in for problems, including:
• Anemia
• Fatigue
• Poor nerve function
• Diarrhea
• Memory loss

While the author of the study didn’t go so far as to recommend you run out and get your B12 supplements, I suggest you do. It’s done wonders in my medical practice.

Some folks come to me with serious health concerns. With a few simple adjustments in diet and supplements focusing on B12, I’m usually able to make their concerns disappear—forever.

Here’s another thing about B12: it powerfully lowers levels of homocysteine, one of the key indicators for heart health.*
That’s because — at high enough levels — homocysteine provokes an inflammatory response across every system in your body, blood vessels included.

In the past, medicine has completely overlooked this key factor in heart health, focusing instead on cholesterol. That’s a real shame, because the fact is that homocysteine’s the real culprit. And its consequences are entirely preventable.

In fact, all folks really need to keep homocysteine levels in check is to get about 500 mcg of B12 per day.
Lean meats—particularly grass-fed beef—and organ meats are a great source of B12. Here’s a list of other good sources:

Food Amounts (mcg)
Mollusks, clams, cooked, 3 oz 84.1
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice 47.9
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 oz 5.4
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 oz 4.9
Beef, top sirloin, lean, choice, broiled, 3 oz 2.4
Haddock, cooked, 3 oz 1.2
Tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids, 3 oz 1.o
Milk, 1 cup 0.9

Bottom line: get your B12, not only to keep your brain in shape, but to keep homocysteine levels low and promote cardiovascular health.*
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1.Vogiatzoglou et al. “Vitamin B12 status and rate of brain volume loss in community-dwelling elderly.” Neurology. 2008. 71:826-832.

Bulk up that hippocampus!

In the e-Alert “Muscle Head” (8/12/08), I told you about a study in which older subjects who were physically fit were found to have greater volume of the hippocampus – the part of the brain where memory is stored. (The hippocampus is the primary area of the brain that deteriorates in Alzheimer’s patients.)

A study from the University of Oxford shows that vitamin B12 might also play a role in maintaining brain volume.
Researchers recruited more than 100 healthy subjects over the age of 60. B12 levels were checked with blood tests, and brain volume changes were tracked with one MRI per year for five years. Results showed that subjects with the highest B12 levels were six times more likely to avoid brain volume reduction compared to subjects with the lowest levels of the vitamin.

This study didn’t measure dementia levels, but a 2007 study (also from the University of Oxford) showed that risk of cognitive decline and dementia might be lowered by as much as 30 percent by increasing B12 levels.

B12 is most abundant in meat, fish, and eggs.

In previous e-Alerts, HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., has recommended 1,000 micrograms of B12 daily, taken in sublingual form (dissolved under the tongue).

Source:
“Vitamin B12 May Protect Against Brain Shrinkage” Stephen Daniells, NutraIngredients-USA, 9/9/08, nutraingredients-usa.com