Consumer Affair
High doses of B vitamins do not help Alzheimer's disease, but use them anyway!
By A reader
Oct 14, 2008 - 4:05:57 PM

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vita.min C lowers blo.od pres.sure

Taking B vitamin supplements like folate, B6 and B12 might not slow mental decline in people with Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the Oct. 15 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study found people who had had Alzheimer's disease and then took high doses of b vitamins did not improve their condition.   Paul S. Aisen coauthor of the study at University of California warned that people should not take high doses of B vitamins to slow mental decline.

What is the message? It seems to me it means that you should take only drugs to have that effect.   Then again, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that foods can treat disease (by definition, any drug that can be used to treat any disease needs approval by the FDA).   But we have to eat any way.

Likewise, no matter how b vitamins affect Alzheimer's diseases, people with or without the disease should by all means make sure they have adequate intake of these B vitamins which some early studies have found important to brain functions.  Vitamins, by definition, are something vital to our life. 

Do not count on vitamin supplements to reduce risk for Alzheimer’s disease though.   Instead watch the foods you eat.  The brain disease could have something to do with diet, according to a person whose mother died from some type of brain disease that the government does not want to talk about.