While finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease remains an elusive goal for scientists, at least some progress is being made in figuring out ways to prevent it — and here’s a promising new installment on that quest. It’s a recent study that connects some important dots in the search for how and why Alzheimer’s disease develops and offers a practical and easy strategy that apparently helps slow cognitive decline.

Sixteen percent of people over age 70 suffer from mild cognitive impairment, and half of them go on to develop Alzheimer’s. Now this new research demonstrates that daily vitamin B supplements may be helpful in slowing the process, warding off the encroaching confusion and memory loss that presage development of Alzheimer’s disease in aging individuals.

Why B Vitamins Are Crucial

Earlier research had shown that vitamin B deficiency is a very common problem, especially in the elderly, and it’s also known that a B vitamin deficiency (specifically B-6, B-12 and folate) is associated with elevated levels of homocysteine (an amino acid associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease when blood levels are too high). This can lead to inflammation and fibrin development in the linings of the arteries that feed the brain, which in turn leads to degenerative changes, including memory loss and poor concentration. (Potential causes of high homocysteine levels include low levels of thyroid hormone, kidney disease, psoriasis, some medications and certain genetic factors.)

The question was, would supplementing with B vitamins reduce homocysteine levels and help protect against — or at least slow down — cognitive decline?

The study: At the University of Oxford in the UK, investigators examined the impact of vitamin B supplements on 168 individuals over age 70 who were experiencing mild cognitive impairment. In a randomized, double-blind controlled trial, 85 participants took a daily B vitamin combo (folic acid, B-12 and B-6) and 83 were given a placebo. All underwent MRI scans of the brain at the start of the study and again after two years. Researchers found that brain atrophy was 53% lower in people who took B vitamins as compared with those who took a placebo. Brain atrophy is when the brain shrinks and becomes progressively more dysfunctional, which correlates with worse cognitive scores and greater cognitive impairment.

This research was published in the September 2010 issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

Vitamin B Strategy

I called Daily Health News contributing medical editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, to get his take on these intriguing findings. Dr. Rubman explained that high stress and poor diet — both common here in the US — are known to deplete the body of B vitamins, with the result being that nearly all adults could benefit from supplementation. In addition to protecting cognitive health, B vitamins are important for a number of reasons — they have an effect on mood, energy, digestion and the health of skin, hair and nails. Dr. Rubman explained that older folks tend to be the most deficient because they often take multiple medications. The body uses B vitamins to process these lmedications in the liver with the aid of vitamin B, further depleting supplies. In these seniors, a simple, hefe strategy targeting homocysteine with B vitamins may slow the rate of brain atrophy and cognitive impairment.

In his practice, Dr. Rubman frequently prescribes B vitamins for older adults. He told me that a typical prescription would be one 25-milligram (mg) multi-B two to three times daily (this contains a broad range of the community of B vitamins, many of which are provided at 25 mg per dose) along with one 5-mg sublingual B-12 tablet once a day. B vitamins are quite safe. It is best to take these in several doses throughout the day because most B vitamins are water-soluble and don’t remain in the body longer than 15 hours or so.