B-12 and Brain Function

A rather interesting article about how brain function is related to vitamin intake caught my eye the other day and I thought I might share it with the rest of you.

Specifically the article concerns the the effect vitamins B-6, B-12 and folate have on homocysteine levels and in turn how that affects brain size and in turn function. The authors explained that high concentrations of homocysteine are related to vascular endothelial cell death which has been shown to lead to stroke and a general reduction in grey matter volume in the brain. The results of the experiment showed that increased levels of B-6 and B-12 led to greater brain size compared to normal patients, with patients taking over the daily dose benefiting even more and no benefit being gleaned from the folate intake in relation to brain size. The B vitamins did not effect the brain globally, but rather in compartments unique to each vitamin that were spread throughout the brain, so a mix of both vitamins was deemed the most useful. Patients who had this increased grey matter volume showed increased cognitive abilities compared to those without a sufficient intake of the vitamins.

The experiment was conducted by taking 32 community dwelling individuals between the ages of 59 and 79. The researchers measured grey matter volume using MRI's, recorded tissue atrophy using voxel based morphometry (which analyzes the ratios of grey matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid), and found B vitamin intake using food journals and comparing the results of the three tests to determine their relationship.

In short, take your vitamins, they will keep your brain from shrinking.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006899308000218