Researchers from the Netherlands have studied the effects of vitamin B12 and folic acid (vitamin B9) supplementation in seniors with high homocysteine levels (a substance believed to be a risk factor for the disease of Alzheimer’s). After two years of supplementation, Dr. Dr. Rosalie Dhonukshe-Rutten of Wageningen University (Netherlands) and her team have just published the conclusions of their study in the professional journal Neurology. And these conclusions are disappointing: supplementation with B vitamins does not reduce the risk of suffering from a form of dementia.
44 million people suffer from dementia
Dementia cases have increased by 22% over the past three years and 44 million people worldwide suffer from a significant loss of cognitive abilities. Behind this term dementia hides a range of diseases associated with reduced memory and a reduced ability to perform various daily activities. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for about 70-80% of dementia cases.
Also researchers are constantly finding what could slow down, or even prevent, the onset of the disease. Knowing that vitamins B9 and B12 decrease homocysteine levels, they studied the effects of supplementation on a group of 3,000 people, aged 74 on average. The latter took daily 400 micrograms of folic acid and 500 micrograms of vitamin B12 for some, placebo tablets for others. At the end of the two years of supplementation, the group that took the vitamins did not seem to be more protected against the various forms of dementia than the other group. Admittedly, the homocysteine level fell in seniors on supplementation, but their memory test results were the same.
