Vitamin Information Center

A KEY vitamin found in fish, meat and milk may protect the brain as it ages, according to a new study.

The study, of 107 people aged 61-87, found that vitamin B12 could help stop the brain shrinking and maybe prevent memory loss in older people and dementia.

The study showed that those with lower vitamin B12 levels in their blood were six times more likely to experience brain shrinkage compared with those who had higher levels of the vitamin.

Researcher Anna Vogiatzoglou, from the department of physiology, anatomy and genetics at Oxford University, said: “Many factors that affect brain health are thought to be out of our control, but this study suggests that simply adjusting our diets to consume more vitamin B12 through eating meat, fish, fortified cereals or milk may be something we can easily adjust to prevent brain shrinkage and so perhaps save our memory.

“Research shows that vitamin B12 deficiency is a public health problem, especially among the elderly, so more vitamin B12 intake could help reverse this problem.”

The study looked at brain volume and loss was measured every year for five years. None of the people enrolled in the study were suffering memory loss at the start of the study and had sufficient vitamin B12.

The participants were given yearly physical examinations, MRI scans of their brains, tests to check their cognitive and memory skills, and blood tests to determine their levels of vitamin B12.

The results showed decrease in brain volume was greater among those with lower vitamin B12 levels.

Exclusive breastfeeding can increase a child’s risk of developing rickets because breast milk alone does not provide adequate levels of vitamin D, a critical ingredient that helps to absorb calcium and build strong bones, the New York Times reports. Rickets develops when a child’s vitamin D levels are too low and is characterized by the curving of a child’s legs and the softening of other bones. Some children are asymptomatic.

Darker-skinned children have a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency than other children because they do not absorb vitamin D as easily through the skin. Sunlight enables the skin to synthesize vitamin D.

Cases of nutritional rickets among infants and young children in the U.S. have been “accumulating over the last decade or so,” and children with the condition are more likely to be black or dark-skinned and have been breastfed exclusively for an extended period of time without vitamin supplementation, according to the Times. Some experts say that an increase in infants being exclusively breastfed, more children drinking soda or juice and less milk, and children spending less time in the sun could contribute to rickets re-emerging as a public health problem, the Times reports.

According to the Times, while physicians have known for years that exclusive breastfeeding is associated with vitamin D deficiency in infants and rickets, many are “reluctant to say anything that might discourage breastfeeding.” The American Academy of Pediatrics in 2003 recommended that infants who are exclusively breastfed receive vitamin D drops daily.

According to one study on rickets and vitamin D that included mostly black and Hispanic infants and toddlers, 40% of the participants had low levels of vitamin D, 12% were vitamin D deficient, 13 children showed evidence of bone loss and three children had signs of rickets. The study, published in the June issue Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, also found that breastfeeding without vitamin supplementation was a significant risk factor for rickets.

Study author Catherine Gordon, director of Children’s Hospital Boston’s bone health program, said, “I completely support breastfeeding, and I think breast milk is the perfect food, and the healthiest way to nourish an infant. However, we’re finding so many mothers are vitamin D deficient themselves that the milk is therefore deficient, so many babies can’t keep their levels up.” She added, “They may start their lives vitamin D deficient, and then all they’re getting is vitamin D deficient breast milk” (Rabin, New York Times, 8/26).