Vitamin B deficiency causes cognitive impairment

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American researchers have found a diet deficient in vitamin B can cause cognitive dysfunction and significantly reduce learning capacity.

They observed that mice fed a diet deficient in folate, B12 and B6 had reduced brain capillary length and density – vascular changes that caused cognitive dysfunction.

"Metabolic impairments induced by a diet deficient in three B-vitamins – folate, B12 and B6 – caused cognitive dysfunction and reductions in brain capillary length and density in our mouse model," said lead researcher, Aron Troen, PhD. "The vascular changes occurred in the absence of neurotoxic or degenerative changes."

“Mice fed a diet deficient in folate and vitamins B12 and B6 demonstrated significant deficits in spatial learning and memory compared with normal mice.”

The B-deficient mice also developed homocysteine levels seven times greater than those in the control group. Homocysteine is produced when the dietary protein methionine breaks down and has been linked with learning impairment.

B vitamins such as folate, vitamin B12, and vitamin B6 are required to convert homocysteine back to methionine.

Despite these findings, published in the August 26, 2008 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Troen said further research was required into the links between elevated homocysteine levels and learning retardation.

“It has not been determined that homocysteine is directly responsible,” he said. “Based on the findings of our study, we theorise that a deficiency of B-vitamins induces a metabolic disorder that manifests with high homocysteine, as well as cerebral microvascular dysfunction.”

Irwin Rosenberg, MD, director of the Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging , said of the study: “The elevated levels of homocysteine that were associated with vascular cognitive impairment in the mice in our study are comparable to the levels that are associated in older adults with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease, the latter of which manifests with conditions such as stroke and atherosclerosis. These findings may indicate that microvascular changes mediate the association between high homocysteine levels and human age-related cognitive decline.” ...http://www.nutraingredients.com.

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