Vitamins hope for dementia

A trial involving around 1,000 older people in the UK, will build on previous findings that B vitamins can help prevent brain shrinkage with age.

Participants will be given carefully measured doses of vitamin B12, B6 and folic acid.

The aim is to find out whether boosting levels of the vitamins can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

A year ago the same team showed that taking the vitamin B combination reduced brain atrophy, or shrinkage, by 30 per cent in 266 people aged 70 and over.

All those taking part in the two-year study had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition characterised by poor memory.

As well as slowing brain shrinkage, the vitamins appeared to sharpen up episodic memory. Now a further study is planned to see if the vitamins could stave off dementia itself.

At the University of Bradford’s British Science Festival, Dr Celeste de Jager, from Oxford University, said: “We’re hoping to get around 1,000 people.

“It will be over two years, and the cognitive and clinical outcomes will be the main outcomes rather than the brain atrophy.”