Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient that plays a number of important roles in the body. The primary medical uses relate to the treatment of pernicious anemia and other conditions. However, taking a B12 shot has also been popular with many people as a supplement with a wide range of alleged benefits. While the benefits of taking supplemental Vitamin B12 are debated in medical circles, most doctors agree at the very least that there is no harm in taking in more Vitamin B12 than the bare minimum your body actually needs. As a consequence, many people take very large doses of supplemental Vitamin B12 because they feel the nutrient provides a number of additional health benefits, beyond what the medical profession has been able to agree upon.
One of these additional purposes relates to memory loss. It has long been alleged that Vitamin B12 plays a beneficial role in the brain chemistry of people suffering from memory loss, and some of these contentions have been borne out in clinical studies. On September 8, 2008, the BBC reported on a study conducted by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom exploring the relationship between Vitamin B12 and memory loss. The five year study concluded that older people with lower than average amounts of Vitamin B12 were six times more likely to experience brain shrinkage than people with average or above average amounts of the nutrient in their systems. Brain shrinkage has been shown to be an important indicator in older people that later contract dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
The exact mechanics of the process that results in Vitamin B12 helping to prevent brain shrinkage remains a mystery, but there is solid evidence suggesting that having higher than average levels of Vitamin B12 in your system does lower the chances of brain shrinkage. Additional clinical studies are currently under way in several countries, though many of these focus on the effects of Vitamin B12 on people that already have Alzheimer’s disease. Regardless, new information about the role that Vitamin B12 plays bin the brain should be coming soon. In the meantime, most people suffer no ill side effects from taking supplemental Vitamin B12, so its suggested use for memory loss seems like a good bet.