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vitamin B-12

Folate and vitamin B-12 and risk of fatal cardiovascular disease – (01-18-03)

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Folate and vitamin B-12 and risk of fatal cardiovascular disease

Here is a study that finds and recommends no benefit from supplementation on CVD. At first I was a little surprised, until I looked further into the study. The study did not look at supplementation and yet, in the summary, recommended that routine recommendation not be used until more studies are done. This study checked blood levels of folate and B12. However, we know that one of the main factors about whether supplementation will help is status of the MHTFR enzyme. In about 25% of the population, this enzyme has a difficult time converting folate into its active form 5-methyltetrahydofolate. If you want to find out if this is related, you need to check 5-MHTF levels in the blood and risk of CVD.

bmj.com Hung et al. 326 (7381): 131

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HOW MUCH EFFECT VITAMIN B12 HAD ON COGNITIVE DECLINE – (04-28-08)

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Low vitamin B-12 status and risk of cognitive decline in older adults

Supplementation with B12 and folic acid is a very inexpensive approach with high safety and many potential benefits. The problem is that many physicians still use serum B12 to assess status, and while this is a good marker of on the spot B12, it does not really give a good picture of functional status of B12. Personally, I always look at a patient’s MCV (mean corpuscular volume) level on a standard CBC. While most labs don’t consider it normal until it passes 100, I don’t like to see this value much past the lower 90s.

In this study, I think what was surprising was just how much of an effect B12 had on cognitive decline. Higher levels of MMA or homocysteine (markers of functional B12 status) led to a 50% greater risk of congitive decline. That’s a massive difference.

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