Elevated homocysteine levels, which are a risk factor for vascular disease, are associated with a decrease in cognitive ability among the elderly. Researchers suggest that lowering homocysteine levels with B-vitamin supplements may provide some protection against mental decline among this age group.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition September, 2003;78(3):441-447
These findings make sense because elevated homocysteine is a marker for:
Homocysteine is also a well-documented risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is related to both vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Vitamin B-12 is required for a healthy central nervous system, and up to 10 percent of patients with pernicious anemia have prominent mental symptoms, including memory loss.
Both vitamin B-12 and folate are also necessary to ensure adequate methylation by S-adenosylmethionine in the synthesis of:
Many people routinely take high-dose vitamin supplements, and folic acid is typically in them. They also have vitamin B-12 in them, but because vitamin B-12 is such a large molecule it is very poorly absorbed and requires sublingual (under the tongue), injection therapy or transdermal application for optimum absorption. Because of this, vitamin B-12 deficiency is more likely to be a result of elevated homocysteine levels.
This is quite consistent with the finding that many vegetarians have elevated homocysteine levels, since vegetarian diets are often lacking in vitamin B-12. So one thing you can do is eat plenty of raw vegetables as they have been shown to reduce homocysteine levels by increasing levels of folic acid.
However, if you are a vegetarian you will certainly want to get very serious about optimizing your vitamin B-12 levels. Since B-12 is readily available in most meat, low levels are not a problem for most people until they get older and lose the ability to make intrinsic factor to help them absorb vitamin B-12.
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