Vitamin experiment to delay dementia

A MAJOR study is planned to discover if simply taking vitamins can stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

The trial, involving around 1,000 older people in the UK, builds 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 of the two-year study 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 had mild cognitive impairment, a pre-dementia condition characterised by poor memory.

As well as slowing brain shrinkage, the vitamins appeared to sharpen up the ability to recall specific past events