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JoJo6 · 09-28-2006, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jccglutenfree

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause a dementia that is similiar to Alzheimer's Disease. Vitamin B12 deficiency often goes undetected because the low range lab values are set too low, and one can have B12 deficiency in the absence of other hematologic findings. More info in B12 Diagnostics. This is an easy base to cover, and I hope everyone with dementia or early Alzheimers diagnosis cover these simple bases because of the possibility of diagnostic confusion.

High-dose vitamin B12 for at-home prevention and reversal of Alzheimer's disease and other diseases - Townsend Letter May 2006

Familial Alzheimer's disease and vitamin B12 deficiency - Age and Ageing July 1994

Vitamin B12: Suprising New Findings - LE Magazine Dec 2000

PubMed abstracts:

These findings suggest that cobalamin deficiency may cause a reversible dementia in elderly patients. This dementia may be differentiated from that of Alzheimer's disease by a thorough neuropsychological evaluation.
Neuropsychology of vitamin B12 deficiency in elderly dementia patients and control subjects. PMID: 15681626 March 2005

Depression, B12 deficiency, and hypothyroidism should be screened for and treated in patients with dementia.
A synopsis of the practice parameters on dementia from the american academy of neurology on the diagnosis of dementia. PMID: 16553467 Jan 2004

JCC, thank you for the information . It would have been very good to have known this 10+ years ago when we first learned MIL was dx'ed with Alzheimer's Disease.

In fact, I was hunting something to help me learn more about caring for an Alzheimer's patient when I ran across the old MGH chats and forums we know call BrainTalk. To me this forum is for those that are caring for one with Alzheimer's & dementia.

Of course we want to take care of our LO's the best we know how, so the information you have posted will be helpful to all of us. My MIL is now in a Nursing Home but we still are involved in her meds just to mention one.

As Husband said, he did not GIVE his mom to them, he pays them to take care of her. One or both of us go to her care planning etc. also this is when they discuss her meds. . I will share this with him and possibly we will find some things to help her, but she is in advanced stage with the Alz. It would be great if we could find some things to possibly help her have a better quality of the days she has left. It truely is a heartbreaking Disease.

I'm sure there are others that have these same needs to help care for their LO's. Thank you for the time you put into this, I'm sure we will all find something helpful. Jo