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

Relation of Higher Folate Intake to Lower Risk of Alzheimer Disease in the Elderly
http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...stract/64/1/86


Nutrtional Healing on Dementia/Alzheimers:
http://www.nutritional-healing.com.a...FAlzheimer%27s


PubMed abstracts:

It was possible to detect, both in patients with MCI (1.5% and in patients with dementia (3.5%, a non-significant difference), abnormal metabolic values, indicating poorly controlled diabetes, renal failure, hyponatremia, folate or vitamin B12 deficiency and hyperthyroidism, which correction led to clinical improvement. The majority (62.5% of these alterations were previously unknown.
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
The use of laboratory tests in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment. PMID: 16988482 Nov 2006

Depending on the biochemical criterion that is used, 5% to more than 20% of older adults have marginal or frank vitamin B12 deficiency.
What is an adequate dose of oral vitamin B12 in older people with poor vitamin B12 status?
PMID: 16958314 Aug 2006

Clinical relevance of low serum vitamin B12 concentrations in older people: the Banbury B12 study. PMID: 16709605 July 2006

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

Hi Jo,

I'm so sorry to hear about your MIL.

Yes, this is something obviously best considered early in the diagnosis process. B12 deficiency does have a genetic component when caused by Pernicious Anemia, and I've read about 10% of Alzheimers disease is considered familial, so this may be an important consideration for other family members to keep tucked away in the awful event another family member would be affected. Vitamin B12 deficiency, left untreated, is neurodegenerative and can lead to death...and it frequently goes undetected.

My hope is that perhaps some people who are in the early stages of the diagnosis/disease themselves, or have a family member or friend in early stages of disease, might read this before it is too late. I realize that anyone with late stage AD won't likely be reading here, or helped by this information.

I've watched my best friend just go through losing her her mother with AD, and my SIL lost her Grandma with AD a couple of years ago. It seems everyone knows somebody affected.

Again, I'm so sorry your family is dealing with this on such an intimate level.

Cara

Thank you Cara. Yes, it does seem their are more with Alzheimer's D. as well as dementia. What struck me recently is the fact they are dx'ing more & more early on-set. It would be wonderful to find some cures or just something that will slow it down.
I was amazed at one of the patients on BT had Alzh., she said how long she had had it,but I have forgotten. This makes the red flags flying for me

She said when her Dr. visits came around she was the one to talk with the DR, She and the Dr. together decided on which meds. Then the change would always be her decission. She was amazinly lucid. I can see where those very things would be of help the patient.

I was the one to take MIL to the neuro that dx'ed her . She didn't like me anymore. She knew what the Dr. was saying, She started crying before we left. Told me the Dr. said she was crazy.

Hubbies syblings would not let anybody speak of it around her, now I think that was cruel.

I work for a nursing home medications provider...and I can attest to the
concern for B12 levels. Many tests are ordered today... more than ever.

Also there are new papers on elevated homocysteine levels and AD.
(elevated homocysteine occurs when B12 is low).

Also our own NIH (National Institutes of Health) now recommend along with
dieticians that all adults in USA over 50 take a quality B12 supplement. That is how important it is becoming.

It is hard to realize that 9 cents a day, could help forstall some dementia in adults today. It is hard to understand that estrogen therapy can cause multi-infarct dementia. It is hard to realize that some dementias are due to
low thyroid function in the elderly.

That is why we have the internet....we can find the newest papers, even from other countries..where this research is being done.

We are on the verge of some tests that will enable doctors to diagnose AD more accurately and effectively. And many of them are now reading about these interventions I have listed, as well as those Cara posted. It has been my experience on the net, that people come here and search everywhere, when they are frustrated with their own medical care. The strength of the net is finding these answers, and support.

Edit to add... some people are finding that statin drugs used to lower cholesterol, create a loss of memory, and confusion that resembles AD.
Here is a site, Dr. Graveline had this happen to himself... and he wrote a book about it:
http://www.spacedoc.net/short_term_memory_loss.html

thank you care and mrsd for the information.

my mother has what her dr ( he is a geriatric dr ) says is the early signs of dementia. her check up is monday and i will ask him to check her b12 levels.

Good idea, Curious.

It really is important to check on the lab results, yourself, too, because far too often people begin suffering symptoms of B12 deficiency long before the lab value drops below range. It isn't uncommon for a low normal B12 reading to be ignored, and that is a real problem.

Cara

howdy cara

i have to really watch what my mom takes. she has had serious..life threatening problems with her electrolytes. she is 77. even those huge horse pills for potssium wouldn't keep it up. it took her new dr and i hours of sleuthing and a million questions to her to get everything all straightened out. it has been year since she was in the hospital and almost died.

when she was in the hospital and had all the mri's, pet scans, ct's done basically head to toe. her dr explained to her that her brain showe some shrinkage. that she was in the early stages of dementia. mom said "it's normal for older peoples brains to shrink." try as we could, we couldn't convice her that her brain shrinking wasn't normal.

Curious~ I'm so happy to hear your mom is still with you.

My mom is also 77, and she also almost died (for the third time) 1 1/2 years ago due to alcoholic crisis. At the same time she was diagnosed with primary liver cancer. We were told she had 3 months to live, and would probably never come home. When someone's liver is functioning that poorly, the dementia and hallucinations during withdrawal can lasts several weeks...she was still having hallucinations three weeks in, seeing people jumping out of windows and all sorts of horrible things, combative, etc. She had no idea she was in the hospital and would ask us to go turn off the stove, had visitors who really weren't there, and such.

She recovered enough from the crisis, after about eight weeks, to have treatment for the liver cancer. 1 1/2 years ago she couldn't walk across the room, but today she can walk around the block, is cancer free (although expected to return), clear of mind, and sober. Each day is a gift.

My dad has also been through emergency brain surgery, due to a hematoma that had crossed midline and was pressing on the brain stem. His recovery took over six months. He is a brittle diabetic, and we have very close calls with him all the time.

I can sympathize with others who are going through very tough times with their loved ones, because I have been there, too.

Hugs and prayers to all who are suffering, whether the patient or the caregiver trying to cope with it. It isn't easy.

Cara