Milk Can Help Prevent Alzheimer’sTwo glasses of milk every day could help protect you against Alzheimer’s. A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford found that vitamin B12 may reduce damage in the brain that can lead to forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. And milk, which is a good source of B12, may be a key to slowing the memory loss and other neurological damage associated with aging. The study showed that elderly people with low levels of vitamin B12 have twice the brain shrinkage as those with higher levels in their systems. The scientists hope that they can slow cognitive decline in elderly patients by drinking just two glasses of milk each day. “Our study shows that consuming around half a liter of milk or more per day, and it can be skimmed milk, could take=2 Someone who has marginal levels of B12 into the safe range,” Professor David Smith, from the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing told The Daily Telegraph. Dementia, which includes Alzheimer’s, is at epidemic levels, Smith said, and the nerve cells that have already died in the brains of a dementia victim may never be repaired. “Instead, we have to look at preventing it in the first place.” Vitamin B12 is found mainly in meat, fish and dairy products. Even though meat contains high levels of B12, Smith found that it was poorly absorbed by the body, and the body absorbed the vitamin best from milk. That is especially important for the elderly. “In meat, B12 can be tightly bound to protein and this bond has to be broken down by acid in the stomach before the body can use it,” Smith said. “Older people have lower levels of acid and so it is much harder for them to get B12 from certain foods. In milk, the binding is readily reversible. “Prudence would suggest adopting a healthy lifestyle and a diet that is high in vitamin B12,” he said.
|