Vitamin B supplements may be able to delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests. A study of seniors with mild cognitive impairment found that daily supplements significantly slowed brain shrinkage, the BBC reports. In some cases, the shrinkage slowed by 50%, making the atrophy no worse than that of seniors without MCI.
"It's a bigger effect than anyone could have predicted," says the lead researcher. "And it's telling us something biological. These vitamins are doing something to the brain structure—they're protecting it." More studies are planned.
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