News
Low vitamin B12 intake may accelerate cognitive decline
12 December 2012
A new US study says that older adults who are mildly vitamin B12 deficient may be at higher risk of cognitive decline.
03 January 2014
A new review from China concludes that a combined antioxidant therapy with beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium may significantly reduce pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
The systematic review included nine randomized controlled trials from Europe, Asia and the US, involving 390 adult patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) who received antioxidant therapy or placebo for 6 to 24 we- eks (1). The data analysis showed that patients receiving therapy with different antioxidants had increased blood levels of antioxidant biomarkers. While no significant positive effect on pain relief was shown on single antioxidants, the use of combined antioxidants, such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium, had a strong association with pain relief. Antioxidant therapy appeared to be safe and there were no serious adverse events after therapy.
The researchers commented that subgroups of patients with CP who obtained optimal benefit from combined antioxidant therapy needed further investigation. It seemed that measures of total antioxidant status may not help to monitor the efficacy of antioxidant therapy for patients with CP. CP is a progressive inflammatory disease of the pancreas, which results in a gradual loss of normal pancreatic tissue architecture and subse- quent fibrosis. For patients with CP, abdominal pain is the most common presentation, which may signifi- cantly decrease quality of life and sometimes lead to severe malnutrition.
Currently, there is still no effective medical therapy for pain relief in patients with CP. In the West, alcohol abuse is the most common cause of CP, which accounts for 70% of cases. It is thought that oxidative stress caused by increased exposure to alcohol or nicotine causes pancreatic cell damage either directly by cell membrane destruction, toxicity from free radical peroxidation products, or through altering signaling path- ways (2).
12 December 2012
A new US study says that older adults who are mildly vitamin B12 deficient may be at higher risk of cognitive decline.
1 November 2009
“The headline ‘The dark side of vitamin C’ recently appeared in the German newspaper service ‘Die Welt online,’ prompted by an American study showing that artificial antioxidants (N-acetyl cysteine and Trolox) support the metabolism of tumor cells that have become detached from the tumor and could thus promote metastasis.”
7 December 2012
Two new studies suggest that adequate intakes and blood concentrations of vitamin D may be preventive in cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease in older women.