Prevent mental decline, sleep better, have more energy, help prevent cancer too....

Today's Post: Thursday, 7-21-2011

In a recent news article the most worried-about health risks were cancer and memory loss in a survey of baby boomers.

That was in my last post.

Earlier today I got a comment on how getting enough B12 could improve and protect your health on one of my other posts.

It seems that vegans, people who take metformin, people who are over 50 who begin to digest food less well sometimes and people who take anti acid drugs for reflux (heartburn) or ulcers can have too little B12 if they don't get enough B12 somehow.

And, B12 is valuable enough to so many aspects of good health and good quality of life that it makes sense to get an optimum amount in a way that bypasses digestion problems.

One doctor says that the best way to get B12 initially if you are deficient is to get vitamin B12 shots. But many doctors don’t do this. And, it’s an expensive and time consuming way to go.

If you have time and money and reason to believe you are deficient, it might be worth finding a doctor who practices integrative or preventive medicine who works with patients in this way.

But the link in the comment has a great deal of information on B12 and, of course advertises the solution of the sponsor.

This is adapted from my follow up comment after I published her comment.

The text available at http://products.mercola.com/vitamin-b12-spray/ --

contains some very well done information about B12, what it does for you, what often prevents people from having enough, AND an ad for a fast acting spray.

That way you can get enough B12 even if you are a vegan or your digestion isn't getting it into your blood stream.

That's important for people over 50 and those taking anti acid drugs for reflux (heartburn) or ulcers.

It's also important for type 2 diabetics. The only safe drug I know to lower high blood sugar is metformin. And, metformin also prevents the high blood sugar left over from harming you it was recently discovered!

But, if you take metformin, you would be far safer, if you also used this B12 spray (Dr Al Sears also makes one.)or if you use a chewable or sublingual tablet of 1,000 mcg of B12 once a day.

(I take anti acid drugs for reflux and know someone who takes metformin. We both take the chewable or sublingual tablet of 1,000 mcg of B12 once a day that is called Brain B12 that NOW makes. chewable or sublingual tablet of 1,000 mcg of B12 once a day. But for times I feel fatigued or want to ensure a good night’s sleep, I’ve considered getting one of these B12 spray products.)

Why should people who take metformin or have reasons to want extra B12 do this?

Here's a quote from the text at Mary's link.

"Studies suggest that 10% to 30% of patients taking Metformin show evidence of reduced vitamin B12 absorption."

I also knew that getting enough B12 helps you have enough energy. It helps with alertness and prevents fatigue

What I did not know until I read the text at this link, is that because B12 helps your body make melatonin, B12 gets part of its energy boost by helping you sleep better!

Getting back to the concerns about avoiding cancer and preventing mental decline we started this post with, getting enough B12 helps do both.

Separate studies have found that B12 deficiency can cause confusion and impair memory and thinking. In fact, some people with these symptoms stop having them or have less of them once they get enough B12.

In addition, the things that B12 does, sleeping better, feeling less fatigued, and having more energy all help you avoid or stop depression.

And, since mental decline is higher in people who are depressed, that’s significant.

But there’s more. People who get enough B12 along with enough folate and folic acid from vegetables and supplements (and who avoid tobacco smoke) have lower levels of homocysteine.

The tests of lowering homocysteine to help prevent heart disease in short term treatments have shown little benefit. I think that’s because this research was done after the people studied had accumulated years of damage from too high homocysteine before the studies.

But the research on homocysteine shows that people who have high levels of it also are more likely to get some kind of mental decline.

So B12 indeed looks important for preventing mental decline in several ways.

But there’s news on the cancer front too.

There are two kinds of research that fit.

People who have strong and effective immune systems tend to destroy early cellular defects before they turn into cancer.

It seems that getting enough vitamin D3 (at least 4,000 iu a day) and getting enough B12 are two key ways to keep your immune system strong and effective. The news

Second, having low melatonin levels predisposes you to getting cancer. The research I saw studied this in researching ways to prevent breast cancer.

Your body releases melatonin once it gets dark. But most people today have their lights on in the evening after it gets dark outside and still have a good bit of light in their bedrooms once they go to bed.

There are 3 ways to have more melatonin.

The best two ways are to

Have your bedroom dark by using blackout curtains and covering small light sources. (Having a reliable flashlight where you can it reach it easily at night and keeping it there when not in use is a good idea if you do that!)

Take enough B12 to ensure your body makes its own melatonin well.

You can also take melatonin. But this may cause your body to make less on its own. And, the dosages sold in health food stores are often high enough to cause you to get so much, you have trouble waking up and having energy the next day.

One solution is to buy 1 mg or 3 mg tablets and chop them in half and just take a half a tablet half an hour before you go to bed. (Another temporary way to use melatonin supplements is to get a spray version and use that. That way if you have crossed a time zone and need to go to sleep a bit early you can make it much easier to fall asleep. I’m told it works in less than 15 minutes. See Native Rest at http://www.primalforce.net/catalog/ for Dr Sears’ version.)

But if you sleep well without supplementing with melatonin directly because your body makes its own since you keep your bedroom quite dark and you supplement B12 AND you exercise regularly, you may do fine without melatonin supplements.

(It also helps if you protect your heart without taking statins as at least one kind is a known cause of relatively severe insomnia.)