Just as we thought we had enough supplements to last a lifetime, along comes advice claiming that another one is essential to our health and the prevention of disease. This time it's the turn of vitamin B12, which scientists are claiming plays a major role in the prevention of diseases that affect the older generation, such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, frailty, depression and osteoporosis. B12 also protects the nervous system and without it, permanent neurological damage can occur.

'Normal' not necessarily optimal
New evidence calls into question whether the current 'normal' levels of B12 in the blood are optimal, or whether they are too low, as a correlation has been made between the above mentioned diseases and low levels of B12. Many of the subjects had above the level that causes the well-known disease of B12 deficiency, anaemia.

Dr. J. David Spence is a neurologist and stroke specialist at the Robarts Research Institute in Ontario, Canada: "It's a huge problem. Close to 80 percent of older adults with a B12 deficiency don't know it," he said. "Neither do their doctors. Doctors tend to think 'normal' means adequate."

Spence said that the low end of normal for B12 - commonly 160 to 250 picomoles per liter of blood serum - was hardly optimal.

Anaemia cured
Pernicious anaemia is something that can be cured with oral doses of B12 – 1,000 micrograms per day – however the same amount isn't needed for older people who may only be slightly deficient. Vitamin B12 can be found in meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk. Some breakfast cereals and breads now come fortified with vitamin B12. Folate should also be taken at the same time, as where brain processes are involved, one cannot function without the other.