Vital Role of Nutrition

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Nutrition is essential to healthy aging; it has been shown to play a vital role in the development of dementia, memory loss, vitamin deficiencies and stroke. An estimated 10%–30% of people over the age of 65 suffer from Vitamin B12 deficiency most commonly caused by malabsorption. It is advised that people over 70 years of age obtain 2.4 μg/day of Vitamin B12. People suffering from inadequate Vitamin B12 levels can experience fatigue, weight loss, weakness, depression, memory impairment, heart attack and stroke. Elderly patients should be monitored for serum levels <450 ng/L. Adequate supplementation of Vitamin B12 will reduce depression, fatigue, homocysteine concentrations, brain atrophy. In the aging population an increased nutritional supplement of >500 μg/day of Vitamin B12 will not only prevent but also promote recovery from strokes while reducing cognitive decline.

While aging is a natural progression of life, healthy aging is of the upmost importance to ensure the quality of life of elderly people. Often aging can be accompanied by memory loss or confusion. In the past few decades the study of age related cognitive decline has come to the forefront of the scientific community. Considerable research has been done to help identify etiology, prevention and treatment. As the mean age of Canadians increases there is a push to help combat cognitive decline in order to ease the burden on not only the medical community but families as well. Cognitive degeneration in the form of long term memory loss can have many root causes most notably Alzheimer's, dementia and strokes. This deterioration prevents people from performing their daily activities and retaining their independence.

Nutrition has been shown to play a vital role...

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...P., Johnston, C., et al. 2010. Homocysteine-Lowering by B Vitamins Slows the Rate of Accelerated Brain Atrophy in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Plos one 5 (9): 1-11.

Saposnik, G., Ray, J., Sheridan, P., McQueen, M., & Lonn, E. 2009. Homocysteine-Lowering Therapy and Stroke Risk, Severity, and Disability Additional Findings From the HOPE 2 Trial. Stroke, 40(4), 1365-1372.

Tangney, C., Aggarwal, N., Morris, M., et al. 2011. Vitamin B12, cognition, and brain MRI measures: A cross-sectional examination. Neurology 77(13):1276-1282.

Walker, J., Batterham, P., Christensen, H., et al. 2012. Oral folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplementation to prevent cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms-the Beyond Ageing Project: a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition 95(1):194-203.

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