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HIGH-DOSE VITAMIN B12 IN THE TREATMENT OF DEMENTIA VITAMIN HIGH-DOSE B12 TREATMENT DEMENTIA THE Few medical practitoners know that high doses of vitamin B12 can prevent and even reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses, but new Codex regulations will restrict access to such high-dosage vitamin therapy. AT-HOME PREVENTION AND REVERSAL OF ALZHEIMER'S DEMENTIA AND SIX OTHER MENTAL ILLNESSES Introduction t is interesting to consider what proportion of Alzheimer's dementia (AD) may result from under-nutrition,' especially when it seems that an easy, low-cost, perfectly safe nutritional way exists that may allow people to avoid that misery of miseries which many consider worse than death. Some people might say, "That's too good to be true!" However, an at-home nutritional program using a high dosage of vitamin B12 may prevent and virtually eliminate AD. An early launch of the treatment soon after first warning symptoms start could even turn off the process. Confusion, difficulty concentrating, loss of memory, marked changes in personality that can lead to outbursts of violence, hallucinations, wandering away and early death all characterise Alzheimer's dementia. An estimated 2.3 million Americans now have AD. Prevalence doubles every five years after the age of 60, increasing from one per cent among those 60 to 64 years old up to 40 per cent of those aged 85 years and older. Nursing home care costs about US$47,000 per AD patient annually and this figure is rising steadily, putting a huge burden on the health care system. The disease is also terrible for the patients' caregivers. In what experts are calling "a looming public health disaster", statistics suggest there will be between five and seven million Alzheimer's patients in the USA over the next 10 years. Let's start with a little background. Mammals, including humans, are born with serum levels of vitamin B12 at about 2,000 pg/mL (picograms, i.e., trillionths of a gram, per millilitre). The level declines throughout human life owing to practices common in Western societies. Below 550 to 600 pg/mL, deficiencies start to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid.** US clinical laboratories regard 200 pg/mL as the lower range of normal. That low limit was set with haematologic criteria. But neuropsychiatric criteria, which are much higher, have become more critical. "Most cases of Alzheimer's dementia are actually missed B12 deficiency cases, because of the too-low normal range for B12," wrote John V. Dommisse, MD, in 1991 in Medical Hypotheses.’ Dommisse, who practises medicine in Tucson, Arizona, has confirmedthat Alzheimer's disease appears to result from too-low serum vitamin B12, and repletion of the vitamin succeeds despite other risk factors.”*° Replenishing B12, according to Dommisse, can reverse 75 per cent of B12 deficiency dementias when discovered early enough." As mentioned above, B12 therapy is perfectly safe; in other words, the risk of overdose is virtually nil. Here's the proof... Patients of Dr H. L. Newbold in New York City injected themselves three times daily with triple-strength doses of B12 (9,000 micrograms/day as hydroxycobalamin, the natural form) indefinitely. Their serum B12 levels reached 200,000 pg/mL (100 times the normal level found in newborn babies and higher). But none had any significant side effects.* Other aspects of the therapy should be noted: The neurological and cerebral manifestations of B12 deficiency require dosages larger,"' and extending over a longer time," than those needed to reverse haematologic effects;'* and there is no reason to run the risk of not catching deficiency in time or to go to any unnecessary expense and inconvenience. To put it bluntly: try the harmless therapy and see if you, the patient, benefit(s). Joseph G. Hattersley, MA © 2007 2209 Craig Road SE Olympia, WA 98501, USA Telephone: +1 (360) 352 3688 Email: jghattersley@yahoo.com Joseph G. Hattersley, MA © 2007 2209 Craig Road SE Olympia, WA 98501, USA Telephone: +1 (360) 352 3688 Email: jghattersley@yahoo.com NEXUS #25 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com