Memory Loss

Benefits of B₆

It’s one thing to occasionally misplace your car keys. It’s another to forget where you parked your car—especially when it’s in the garage, where you usually keep it. Yet that’s what some research shows could happen if you don’t get proper amounts of vitamin B₆, also called pyridoxine.

One study showed that over 80 percent of the healthy, independent-living, middle-income elderly surveyed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had vitamin B₆ intakes below three-fourths of the Daily Value. (The Daily Value for B₆ is two milligrams.)

A group of researchers in the Netherlands decided to see what would happen if they added vitamin B₆ to the diets of healthy older men. First the men were given a mental test that included things such as being able to remember different objects flashed on a screen and the names and occupations of people in a list. Then one group took 20 milligrams of B₆ a day, while the others took placebos (blank pills).

At the end of three months, the men were tested again. The memories of those in the vitamin B₆ group showed “modest but significant” gains, especially in long-term memory. The bottom line: The researchers felt that their study made a strong case for taking B₆ supplements.

There’s a good reason that vitamin B₆ helps memory. Remember those all-important neurotransmitters with the long names? Vitamin B₆ apparently helps create dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, says Dr. Ebadi.

The Daily Value of two milligrams should be sufficient to help keep your memory in good working order. You can easily get this amount as part of a B-complex supplement that supplies the Daily Values of all B vitamins. You should never take B₆ by itself without medical supervision, as amounts above 100 milligrams can be toxic.

Boosting the Brain with B₁₂

In one study, when 39 people were treated for neurological symptoms related to vitamin B₁₂ deficiency—things such as memory loss, disorientation and fatigue—all of them improved, sometimes dramatically. “B₁₂ deficiency causes problems in the nervous system, including burning points in the feet and mental problems such as difficulty with recent memory and the ability to calculate, that sort of thing,” says Dr. Stabler. A B₁₂ deficiency has even been known to change brain wave activity, she says.

Nearly one-third of people over age 60 can’t extract the vitamin B₁₂ they need from what they eat. That’s because their stomachs no longer secrete enough gastric acid, the stuff that breaks down food and helps turn it into fuel for your brain and body.

And taking supplements won’t help, because they are also broken down in the stomach. So doctors who suspect vitamin B₁₂ deficiencies in people with memory problems give them B₁₂ shots, thus bypassing the faltering digestive system.

Vitamin B₁₂ deficiency caused by diet is rare when the digestive system is in good working order. That’s because eating just small portions of dairy products or animal protein gives you enough of this vital nutrient. About the only eating plan that seems to put you at risk are diets that completely eliminate meats and dairy products. But even then you have to adhere to such a diet for at least several years before a deficiency develops, says Dr. Stabler.

Virtually all animal products, such as milk, cheeses, yogurt and lean beef, contain vitamin B₁₂. The Daily Value for B₁₂ is six micrograms.

Fortification at Its Finest

Both thiamin and riboflavin, other important B vitamins, are routinely added to most flours, cereals and grain products.

Even mild deficiencies of these vitamins can have an impact on your thinking and memory. While checking brain function and nutrition status of 28 healthy folks over age 60, a U.S. Department of Agriculture study showed that those with low thiamin registered brain activity impairment. On the other hand, the folks with adequate thiamin had better memories.

thiamin deficiencies have also been found to cause mood changes, vague feelings of uneasiness, fear, disorderly thinking and other signs of mental depression—symptoms that researchers say often affect memory.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take much thiamin to make a difference. One study showed that women who were restricted to 0.33 milligram of thiamin a day became irritable, fatigued and unsociable. These symptoms improved with just 1.4 milligrams of thiamin a day.

The Daily Value for thiamin is 1.5 milligrams, while the Daily Value for riboflavin is 1.7 milligrams.

The Lecithin-Choline Connection

As a doctoral candidate overwhelmed by the vast amounts of information she had to study, Florence Safford took lecithin supplements to help keep her memory sharp—and she told her friends about the benefits.

Her friends don’t have to just take her word for it any longer. Twenty years later, Dr. Safford, now professor of social work and gerontology at Florida International University in Miami, has conducted two studies that help shed light on how lecithin and choline, a B vitamin, can actually boost memory.

Lecithin is a common food additive; it’s used in ice cream, margarine, mayonnaise and In one study, 61 volunteers between ages 50 and 80 were divided into two groups: 41 took two tablespoons of lecithin a day, while 20 were given placebos. At the end of five weeks, the volunteers who took lecithin had “significant improvement” in memory test scores and fewer memory lapses than those who took the placebos, says Dr. Safford.

In another study, 117 volunteers were divided into three groups according to their ages: 35 to 50, 50 to 65 and 65 to 80. These groups were then subdivided, with half taking 3.5 grams of a form of lecithin a day and the other half taking placebos. At the end of three weeks, those who took the lecithin recorded almost half as many memory lapses on average, says Dr. Safford.

“The fascinating thing about lecithin is that when it helps, it’s right away,” says Dr. Safford. “It’s one of the few substances like alcohol, which crosses the blood-brain barrier and produces an immediate reaction.” (In a bid to prevent harmful substances from reaching your brain, you’re equipped with what is called the blood-brain barrier. Like an armed guard at a checkpoint, your blood-brain barrier allows only certain chemicals in your blood to pass into your brain.)

Dr. Safford recommends two tablespoons of lecithin granules a day. Just mix it in with foods such as yogurt, applesauce and cereals.

Iron and Zinc to Help You Think

While researchers have established the importance of iron and zinc in the mental development of infants, you have to dig into the scientific literature before you’ll find studies showing that these minerals help make for better memories in adults as well.

In one small preliminary study, researchers measured the effects of mild zinc or iron deficiency on short-term memory in 34 women between ages 18 and 40, a group at risk for low levels of both minerals.

For eight weeks, researchers gave the women either 30 milligrams of zinc, 30 milligrams of iron or both or supplements containing other micronutrients. A mental test found that the short-term memories of those taking zinc or iron improved by 15 to 20 percent, says Harold Sandstead, M.D., professor in the Department of Prevention Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Those who took iron supplements had better short-term verbal memory, while visual memory, or the ability to remember pictures, was improved by both zinc and iron.

Although the women received supplements during the study, Dr. Sand stead says that foods are much better sources of these nutrients. Steamed clams and oysters, Cream of Wheat cereal, soybeans and pumpkin seeds are all good sources of iron, while whole grains, wheat bran, wheat germ, seafood and meats are top sources of zinc.

Women who menstruate need between 2 and 2.5 milligrams of iron a day to offset loss of the mineral, explains Dr. Sandstead. (The Daily Value for iron is much higher—18 milligrams—because your body doesn’t absorb all of the mineral that you take in.) “If they have heavy menstrual loss, the level goes up even more,” he adds. Men need about 1 milligram of iron a day.

And how does iron help memory? Experts believe that pumping up your iron intake helps build those all-important brain neurotransmitters, among other things.

For a closer look at zinc’s role in helping you to think, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center in North Dakota fed ten men living at the center meals containing one, two, three, four or ten milligrams of zinc every day for five weeks each.

At the end of the 25-week study, researchers noted that the week the men ate ten milligrams of zinc a day, they were better able to remember shapes and responded faster to simple motor tasks, says James G. Penland, Ph.D., head researcher at the center and author of the study. “There was a very clear improvement at ten milligrams versus the other amounts, with the others being more or less the same,” he says.

And how does zinc help memory? Apparently, vitamin B₆ can’t do its job without zinc pitching in, says Dr. Ebadi. “In the absence of zinc, active B₆ is not formed properly in the brain, and as a result, neither are key neurotransmitters,” he says. Not only that, but large amounts of zinc have been found in the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus.

Some experts say that some elderly people may get less than half of the zinc that they need. (The Daily Value for zinc is 15 milligrams.)