To continue our Alzheimer’s disease knowledge journey, we need to remember that in the last post we mentioned the homocysteine role in the disease and how keeping it in the normal values will need adequate levels of vitamin B (B6, B9 and B12), in their active form for humans. Let’s find out about those active forms. For B6 this is P5P ( pyridoxal-5-phosphate), for B9 is methyl-folate and for B12 is methylcobalamin.
The optimal values for these B vitamins are:
B6 = 60–100 mcg/L
B9 (folate) = 10–25 ng/ml
B12 = 500–1500 pg/ml
Now, if you look online for example for normal values, they will be:
B6 = 30–110 mcg/L
B9 (folate) = 2–20 ng/ml
B12 = 200–900 pg/ml
Now there is an issue here, as some physicians accept these values as normal, even if they are in the lower range. Some may tell you that lower values may be linked to diseases such as anaemia, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which is already known. But you want to be in the upper half of the scale, so low walues may be within normal limits, but they are not optimal. For B6, the lower end is bad (30–50 mcg/L), but any value over 110 mcg/L is dangerous also, as it can be toxic and affect the nerves responsable for touch and pressure. The right supplementation for B6 deficiency is P5P ( pyridoxal-5-phosphate). For B6 you are within normal limits at 2–20 ng/ml, but again, you do not want to be in the lower range. Methylfolate is your choice of supplement if you need nore vitamin B6. You want to reach optimal values of 10–25 ng/ml. As for vitamin B12, values of 200–500 are within the normal range, but they are not optimal. 500–1500 pg/ml is where you want to be, and the supplement of choice is methylcobalamin. Related to B12, as the level of vitamin B12 decrease, the methylmalonic acid (MMA) increase. So the MMA blood test is more accurate than the B12 levels, and can be used as complementary test.
Blood tests recommended to check these vitamins are: B6, B9 (FOLATE), B12 and MMA blood tests.
My next factor to talk about will be insulin resistance. I must admit that i need to learn a bit more about this, as i still have some questions about few of the connections that are not enough researched at the moment.
All the best,
George
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