Alzheimer’s disease and vitamin B group optimal levels

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…