TBSmith Asked January 14, 2025
Cognitive issues and nutritional deficiency. Is there a connection?
Follow
Share
Has anyone found that a nutritional deficiency or food sensitivity was associated with their loved one’s cognitive issues? I’ve read that low D and B vitamins status can impair executive function, and addressing it can often completely reverse the problem.
2 Answers
Popular Questions
Related Questions
- Should we give away items in home to family members or somehow charge for them?
- Mom remembers her delusions, and forgets about her hallucinations. I wonder if they come from different parts of the brain?
- Husband with vascular dementia complaining of severe headaches for about 4 days. Anyone seen this? Any advice appreciated.
Ask a Question
"correlation is not causation"
This means just because you took a vitamin supplement and then seemed to experience an improvement in health or cognition, doesn't mean the 2 are connected at all -- because there are too many other variables that can impact that result, and not the least is the Placebo Effect (mental expectation of a result so that it is only psychosomatic and not actually medical or physical).
That being said there are dementias that are caused or worsened by vitamin deficiency, as in Wernike-Korsakoff dementia experienced by alcoholics because certain vitamins are blocked from absorption due to the extreme alcohol comsumption. If caught early enough -- and the person stops drinking -- the effects can be reversed and the person can recover.
There is A LOT of "snake oil" remedies surrounding dementia because people are terrified of it and fear causes people to spend their money without really properly and thoroughly researching treatments, therapies, medications and supplements.
"I’ve read that ___________..." means nothing unless what you are reading are the actual clinical study results, and even these have to stand up to a criteria in order for the study subject to be of value or not.
The study has to:
be written in such a way as to prevent false data outcomes.
include the right participants.
involve a large group of people (so not just a dozen, or a hundred, but thousands)
be conducted over a satisfactory length of time
be reproducible.
This last one is very critical. One study doesn't mean anything unless its results can be independently reproduced and give the same outcomes.
This is why I personally never jump on a new prescription drug (Ozempic!) or supplement or treatment/therapy bandwagon until a long enough amount of time has passed so that the above criteria is met.
You can ask your PCP to test you for deficiencies, like B, D, K, and magnesium. If your individual body is not actually low on these, then taking a supplement will mean you are just peeing out the money you spent on them. Everyone's bodies are different in size, age, nutritional intake and retention, health, etc. What works for one person does not mean it will work for another.
Can taking certain vitamins "totally reverse" certain cognitive symptoms? Yes IF that person doesn't actually have dementia but is suffering the symptoms of an actual vitamin or nutritional deficiency.
To date, there is no real, respectable scienfic studies that show dementia is curablem, and in many cases not even preventable. The brain is unbelievably complex and we still don't know enough about it.