A
healthy diet is important for keeping you energized physically, but
poor nutrition habits also link to neurological, or brain, problems like
memory loss. Small amounts of essential vitamins found in your daily
diet supply you with the functional nutrients you need to maintain brain
and body health. Extreme vitamin deficiencies, however, underlie memory
complications associated with medical conditions like dementia and
alcoholic brain disease.
Essential Vitamins
Thirteen vitamins
are essential to your diet, which means your body needs them to
function properly. Vitamins A, D, E and K are the fat-soluble vitamins
that store in your fat cells. Vitamin C and the remaining eight B
vitamins are water-soluble; Your body uses what is needed and eliminates
the excess in your urine daily. For the most part, a diet rich in
fruits, vegetables, grains and lean protein is enough for you to get
your daily vitamin needs met. However, the normal process of aging,
malnourishment or extenuating circumstances like conditions that cause
malabsorption of nutrients can hinder how your body absorbs and uses
these vitamins, leading to deficiency.
The vitamin deficiency most
commonly associated with memory loss is vitamin B-1, or thiamine,
although other B vitamins and vitamin D deficiency might be linked to
memory loss associated with alcoholism, dementia, Parkinson's disease
and Alzheimer's disease.
Thiamine Deficiency
Thiamine, like
the other B vitamins, is an important nutrient for metabolizing food
into energy and protecting various nervous system functions. High
concentrations of thiamine reside in your brain and aid in the proper
functioning of enzymes needed to produce neurotransmitters for thought,
movement, mood and memory. Although thiamine is readily found in foods
like chicken, whole grains, nuts and beans, a diet excluding these foods
increases your risk of deficiency. However, excess consumption of
alcohol can hinder the absorption of thiamine and also cause deficiency.
Severe thiamine deficiency results in Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a
neurological disorder characterized by symptoms of confusion, short-term
and long-term memory loss. The daily recommended intake of thiamine for
adults is 1.1 to 1.2 mg.
Vitamins B-3, B-6, B-9 and B-12
The B vitamins
each have chemical tasks to fulfill in your body, but as a whole some of
the vitamins cannot complete vital processes without the presence of
other B vitamins.
For instance, vitamin B-3, which is important in
digestive metabolism, relies on adequate levels of vitamin B-6 to carry
out its metabolic processes. Similarly, vitamins B-6, B-9 and B-12 work
together to regulate the amino acid homocysteine in your blood so that
it is not produced in excess. Deficiency in any of these vitamins
increases the risk of high levels of homocysteine, which is linked to
early onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, notes the Linus Pauling
Institute. Foods containing these B vitamins include whole grains,
potatoes, nuts, poultry and leafy green vegetables.
Vitamin D Deficiency
Preliminary
research by the National Institutes of Health and University of Exeter
as reported by the online publication "Scientific American" indicates
that vitamin D deficiency might link to cognitive decline in the form of
dementia. Vitamin D is most commonly associated with bone health, but
the University of Exeter study concluded that over half of the study
participants with dementia also were vitamin D deficient. These results
are significant since vitamin D is not easily obtained from food
sources, but research is ongoing to find the exact link between vitamin D
deficiency and cognitive decline. You can get vitamin D from direct
sunlight exposure to your skin but this comes with the risk of skin
cancer. The adequate intake of vitamin D is 400 to 600 IU per day.
Fortified dairy and fish contain this vitamin.
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