Drinking milk could help stave off Alzheimer's disease

New York, March 3: Consumption of milk is associated with numerous health benefits, including strong bones, healthy teeth, lower levels of high blood pressure and healthy heart. Adding more to this list, a new research suggests that consuming milk can help protect people against Alzheimer's disease (AD) in old age.

A study conducted at Oxford University suggests that drinking two glasses of milk regularly could help people stave off Alzheimer's disease in old age.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, which is a gradual impoverishment of thought and other mental activities. The condition is common in the elderly and affects almost half of all patients with dementia.

Advancing age is the primary risk factor for AD. It is an incurable, degenerative, and terminal neurological disorder, which is diagnosed in people over 65s. This memory robbing illness affects an estimated 5.2 million people in United States alone, and typically causes confusion, irritability, aggression, frequent mood swings, language breakdown, and long-term memory loss.

Now, a team of International researchers, led by Oxford University, has found that milk is one of the rich sources of a key vitamin, thought to reduce the neurological damage to the brain that leads to dementia.

Oxford University scientists believe the low levels of this vitamin, known as vitamin B12, could put older people at an increased risk of developing shrinkage of the brain.

In their study, the researchers found that elderly patients with low levels of B12 were twice more likely to suffer shrinkage of the brain than those who had higher levels of the substance in their bodies.

According to lead researcher Professor David Smith, from the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, drinking just two glasses of milk a day would be enough to increase levels of vitamin B12 to an adequate level.

"Our study shows that consuming around half a litre of milk or more per day, and it can be skimmed milk, could take someone who has marginal levels of B12 into the safe range. But even drinking just two glasses a day can protect against having low levels," comments Prof Smith, who together with colleagues at Oslo University and Bergen University, in Norway, conducted the study.

The team believes that increasing the intake of vitamin B12 in the elderly may decrease their risk of cognitive decline.

"Older people have lower levels of acid and so it is much harder for them to get B12 from certain foods. In milk, the binding is readily reversible," Prof Smith said.

The study linking higher levels of Vitamin B12, which is one of the eight B vitamins and is found mainly in meat, fish and dairy products, to the decreased risk of shrinkage of brain is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.