Dont lose your memory!

Mental health experts have studied the connection between chronic illness and depression. Correctly diagnosing and treating a particular condition means understanding its definition. The definitions of different psychological disorders are in a state of constant change.

Currently there are 3 generally recognized types of clinical depression:

1. Major Depression
2. Dysthemia
3. Bipolar Disorder

In its broadest definition, depression is the result of overwhelming thoughts such as anxiety, fear, pessimism, or helplessness being turned inward on oneself. The specific causes of a depressive disorder or event may not be clearly pinpointed, but in all cases of clinical depression, there is an underlying problem with the brain's chemistry. When it is concurrent with chronic illness, determining whether one causes the other can be difficult.

A diet rich in vitamin B12, which includes fish, meat and milk, may help to protect against above illness of mental health and also from memory loss in old age. The study has been published in the Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87 underwent brain scans, memory testing, and physical exams. Researchers also collected blood samples to check vitamin B12 levels. Brain scans and memory tests were also performed again five years later.

The study found that people who had higher vitamin B12 levels were six times less likely to experience brain shrinkage compared with those who had lower levels of the vitamin in their blood. None of the people in the study had vitamin B12 deficiency.

Research shows that vitamin B12 deficiency is a public health problem, especially among the elderly, so more vitamin B12 intake could help reverse this problem. Without carrying out a clinical trial, we acknowledge that it is still not known whether B12 supplementation would actually make a difference in elderly persons at risk for brain shrinkage.

Previous research on the vitamin has had mixed results and few studies have been done specifically with brain scans in elderly populations. We tested for vitamin B12 levels in a unique, more accurate way by looking at two certain markers for it in the blood.