Showing posts with label Vitamin B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vitamin B. Show all posts

Medical Myths: Vitamin B and Alzheimer’s Disease

I previously told everyone I would be starting a medical section to my blog after a suggestion from one of the readers. Having thought about it, and discussed it with a few people, I have decided it shall be divided into 2 categories:

  1. Medical Matters: This shall be informative, providing factual information, be it the etiology (cause of disease), symptoms, diagnosis (identification), prognosis (expected outcome of disease) and treatment. It may not even be about a particular disease or disorder but an introduction to a part of the body, how it is controlled and its functions.
    Cadaver
  2. Medical Myths: This is what inspired this whole medical writing, and shall deal with various myths the general lay public hear from their grandmothers or their best friend Carol’s dog's sister’s mother down at the pub, things that appear in the news, and discuss whether these actually work or are scams to separate you from your beloved money. Like for example the following, which is complete and utter BS:
    Medical Myths

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A few months ago, a trial carried out at Oxford university generated huge publicity in the media as seemingly a cure for Alzheimer’s disease had been found that was easily obtainable at the  local shop for less than £1.00. Researcher’s showed that eating high levels of Vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid reduced circulating levels of homocysteine, an amino acid thought be responsible for abnormal brain shrinkage.1 As part of the Bullshit Detection part of a module last semester, we were given the research paper, told to critically analyse it and subsequently produce a leaflet for GPs that would enable to them to answer patient’s questions regarding what they may have read about in the news. This is the leaflet I made and got quite decent(ish) marks for:

Click here to download (PDF 815kb)

Vitamin B and Alzheimers

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Picture 1 – Showing cadavers, taken from here.
Picture 2 – Showing supposed myths about cancer, taken from here.
Picture 3 – Showing leaflet front, from personal work.
1The original research paper can be downloaded from here.

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