Feeling low? Get your B

By Christine O'Brien on 07/15/2010

"B vitamins linked to depression risk in older adults."

You gotta love that headline, right? I mean, skimming through the news, what would you think when you see those words?

Doesn't exactly scream good news, does it?

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but I'm no stranger to the subtle tricks the mainstream media uses when reporting on natural medicine.

But I digress...

If there was anything sinister behind using those potentially misleading words, the plan backfired. Because it drew me right in, and thanks to their cryptic headline, I have some very good news to share with all of you.

Recently, a team headed by lead researcher Dr. Kimberly Skarupski of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago wanted to find out if an assumed link between B vitamins and depression carried any weight.

You see, B vitamin deficiencies had been associated with depression, but there hadn't really been any studies to explore the link. (After all, we wouldn't want to threaten Big Pharma's miraculous depression meds.) All previous studies had dealt with short-term results, and the researchers wanted to see the bigger picture.

The researchers looked specifically at vitamins B6, folate, and vitamin B12 over an average of 7.2 years. They measured depressive symptoms in 3,503 adults (all over the age of 65) who had completed food-frequency questionnaires.

And they found that the link is definitely there. Boy, is it ever.

Higher total intakes of B6 and B12 were linked to a decrease in depressive symptoms for up to 12 years. In fact, for every 10 additional milligrams of vitamin B6 and 10 additional micro-grams of B12, there was a 2% lower chance of developing depressive symptoms per year.

There's more -- they found the link was there only for people taking supplements. When it came to getting extra B vitamins from food, this particular study didn't find a connection.

Of course, there are plenty of other benefits to getting vitamins and minerals from foods, but if you're looking specifically for help in staving off depression, you'll want to head for the supplement section of your local supermarket or natural health store.