New research has found the basic micronutrient vitamin B12 may be the first good tool for averting the hereditary form of Parkinson’s disease, which accounts for about 15 percent of such cases worldwide. In lab tests, an international team of scientists found that AdoCbl, one of the active forms of vitamin B12, inhibits the activity of a mutated enzyme linked to Parkinson’s. Inhibiting this enzyme appears to help stabilize dopamine release in the brain.

Dopamine deficiencies manifest in the muscle rigidity and tremors that are hallmark symptoms of Parkinson’s. Another recent study from the University of California San Francisco that included non-hereditary Parkinson’s patients found that symptoms worsened more quickly in early-stage patients that had low B12 levels than in those with higher levels of the vitamin.

This article appears in the July 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings.