Whey protein isolate improves vitamin B12 and folate status in elderly Australians with subclinical deficiency of vitamin B12.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Whey protein isolate (WPI) contains vitamin B12 and folate.

The researchers investigated the effects of WPI supplementation on vitamin B12 and folate status in blood and measured changes in homocysteine (HCY), methylmalonic acid (MMA), and genome integrity biomarkers in elderly individuals with low vitamin B12 status.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and crossover study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Each person switched between Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

What Was Measured

The researchers investigated the effects of WPI supplementation on vitamin B12 and folate status in blood and measured changes in homocysteine (HCY), methylmalonic acid (MMA), and genome integrity biomarkers in elderly individuals with low vitamin B12 status.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Australia, DNA Damage, Diet, Dietary Supplements, Folic Acid, Homocysteine and Methylmalonic Acid.

Author keywords: Cobalamin (Cbl), DNA damage biomarkers, Methylmalonic acid (MMA), Soy protein isolate (SPI) and Whey protein isolate (WPI).

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and crossover study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2017 (Molecular nutrition & food research), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) compound page, all human trials.