My sister is trying to tell me that vitamins will help my mother (93) with her dementia.
My mother was an avid vitamin D, B6, E, magnisium, calcium and multivitamin taker. As she started to get forgetful, she would take them when she remembered. Before you knew it, she stopped altogether. When I became her primary caregiver, I asked her doctor about this and he said just give her a multivitamin. I have since taken her to a geriatric doctor, where she was diagnosed with dementia. Her blood work came back as normal except for a deficiency in vitamin D (I even have that) so I now give her a vitamin D supplement. My sister feels that I should put her back on all of her vitamins because it will help with the dementia. In fact she is going to ask the doctor this. If that were true, wouldn't all patients with dementia be put on a regiment of vitamins. My brother and sister are so in denial about her dementia. I told them it is incurable. Her brain is shrinking. Nothing is going to reverse this. It's bad enough that I deal with my mother 24/7 with all her "episodes" etc. and they don't give me a break, but they are great at telling me what I should do. What do you all think of this????????????
MYPETUNIA, the headline of your question reminded me of the old joke about chicken soup, with the punchline "... it wouldn't hurt...."
Your GP is factually correct that a simple multivitamin will cover any (improbable, in the West) dietary deficiencies and anything else will most likely go straight down the drain as your mother's body excretes the surplus.
But with one or two exceptions (Vitamin A, iron are the obvious examples and must not be taken to excess) these supplements can't do any harm; and the B complex and magnesium are important to brain function; and if buying expensive preparations of these makes your sister feel she's trying, well...
I agree that it would be even better for her halo if she came and helped your mother take them, of course.
If someone has a vitamin deficiency then taking care of that may improve some aspect of their health. Certainly give your mother vitamin D and take some yourself. The fewer pills a person with dementia has to swallow, the better, so don't give anything that isn't going to actually help.
As you say, if your sister's theory were correct, all patients with dementia would be put on a regiment of vitamins.
I think your sister's suggestion is part of her denial, and also a way to try to convince her conscience that she is trying to do something about her concern for mother.
Try to preserve your relationship with your siblings while ignoring unhelpful advice. They may eventually come out of denial and be more helpful some day.
Oh, another thing about sugar, stay away from it if you feel a sore throat coming on. Sugar can exacerbate a sore throat. Wish I knew about that decades ago.
The only time to take vitamins is when the primary doctor does a blood test, ask that vitamin levels be checked. If any vitamins are way low, then and only then take that vitamin... otherwise the body just pees out the vitamin. It won't help with dementia, but would help in other areas of the body, as Jeanne above had mentioned. Usually Vit B12 and Vit D are common to being low as we age.
Your sister needs to learn about dementia. Scroll down the page to the blue section... on your left you will see ALZHEIMER'S CARE.... click on that... and scroll through the articles... print out the ones you think would be of interest for your sister. When printing, be careful as it might also print ALL the responses, so set the print for 2 or 3 pages only unless you want the responses.
I use the liquid form myself as my stomach use to get upset using the regular pills no matter what brand the grocery store or drug store sold. I went to a local compounding-pharmacy and bought the liquid :)