New Study Suggests Folate Deficiency Linked with Onset of Dementia
March 13th, 2008You’re mother was right — it’s never too late to take your vitamins.
It’s well known that not having enough of the B vitamin folate could put an older person at risk for the troubling problems of dementia. But a new study suggests that even people who aren’t officially “deficient” are more likely to develop the disease, which causes anxiety, melancholy, poor memory and loss of bodily functions.
The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, centered on more than 500 South Korean men and women ages 65 years and older. Half of the participants involved in the study lived out in the country, while the other half lived in a city.
Two-and-a-half years after the study began more than eight percent of the people had developed dementia, including nearly seven percent who had Alzheimer’s disease. The researches identified a common characteristic:
The lower a participant’s folate levels, the more likely they were to have dementia.
This could be because the nutrient is essential for keeping new cells fit and working well. In general, Koreans participating in the study had higher folate levels than people in Western countries such as the United States and England; one can infer this is because the local Korean diet includes many leafy greens. It is important to note the word “folate” is derived from “folium” or “leaf.”).
The study suggests there two simple ways to reduce your risk of dementia:
- Eat more folate-rich foods such as fortified breakfast cereals and bread, liver, (3.5) ounces of chicken liver supply nearly twice the minimum daily requirement of folate), eggs, beans, sunflower seeds, asparagus and leafy green vegetables and citrus and melons.
- Take a folic acid supplement so that you’re sure to have enough folic acid in your diet.
Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate that is available in many folic acid supplements. Animi-3 is a prescription nutritional supplement that contains 1 mg of folic acid, the amount needed to lower homocysteine, which is thought to be a risk factor for dementia and cardiovascular disease.
***
Barbara S. Levine, R.D., Ph.D., has been a researcher, consultant, and teacher of nutrition at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country. Dr. Levine is a DHA & B Vitamin Center scientific advisory board member and director of the first NIH-funded Nutrition Information Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill-Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Strang Cancer Prevention Center.