Folate Deficiency Triples Risk Of Alzheimer's

Nutritional scientists used to think the key to a long and healthy life lay in antioxidants, and health conscious people, including me, were taking lots of vitamins C and E. Couldn’t hurt and might help, we thought. Then research showed that people taking more than 400 IU of vitamin E per day had a 10% higher risk of death compared to those who did not! My vitamin E capsules went down the drain that very day, and I felt that the scientists of the world had led me down the primrose path.

Now the future seems to lie, not in plastics, but in folates. And the research seems solid. So solid that my 78-year-old husband’s doctor has him taking supplements of folic acid, the pharmaceutical equivalent of the folates in food.

Remember the Kame Project, in which subjects who drank fruit or vegetable juice more than three times a week cut their risk of Alzheimer’s by a whopping 76%? Well, every year it seems more likely that it’s the folates in those fruits and vegetables that were working those wonders.

In fact, the latest research, as reported on February 5, 2008, in Science Daily, found that folate deficiency is associated with a tripling in the risk of developing dementia among elderly people.

Where Do We Find These Folates?

Folates occur most often in leafy vegetables such as spinach, turnip greens, lettuces, dried beans and peas, and in certain fruits. Here is a chart from the NIH Office Of Dietary Supplements. As you can see, both tomato juice and orange juice are fairly good sources, and I assume those were the main things the Kame Project subjects, the ones who cut their risk of Alzheimer’s by 76%, were drinking on a regular basis.

The one-a-day vitamin capsules that my husband and I take also supply 100% of our daily requirement of folic acid, giving us one more reason we should take those daily vitamins. The vitamin manufacturers obviously keep up with the scientific literature, and I appreciate this more every year.

Here are some earlier posts about the relation between diet and Alzheimer’s:

Live Longer With The Mediterranean Diet

It’s Scary – I’m Forgetting Things

Prevent Alzheimer’s With Good Cholesterol

Prevent Alzheimer’s By Your Diet

Internet Searches Prevent Alzheimer's?

Some ways of exercising one’s brain are more fun than others. A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry “looked at the brain activity of 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76 as they searched the Internet. Half of the participants had experience surfing the Web, while the others did not.”

Researchers used fMRI scans to track subjects’ brain activity while reading books and doing Internet searches. All of them showed significant brain activity during the book reading, but “Internet searches revealed differences between the two groups. While all the participants showed the same activity as during the book-reading, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, whereas those new to the net did not. (These areas of the brain control decision-making and complex reasoning.)”

Feeling smarter? You should.

More “Use It Or Lose It”

A 2003 study in the New England Journal Of Medicine found that “among leisure activities, reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia.” Dancing is not only a “leisure activity” but one of the most enjoyable kinds of exercise, and exercise has also been found to prevent Alzheimer’s.

If you’d like to see other posts about brain fitness:

Avoid Alzheimer’s With Brain Games

Playing Strategy Games Keeps Elders Sharp

Avoid Alzheimer’s With A Fit Brain