Posted on 08/14/2005 9:50:57 PM PDT by freespirited
A new study conducted by researchers at The University of California Irvine suggests that folates or B-vitamin nutrients found in oranges, legumes, leafy green vegetables and folic acid supplements are more effective in limiting Alzheimer's disease risk than antioxidants and other nutrients.
The team led by Maria Corrada and Dr Claudia Kawas of UC Irvine's Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia analyzed the diets of non-demented men and women aged 60 and older.
They compared the food nutrient and supplement intake of those who later developed Alzheimer's disease to the intake of those who did not develop the disease.
"Although folates appear to be more beneficial than other nutrients, the primary message should be that overall healthy diets seem to have an impact on limiting Alzheimer's disease risk," Corrada added.
The researchers used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to identify the relationship between dietary factors and Alzheimer's disease risk. Between 1984 and 1991, study volunteers provided detailed dietary diaries, which included supplement intake and calorie amounts, for a typical seven-day period.
Ultimately, 57 of the original 579 participants developed Alzheimer's disease. But the researchers found that those with higher intake of folates, vitamin E and vitamin B6 shared lower comparative rates of the disease. And when the three vitamins were analyzed together, only folates were associated with a significantly decreased risk.
"The participants who had intakes at or above the 400-microgram recommended dietary allowance of folates had a 55-percent reduction in risk of developing Alzheimer's. But most people who reached that level did so by taking folic acid supplements, which suggests that many people do not get the recommended amounts of folates in their diets," Corrada added.
It also suggests that it was a simple and very cheap one-a-day vitamin, not oranges, that lowered their risk. Not that I have anything against oranges. I just like headlines that go with the content of articles.
Never mind my nit-picking. This is an important finding. Let's share it with our friends and relatives. And doctors.
save
[the primary message should be that overall healthy diets seem to have an impact on limiting Alzheimer's disease risk...]
For those of us who don't want to go through the hassle of maintaining a healthy diet our whole lives, I recommend planning to not live past the age of 75.
:^)
who can remember all that?
with one possible exception...nicotine.
People with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease who wore nicotine patches for two four-week periods experienced 20 to 80 per cent improved performance on cognition tests. Nicotine works as a neurotransmitter mimic and cognitive enhancer and interferes with the activation of two phospholipases which inhibits the formation of amyloid plaque.
just use the patch instead of cigarettes :)
We don't really need to share it. The U.S. government started requiring the addition of folic acid to a wide range of foods a few years ago, due to the fact that folic acid deficiency has long been known to be the primary cause of neural tube defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly. The result is that even a pure junk food diet will result in sufficient folic acid intake. The Alzheimer's rate is likely to plummet even if nobody gets the message about the connection. Once in a while, the nanny-state actually does a good thing.
Interesting. Is there any research showing lower rates of Alzheimer's in smokers? Of course, since Alzheimer's is usually a very late onset disease, it might be hard to document the effects of smoking, since smokers are much less likely to survive to the average Alzheimer's onset age.
Yup, the government did do something. But don't know that "wide variety" is a good description for requiring that it be added only to certain grain products.
The result is that even a pure junk food diet will result in sufficient folic acid intake.
Sufficient for what? When I googled this just now I found that the new program was designed to add only 100 mcg folic acid to existing intakes.
The CDC believed that 400mcg of folic acid daily would be enough to prevent neural tube defects in most women. But the new program only has the rate down by 25%. That means either the CDC estimate was way off or the enrichment program isn't getting women close to 400 mcg. My guess would be that the latter is more likely explanation.
The neural tube stuff doesn't apply to me. I take a one-a-day vitamin anyway and think everyone should.
http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/makinghistory/folicacid.html
Per the above history of the folic acid issue, there is some concern about possible dangers of excess folic acid intake, so perhaps that's why the fortification has been on the low side. When it's in a large range of snack foods, a signficant number of people could get too much, even while many were getting less than the optimal amount. It's obviously a complicated issue.
I started taking 400 mcg of folic acid daily when I was 14, based on Adele Davis' books, which suggested that the fear of masking B12 deficiency was overblown (and it certainly is when you're talking about people who are using supplements of various kinds). Seems to me that problem could be completely eliminated by adding B12 side by side with folic acid, but appraently there are also some other potential problems associated with excess folic acid intake. Presumably the details of the fortification program will continue to be tinkered with.
P.S. Towards the end of that history, it appears to say that the final level chosen was for breakfast cereals to contain 100 mcg per serving (and as we all know, official serving sizes are usually smaller than what people actually eat), and that other grain products are also fortified, apparently at similar levels. So I don't think the program is designed to provide only 100 mcg per day.
I guess it will take further research to figure out why current supplementation levels have only reduced neural tube defects by 25%. Could be that the segment of the population which is most prone to neural defects also has some atypical eating habits, for cultural/ethnic/geographical reasons, and/or is prone to other lifestyle factors that contribute to neural tube defects and/or interfere with absorption of folic acid (e.g. drug/alcohol use, obesity, etc.).
In an article in The Times of London (9/7/93), Dr. James Le Fanu provided an examination of the research on smoking and its apparent protective effect for certain diseases. Dr. Le Fanu stated unequivocally: "Smokers have a 50 per cent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's--and the more smoked the greater the protection." He also noted that emerging research points to a similar effect of smoking on Parkinson's disease.
Smokers have a greatly increased likelihood of dying prior to the average age of Alzheimer's onset. That's one way of reducing your chance of getting the dreaded disease . . .
I'm not defending smoking, but apparently nicotine itself does have benefits to Parkinsons and Alzheimers
http://www.forces.org/evidence/hamilton/other/nicotine.htm
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