Posted on 06/21/2005 3:47:01 AM PDT by Pharmboy
High-dose folic acid pills — providing as much of the nutrient as 2.5 pounds of strawberries — might help slow the cognitive decline of aging.
So says a Dutch study that's the first to show a vitamin could really improve memory.
The research, unveiled Monday at a meeting of Alzheimer's researchers, adds to mounting evidence that a diet higher in folate is important for a variety of health effects. It's already proven to reduce birth defects, and research suggests it helps ward off heart disease and strokes, too.
The new study doesn't show folic acid could prevent Alzheimer's — the people who tested the vitamin didn't have symptoms of that disease.
But as people age, some decline in memory and other brain functions is inevitable. Taking 800 micrograms of folic acid a day slowed that brain drain, reported lead researcher Jane Durga of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
In the study, 818 cognitively healthy people ages 50 to 75 swallowed either folic acid or a dummy pill for three years.
On memory tests, the supplement users had scores comparable to people 5.5 years younger, Durga said. On tests of cognitive speed, the folic acid helped users perform as well as people 1.9 years younger.
That's significant brain protection, with a supplement that's already well-known to be safe, said Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist Marilyn Albert, who chairs the Alzheimer's Association's science advisory council.
"I think I would take folic acid, assuming my doctor said it was OK," Albert said. "We know Alzheimer's disease, the pathology, begins many, many years before the symptoms. We ought to be thinking about the health of our brain the same way we think about the health of our heart."
Indeed, there's enough research now suggesting that there are ways to gird the brain against age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's that the association has begun offering classes to teach people the techniques.
Topping the list:
_Exercise your brain. Using it in unusual ways increases blood flow and helps the brain wire new connections. That's important to build up what's called cognitive reserve, an ability to adapt to or withstand the damage of Alzheimer's a little longer.
In youth, that means good education. Later in life, do puzzles, learn to play chess, take classes.
_Stay socially stimulated. Declining social interaction with age predicts declining cognitive function.
_Exercise your body. Bad memory is linked to heart disease and diabetes because clogged arteries slow blood flow in the brain.
Experts recommend going for the triple-whammy of something mentally, physically and socially stimulating all at once: Coach your child's ball team. Take a dance class. Strategize a round of golf.
Diet's also important. While Alzheimer's researchers have long recommended a heart-healthy diet as good for the brain, Monday's folic acid study is the first to test the advice directly.
Previous studies have shown that people with low folate levels in their blood are more at risk for both heart disease and diminished cognitive function.
Durga said it's not clear how folic acid might work to protect the brain. Some studies suggest folate lowers inflammation; others suggest it may play a role in expression of dementia-related genes.
Folate is found in such foods as oranges and strawberries, dark-green leafy vegetables and beans. In the United States, it also is added to cereal and flour products. The recommended daily dose here is 400 micrograms; doctors advise women of childbearing age to take a supplement to ensure they get that much.
That being said, supplemetal folate is a good idea.
So the encouragement for large doses of B12 will most probably be followed by cautions that its widespread use will result in increase of some obscure disorder in about 0.002% of the population, and its use must be restricted immediately, to "by prescription only".
Seems like one of these studies comes-out every week. No wonder the vitamin industry is raking-in $11 billion a year in the U.S.
Perhaps I was not clear (it is a bit confusing). Masses doses of B12 appear harmless--it's the folic acid (which has some overlapping functions with B12)--that can hide some but not all the damage of B12 deficiency that can be the RARE bad actor here. Folic acid above 1 mg require a prescription and has needed the Rx since the 1950s or 1960s.
That's nice.
What were we talking about?
All in all, it is probably a good idea to take an RDA-level supplement a few times a week and extra folic acid at about the same rate.
Don't forget to take your supplements...Hmmmm.
Will this supplement help even if you are in your late 60's ? or is it too late????
Now if I can only remember to take the pills.
May I suggest that should you find any of the above necessary to become "stimulated", either mentally, physically, or socially, you are married to the wrong person and you are destined for a fate far worse than death. ;)
"Always listen to EXPERTS. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it." ... Robert Heinlein
Now if I can only remember to take it.
I hate you.
You mean I finally was faster to post a witty comment than somebody else around here?
Yes, but those people who take my lines earn my eternal wrath.
I'm going to make your kitchen floor all scuffy and muddy and stuff.
Since about 2.5 years ago -- when I passed my cholesterol test, but flunked my c reactive protein, my doctor prescribed a folic acid/B-vitamin supplement; I believe it's called folgard. (Too lazy to look it up.)
Unfortunately, folgard (sp?) caused some digestive problems. He okayed my switching to TriVita sublingual B-12, B-6, & Folic Acid. It's my understanding that the B vitamins and folic acid are supposed to help offset inflamation problems. (I haven't notice anything miraculous occurring with my recall abilities though.) ;)
The downside is that the folgard was covered by my drug card; the TriVita stuff isn't.
Folgard is a prescription and therefor covered. I would doubt very much that caused you any stomach upset (I am not doubting what you felt, I just am questioning the association between that and Folgard).
"You mean I finally was faster to post a witty comment than somebody else around here?"
That's a matter of opinion. LOL!
The folic acid has been shown to lower the blood value of another risk factor--homocysteine--rather than the inflammatory (C-reactive protein) risk factor. Ask your doc what the homocysteine value was and how it responded (on repeat testing) to the folic acid.
Wives are good for memory recall also.
Thanks! (Except if I ask him, it'll remind him that he's upset with me because I didn't go for my follow-up test.) ;)
Brilliant. LOL!
For the past several months I had been experiencing peripheral neuropathy-type symptoms. Tingling, itching, burning, etc. My GP referred me to a neruologist. We did an MRI (found a lesion on C7) that ruled out tumor and MS. Did and EMG study that indicated no loss of nerve connectivity. A blood test that ruled out Lyme and B12 deficiency. There were two things out of the ordinary...my lead level was 27 mg/dl (I shoot/reload a lot) and my serum folate was greater than 24.
Anyway, my GP was convinced that I had lead poisoning. 27 mg/dl is well below the level that these symptoms would normally manifest. One of my shooting students is a toxicologist, who asked to see my blood test results. I got a copy from my GP and noted the high serum folate level. I googled that and from the NIH I discovered that too much folic acid mimics B12 the symptoms of B12 deficiency. (The best maxes out 24...I could have had three times that much in my blood.)
Where was I getting all of that folic acid? Well, I eat two HUGE bowls of cereal every morning, polish that off with a HUGE glass of OJ, followed by a One a Day for Men, plus the occasional PowerBar for a snack. At the end of the day, being a bachelor, rather than cook I'd eat another ton of cereal. (If some is good them more is better, right?) Bottom line I was getting up to 600% of the RDA a day.
Bottom line is that once I quit eating that way my symptoms 95%+ resolved within 24 hours.
Wow. I just re-read my post. I must remember NOT to type pre-coffee. I can't believe I produced that many mispelled words and incomplete sentences!
Yeah! I may take some of that stuff if I can remember what it is by the time I get to the drug store.........if I remember to go to the drug store.*~*
Folic acid excess is benign; it is not associated with any known adverse event except when coupled (for years) with a B12 deficiency. And, in the rare cases where that is the problem, the neuropathy caused by B12 deficiency, it is irreversible. In medicine sometimes we just don't know (actually, often). There are cases in the medical literature where 10,000 mg a day of folic acid was associated with no side effects. Milligram for milligram, it is--by far--one of the safest vitamins known. You did yourself no damage with your cereal feast.
"Study: Extra Folic Acid May Help Memory
Now if I can only remember to take it."
I wonder if that stuff comes in 6-packs?
Don't wory, many of us thought of that line but considered it too old and worn, and obvious, to post it. You should be ashamed of your self for not being one of us. You were lucky to be beaten to the punch.
Here's what I got from NIH"
"In adults, supplemental folic acid should not exceed the UL to prevent folic acid from triggering symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency [10]."
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp#h10
Correct. As I said above, folate sufficiency (or hyper-sufficiency) is only detrimental in the face of a B12 deficiency.
Hmmm. Yet my B12 level was normal. Damn. I thought I had this thing figured out.
How long did you have the peripheral neuropathy?
9.2 Chronic Poisoning
9.2.1 Ingestion
Unconfirmed reports of gastrointestinal and central
nervous system effects have been reported rarely in
patients receiving 15 mg of folic acid daily for one
month (McEvoy, 1990).
From: http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/folicaci.htm#SectionTitle:8.4%20Interpretation
In November of last year I started having an itching sensation at night...left palm and sole of left foot. About two months ago I began to get "pins and needles" in the left thigh, and occasionally in along the tops of both arms. Then I got a burning sensation on the back of my neck, and the left side of my face felt numb. (Still does as I type this.) I still have the occasional itch in the aforementioned spots, but the other major symptoms, except the left cheek, have totally resolved.
Did the people in the control group get stupider?
Placebo-bos.
I think way too many people are on those dummy pills.
I am 22 and feel like I need this sometimes. I walk downstairs maybe once a month and forget what I went down there for.
I have to write notes for everything.
They don't know about that, they only know what the drug co. sponsored colleges want them to know.
Plus, they can't understand what their paychecks forbid them to know.
Nice gun-btw.
Why is it possible to buy folic acid by the trainload without a prescription if a prescription is required?
The amounts talked about here would override 99.999999% of any individual issues in folate metabolism. Folic acid is needed in microgram amounts...this is waaaaay over the top of individual requirements.
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