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Study: Extra Folic Acid May Help Memory
AP ^ | Tue Jun 21, 2005 | LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brain; folic; folicacid; health; medicine; memory; supplements; vitamins
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Harmless at that dosage; the only way this B-vitamin can do damage is to those people with B12 deficiency (pernicious anemia) because it can mask the anemia associated with ongoing B12 deficiency because folic acid can treat the anemia of B12 deficiency. If that happens, docs will not be able to diagnose the B12 problem which can lead to irreversible nerve damage (folic acid can not treat the nerve damage of B12 deficiency) over the long term (that's why higher doses of folic acid require a prescription).

That being said, supplemetal folate is a good idea.

1 posted on 06/21/2005 3:47:02 AM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: Pharmboy

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".


2 posted on 06/21/2005 4:06:45 AM PDT by alloysteel ("Master of the painfully obvious.....")
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To: Pharmboy

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.


3 posted on 06/21/2005 4:08:58 AM PDT by Now_is_The_Time
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To: alloysteel

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.


4 posted on 06/21/2005 4:14:14 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: Pharmboy; mikrofon; Charles Henrickson

That's nice.

What were we talking about?


5 posted on 06/21/2005 4:16:27 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Now_is_The_Time
Actually, there have been more recent negative studies on vitamin E and vitamin C lately than positive ones. The studies are pretty good and are reported no matter where they fall. The unsubstantiated claims come not from scientists.

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.

6 posted on 06/21/2005 4:16:57 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: martin_fierro

Don't forget to take your supplements...Hmmmm.


7 posted on 06/21/2005 4:17:56 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: Pharmboy

Will this supplement help even if you are in your late 60's ? or is it too late????


8 posted on 06/21/2005 4:19:18 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: Pharmboy

Now if I can only remember to take the pills.


9 posted on 06/21/2005 4:34:34 AM PDT by linkinpunk
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To: Pharmboy
"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.
"


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

10 posted on 06/21/2005 4:34:48 AM PDT by G.Mason
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To: Pharmboy
Study: Extra Folic Acid May Help Memory

Now if I can only remember to take it.

11 posted on 06/21/2005 4:35:52 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The Republican Party is the France of politics.)
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To: linkinpunk

I hate you.


12 posted on 06/21/2005 4:36:07 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The Republican Party is the France of politics.)
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To: Lazamataz

You mean I finally was faster to post a witty comment than somebody else around here?


13 posted on 06/21/2005 4:50:58 AM PDT by linkinpunk
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To: linkinpunk
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.

14 posted on 06/21/2005 4:52:06 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The Republican Party is the France of politics.)
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To: Pharmboy

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.


15 posted on 06/21/2005 5:01:08 AM PDT by Fawnn (Canteen wOOhOO Consultant and CookingWithPam.com person - Faith makes things possible, not easy.)
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To: Fawnn

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).


16 posted on 06/21/2005 5:13:01 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: linkinpunk

"You mean I finally was faster to post a witty comment than somebody else around here?"

That's a matter of opinion. LOL!


17 posted on 06/21/2005 5:14:27 AM PDT by Right Angler
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To: Fawnn

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.


18 posted on 06/21/2005 5:15:29 AM PDT by Pharmboy (There is no positive correlation between the ability to write, act, sing or dance and being right)
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To: Pharmboy

Wives are good for memory recall also.


19 posted on 06/21/2005 5:18:49 AM PDT by MaxMax (God Bless America)
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To: Pharmboy

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.) ;)


20 posted on 06/21/2005 5:19:26 AM PDT by Fawnn (Canteen wOOhOO Consultant and CookingWithPam.com person - Faith makes things possible, not easy.)
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